AstroPlanner

Having written part 1 while suffering from a severe bout of quasi-depression because I was unable to get my software compiled with the almost-final-release of the IDE I use, I was all ready to make Part 2 a meandering diatribe about software quality, etc. However, after several hours of scouring my code I finally located and fixed the problem that was causing the IDe to crash. Hence I’m somewhat mollified. The howling gale in my sails is now just a stiff breeze.
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Seeing as I’m currently suffering from a large dose of frustration about software development, I feel the need for some mild venting coming on…

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Some more stuff on user-contributed plans, which is now feature-complete, as far as I’m concerned.

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AstroPlanner has always been shareware. You can download it, try it, and if you like it, pay to register. You can also continue using it without paying if you are not troubled by the restrictions placed on unregistered (unpaid) users.

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There was a recent posting on the AstroPlanner Yahoo group that got me to thinking about how to improve the user-contributed plan database and downloading procedure. In V1.6 it leaves a lot to be desired. Without further ado, here’s the new V2 way of doing things…

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If you’re not a scripter and/or programmer, you might want to stop reading right here, or your head might explode.

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Geeky stuff ahead…

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One of the support problems I have is making sure folks read the manual. Well at least the introductory bits that tell them how to use the app. A lot of us tend to ignore manuals until we get desperate (yup, I’m firmly in that category. But then I’m a Mac user). In an attempt to bypass the necessity for reading the manual, I have added a Setup Wizard that will lead a new user through some steps to make sure the minimum stuff is set up before they start (and, yes, it’s also available later via a menu command).

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The catalogue file format has not changed for V2.0. There will probably be changes in the future, but for now you can happily use your existing catalogues. The only change you’ll see is a rewiring of the Catalogue Manager window, which now includes the stuff from the V1.x Preferences window.

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Back to the plan document. Observations are now made on a separate Observations tab.

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