Interoperability proposal

[Ed Lee]

Hi,

Although KStars is growing ever more capable there are other programs 
that I like to use in conjunction, mostly for convenience.

It occurs to me that my workflow could be made easier and the system 
capabilities extended by providing a generalised means to call other 
programs from within KStars/Ekos. At present there is already a specific 
occurrence of this where the scheduler can call start up / shut down 
scripts.

Two examples of how I would like to use a generalised call:

  * Add a button to the Capture module that launches an external live
    stacking application (for example Siril), pass it the necessary
    commands to start receiving images from the current selected camera,
    and then start repeating captures. Stop capturing when the external
    process closes.
  * Add a button to the Capture module that disconnects the current
    selected camera from the INDI server and then launches FireCapture
    for planetary imaging. Reconnect the camera when the external
    process closes.

Abstracting the external program calls via scripts would allow user 
customisation and avoid any dependencies on / promotion of specific 
software. Sample scripts could be provided. It may also make the 
implementation simpler - an abstraction of the current scheduler script 
processing with additional control processes within KStars.

Before I start working on this I wanted to ask for any thoughts on this 
proposal, both regarding the implementation and also whether this would 
be perceived an acceptable route for KStars.

Kind Regards

Ed Lee
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