The MAC version of Celestia and registering imbeddedcel:urls

[fsgregs]

Hi folks:

On several occasions, I have gotten e-mails from people who have loaded some of my educational activities, complaining that when they try to run an Activity using an Apple MAC computer, the imbedded cel:url links won't work. Instead, what happens is that their web browser tries to open the cel:url, and returns a "webpage not found" error message.

My investigation has revealed that the reason is simple. The MAC version of the basic Celestia installation program file apparently does not automatically "register" a .cel or a cel:url link as being associated with Celestia. If it does not, then the operating system does not know that a cel must be opened with Celestia.

Reportedly, this can be fixed by manually registering a .cel extension via MAC OS IX or X. Once done, then everything works fine.

I have two questions:

1. Why does the MAC Celestia install file not have an automatic registry of a cel? Is it not possible? If it is, can we not fix the file so these poor folks do not have to try manually doing it?

2. If a manual registry is what must be done, please tell me .... what steps does a MAC user take to do it? I'd like to include those steps in the operating users Guide, and in my Educational read-me files, so that the Activities will work.

Thanks in advance.

Frank

[rthorvald]

1. Why does the MAC Celestia install file not have an automatic registry of a cel? Is it not possible? If it is, can we not fix the file so these poor folks do not have to try manually doing it?

2. If a manual registry is what must be done, please tell me .... what steps does a MAC user take to do it? I'd like to include those steps in the operating users Guide, and in my Educational read-me files, so that the Activities will work.

Ok, first of all, Celestia only works on X. Not on Classic MacOs (pre 10.0).
The functionality you ask for has just been included very recently, and then only gradually:

- In Celestia 1.3.1 and earlier, launching Celestia via a CelUrl will not work, period. The workaround is to have the URL on the clipboard, and paste it into Celestia (control-V).

- In in some early versions of 1.3.2, Celestia will launch when a CelUrl is clicked, but will then crash. The workaround is to have Celestia already running in the background.

- In 1.4, everything works as it should.

Beware though, that there are incompabilities between different Celestia versions (on all platforms) on how a CelUrl is interpreted. If a click lands you in empty space, the URL was generated with a different Celestia version than the user has running. This has more or less been fixed in 1.4. Details:

There??s a bug in Celestia that makes CelUrls for objects very far away incompatible across versions:

- OSX version 1.3.1 are compatible with Win 1.3.1 and early pre-releases of 1.3.2, but not with any other versions

- Win version 1.3.2 are not compatible with anything else

- Win version 1.4 pre-releases are compatible with OSX 1.3.2, but not with any earlier versions

- 1.4 seems to work right on both OSX and Windows

Note: the above is not a problem for locations within our solar system.

-rthorvald

[fsgregs]

OK, damned .... this is confusing. I'm not sure I've got it. Let me see if I understand.

In pre-release version 1.4.0, cel:urls that are created on a WIN system will also work fine in MAC OSX Celestia 1.3.2. Does that mean that the MAC version of 1.3.2 HAS registered a cel:url as associated with Celestia? I thought it did not do that?

If you have a MAC OSX 1.3.2 version of Celestia ... clicking on a cel:url created in a WIN Celestia 1.3.2 machine may, or may not work.

I'm sorry, rthorvald for being so dense, but I still don't quite get it.

1. Please, what does a MAC user running MAC 1.3.2 have to do to get a cel:url to work that was created on a WIN machine running 1.4.0?

2. What does a MAC user running 1.3.2 have to do to get a cel:url to work that was created on a WIN machine running 1.3.2 final?



Frank

[rthorvald]

In pre-release version 1.4.0, cel:urls that are created on a WIN system will also work fine in MAC OSX Celestia 1.3.2. Does that mean that the MAC version of 1.3.2 HAS registered a cel:url as associated with Celestia? I thought it did not do that?

No, but you can still copy/paste the CelUrl in via the clipboard. It will work that way, even though you can??t click it as a hyperlink.

If you have a MAC OSX 1.3.2 version of Celestia ... clicking on a cel:url created in a WIN Celestia 1.3.2 machine may, or may not work.

Correct. Early versions of 1.3.2 will crash if launched via a CelUrl. But it will work if Celestia is already running in the background when you click the link. So, Launch Celestia BEFORE clicking the CelUrl.

what does a MAC user running MAC 1.3.2 have to do to get a cel:url to work that was created on a WIN machine running 1.4.0?

Win 1.4 is like Mac 1.3.2 (the Mac code for 1.3.2 is a port of Win 1.4, if i remember correctly).

2. What does a MAC user running 1.3.2 have to do to get a cel:url to work that was created on a WIN machine running 1.3.2 final?

If the location of the CelUrl are somewhere in, or close to, our own solar system, it works. But if the location is on the other side of the galaxy, say, it will land you several light-years from your destination. It??s a math bug of some kind between those versions, that deviates more and more between them the further you get from Sol. This was fixed from 1.3.2 to 1.4.

- rthorvald