What mods for educational activities by Frank Gregorio?

[nicku]

Dear Folks,

I was exited to see the educational activities by Frank Gregorio;
Thanks Frank! They hold promise of being better than "ossum" (the Californian
pronunciation of "awesome").

I have been downloading the many GB from
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catal ... tional.php and while
reading
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/creat ... cators.zip
see that a "special" version of celestia is required. In particular,
since we are using Linux, a special version is required for Linux.

However, no such version has been provided for Linux, only for
Windows, which we don't have (or want .

My questions:

1. Will such a special version be made available?
2. What are the actual changes between the standard and special
versions? Are these changes available as a patch or in CVS?
3. Should I abort downloading these educational activities over our
slow ADSL link in Australia? (i.e., is there hope that we can use
them in Linux?)

[exadvent]

Check previous post re: Celestia-Ed vs. Celestia + patch. Frank's response may have the information that you need. My read on his response is that you could use the regular celestia program but would lose some features like sound and overlay unless you could find the patch for the linx version of Celestia.

I hope that you can find a way to get it to work for your students.

Good Luck

[nicku]

Check previous post re: Celestia-Ed vs. Celestia + patch. Frank's response may have the information that you need.

The thread mentions a "patch" but where is this patch? No URL is given. Also, what the patch actually does is not so clear from the thread.

My read on his response is that you could use the regular celestia program but would lose some features like sound and overlay unless you could find the patch for the linx version of Celestia.

Where can I find these different versions? Maybe I could package the educational version as a separate RPM package with Fedora Core if it is particularly worthwhile.

The thread mentions that the main difference of the educational version is in configuration files. If that is the case, then a patch would be able to be applied to an existing "normal" system.

I hope that you can find a way to get it to work for your students.

Thank you very much. My main student is my enthusiastic six-year old son!

[exadvent]

As I use Windows, I only know the URL for the Wndows version of the Sound and Overlay patch, and do not even know if there is a Linix version. I looked at preivious posts about it and do not see any metion of a linix version of the patch (looks like it was only coded for windows). My best suggestion is to post this question in the development forum, the people there are the ones with the latest information on what is available. Also, your question might encourage one of the developers to work on this issue if they know that there is interest in the linix version of the Celestia-Ed version.

[exadvent]

I tried using the Educational activities with a regular install of Celestia on Windows. No luck.

You might try a freeware windows emualtor (I think that there is one called "Wine"). It might work.

[nicku]

As I use Windows, I only know the URL for the Wndows version of the Sound and Overlay patch and do not even know if there is a Linix version.

I am used to a "patch" being the output of diff -Nur on two source trees, resulting in a file that will edit source code applying changes automatically.

Do you mean that the source code is for Windows only?

Since Celestia is licenced under the GPL, any change to the source code that is published should also provide access to the source code. Does anyone know where the patch is? (I mean the patch in the sense of diff -Nur orig changed)

I looked at preivious posts about it and do not see any metion of a linix version of the patch (looks like it was only coded for windows). My best suggestion is to post this question in the development forum, the people there are the ones with the latest information on what is available.

I have, and they suggested I post here. I will try again.

Also, your question might encourage one of the developers to work on this issue if they know that there is interest in the linix version of the Celestia-Ed version.

Who knows, even I might get involved in the development! But I'd like to see where the source code is for this changed version.

[nicku]

I tried using the Educational activities with a regular install of Celestia on Windows. No luck.

You might try a freeware windows emualtor (I think that there is one called "Wine"). It might work.

I'd expect a third class experience. I would rather adapt the code so that it is portable and works for others, rather than spend effort on getting it to work as a second class citizen! That is why the project is GPL, so we don't have to resort to such miserable work arounds.

[Adirondack]

The thread mentions a "patch" but where is this patch? No URL is given. Also, what the patch actually does is not so clear from the thread.

See: http://shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9503

Adirondack

[fsgregs]

Nicku:

Hi. Just got back from a little vacation.

The patch link that Adirondack posted above would be the best way to get the source files for Celestia-patch 3. This program is very similiar to Celestia-ED and will do everything that Celestia-ED does, with a few minor differences.

Vincent is finalizing version 3 of Celestia-ED for Windows. When I get the source code for it, I will post it here on the forum as a separate posting. I am expecting it within days now. I don't know anything at all about Linux, but someone told me once that it uses the source code version of Celestia. If so, then you should have access to the Celestia-ED version for Linux also within a week or so (as soon as Vincent can get it to me).

I have someone who is now well versed in Celestia for the MAC, and will convert Celestia-ED-3 to the MAC version. That will provide me all three versions of the program, and I can finally update the Motherlode.

In the meantime, use the program files from Adirondack's posting above as the Celestia-ED version. You will have to change some lines of text in the documents I provide in the educational activities, so that they point to/launch this program. Once it is working for you, email me or send me a private message, and I will try to walk you though the text changes that will have to be made.

Hope this has helped.

Regards

Frank

[Vincent]

Hi,

I've had problems with my broadband connection, so I've not been able to upload the Celestia-ED3 source files before going on vacation... Now, I'm just back from a great tour of north/middle Italy (Como, Firenze, Pisa, Roma, Pescara, Rimini, and Como again... ), and my broadband connection is working again.

So I will be able to send the Celestia-ED3 source files to Frank very soon.

As for Celestia patch 3 source files, I've fixed a little bug in the resource.h file that made the compilation fail. Everything is fixed and working now (Adirondack managed to compile Celestia patch 3 under Windows without any problem).

So nicku, it's up to you: you can download Celestia patch 3 from the link Adirondack gave in his post, or you can wait for Frank to release Celestia-ED3. It only depends on your needs...

[fsgregs]

Vincent has finished Celestia-ED version 3, and has sent it to me (Thanks Vincent). It is very similiar to version 1, with a few minor modifications (version 2 was a beta and not released).

Version 3 requires some modification of my Activities to point to different folders. I am hopeful that I can update everything soon, but I've been very busy lately moving into a new house, and things have gotten hectic.

I should have Celestia-ED version 3 ready within the next few weeks. In the interim, the current version 1 that is on the website and CD set works wonderfully.

FYI

Frank