[Kstars-devel] GSoC 2011 project

[Rafal Kulaga]

Hi Bruce, Akarsh

> I've taken a screen shoot of the boxes and lines I'm referring to (see
> attached).  These 3Dish lines need to be solid, but keep at the same width as
> I think that would make them for distinct at night.

I agree. Picture proposed by Akarsh looks fine to me. I can change all
the tables to look like that.

> I agree this is an important concern. (On a similar note, I remember
> struggling to see galaxies plotted on color star charts, where
> galaxies are usually marked with red color!)

Added to work queue.

>> What every method you gentleman choose to use to import the observing list
>> into the printing wizard would be great by me.
>
> This is a rather hard thing to code. Let me see if I can come up with
> something.

It's not hard at all to implement that. I've mailed Lukasz requesting
him to do that as a part of his SOCIS project.

> How about "Chart and Logging Form Wizard"? That does look long, but I
> think it's a complete description. Also, I strongly agree with the
> suggestion of moving it to the Tools menu. What do you think, Rafal?

Honestly, "Printing Wizard" was more of a working name for this
feature. I also agree that we should move it to "Tools" menu.

> It might be hard to find for most people using the software, and might
> be overlooked despite being such a unique and powerful feature.

*blushes*

> One day I hope to give a talk at the Royal Astronomy Society of Canada (Ottawa
> Chapter) about this software.  But we have a bit to go before this software
> will pass the mark, for such a critical group of men and women.

This would be just awesome! I agree that there is much work to do,
both as it comes to code refactoring and features. Having said that,
your feedback is much appreciated. Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Rafal


2012/10/7 Akarsh Simha <akarshsimha at gmail.com>:
> Hi Bruce, Rafal
>
>> I've taken a screen shoot of the boxes and lines I'm referring to (see
>> attached).  These 3Dish lines need to be solid, but keep at the same width as
>> I think that would make them for distinct at night.
>
> I agree this is an important concern. (On a similar note, I remember
> struggling to see galaxies plotted on color star charts, where
> galaxies are usually marked with red color!)
>
> It was easy to make this change. Right now I've done it at one
> location, and I'm wondering if it looks good. I want opinions on the
> readability of this. I'm not entirely impressed with the aesthetics,
> although I don't know how to fix it (will see if it's easy).
>
> Do let me know if the attached screenshot looks okay.
>
>> What every method you gentleman choose to use to import the observing list
>> into the printing wizard would be great by me.
>
> This is a rather hard thing to code. Let me see if I can come up with
> something.
>
>> I might suggest that you change the name of the printing wizard to
>> something else.  It really does not describe what this function does
>> and best belongs in the Tools section of the menu bar.  How about
>> Visual Observers Planner or Visual Observers Template or Visual
>> Observer Logs or maybe you will come up with something better.
>
> I agree that Printing Wizard is not the best description for all the
> powerful tools that the printing wizard has got.
>
> How about "Chart and Logging Form Wizard"? That does look long, but I
> think it's a complete description. Also, I strongly agree with the
> suggestion of moving it to the Tools menu. What do you think, Rafal?
>
> It might be hard to find for most people using the software, and might
> be overlooked despite being such a unique and powerful feature.
>
>> One day I hope to give a talk at the Royal Astronomy Society of Canada (Ottawa
>> Chapter) about this software.  But we have a bit to go before this software
>> will pass the mark, for such a critical group of men and women.
>
> Being featured at the RASC chapters would indeed help our popularity
> tremendously! I'm committed (only on lazy weekends, though!) to make
> our software pass the mark.
>
> I'm waiting to demo it at my local astronomy club as well, in this
> case, mostly because the KDE Windows Installer doesn't seem very
> accessible, and because some of the features I really want to
> highlight could do with a lot more polish.
>
> The KDE Edu team has been working towards a better Windows
> installer. I tried setting up stuff on Windows last weekend, but gave
> up very quickly. If someone would volunteer making a cool, easy to
> use, Windows installer for KStars, that would be very very awesome!
>
> Regards
> Akarsh
>