AstroPlanner

After a lot of fruitless screwing around with trying to get code running on remote servers using obsolete versions of the compiler, I have finally implemented a solution to the AstroPlanner vs. Lion problem (i.e. Mac OS X Lion only runs Intel-native apps. AstroPlanner V1 is PowerPC-only and hence doesn’t run. AstroPlanner V1 uses a proprietary database format that isn’t available to Intel Mac users, etc.).

Once again, Windows users and non-curious Mac users need not read further.

The solution is sort-of arcane, but seems to work. All the Lion user needs is:

1. An Internet connection.
2. Patience.

When you attempt to upgrade from V1 on Lion, or you attempt to open a V1 plan document, the application realises you are on Lion and does the following:

1. Zips up the files that need converting.
2. FTPs the Zip file to a special place on the astroplanner.net server.
3. Sends me an e-mail (as a precaution, see below).
4. Tells you to be patient and wait – possibly a few hours. You can continue doing stuff with AstroPlanner.

At my end I have an app running (if you’re lucky) that checks for new uploads every couple of minutes. If it finds an upload:

1. Downloads the Zip file using FTP.
2. Unzips the contents.
3. Converts the files to V2 format.
4. Rezips the files.
5. Uploads the Zip file to another folder on the server.
6. Sends you an e-mail announcing the availability of the converted files (if you have requested that to happen).

Back at your end, you receive an e-mail telling you that the conversion has been done, or believe that the gods have been good to you, and do the following:

1. Quit and restart AstroPlanner.
2. If you previously sent off files for conversion, the app checks to see if the Zip file is available, and if so downloads it.
3. The converted files are unzipped and put into place, and you are informed.
4. You are ready to go.

The problem is at my end. If my computer is asleep, it could be hours before you get your files back. If it’s awake, it will be minutes, or even seconds. Unfortunately, the only computers I have here that will run 24/7 are not suitable to run the converter app (i.e. too noisy, energy-inefficient, etc.). If anyone has a non-Lion Mac or Windows computer that does run 24/7 with a connection to the Internet, speak to me. It’s not as if this is going to bog down a computer – I have yet to see a conversion request in the three days since I implemented this.

Note: This was implemented for the 2.0b111 release, but I forgot to add a release note about it.