Celestia Forums

Hi. This seems very elementary, but ...

In reviewing the forum, I've frequently encountered large sections of text data that folks have typed into a post message for copying and pasting into an ssc file. However, when I copy and paste them into an existing ssc file and try to save the changes, I get a message allowing me to save them as a .txt file, but not as an ssc file. Celestia doesn't execute the changes either, since the saved file is not an ssc file any longer. I've tried renaming the file by changing the .txt extension to an .ssc extension, but that doesn't seem to work. The only thing I have found that works is to copy an existing ssc file, rename it, open it, physically delete what I don't want, type all the changes found on the forum into it and save it as usual.

That is obviously not the correct way to do it. Please, as simple as it sounds, how do you "save" an ssc file under a new name? Likewise, how does one paste text copies from somewhere else into an ssc file without invalidating the file extension?

Thanks.

Frank

Frank,

It works fine for me!

Sorry...

It depends on which operating system you're using and how you've set your defaults.

It sounds like you're using a variant of Windows, although you don't explicitly say that.

Have you configured your copy of Windows to display all file types?
If not, then you need to do so. The default is to "hide well known filetype extensions". This causes serious problems when you need to edit files that it things are one type but really are another. You also need to tell it to "display hidden system files." Unfortunately, the details of making these settings differ with the various versions of Windows

You see, one problem is that Chris chose filetypes (also known as "file extensions") for some of Celestia's text files that conflict with filetypes used to specify completely different types of files. e.g. .CEL is a filetype used to designate a type of video file. .DAT is used for binary system files, etc. By default, for example, Quicktime is the program that'll be invoked when you double-click on a .CEL file. That's not useful at all when it's a Celestia script file.

One way to handle the situation is to persuade Windows to treat the various Celestia filetypes as text files.

Also, it seems most useful to persuade it to use Wordpad as the program to use to open them all. This is because many of the files supplied in the various add-on distributions have only line-feed characters to separate the lines. Wordpad handles this fine, but Notepad does not.


I hope this helps a little.

Frank...for file extention changing you must preform this in DOS with the ren or rename command

ren filename.old filename.new

make sure your prompt is pointed to the directory the file is located...Might want to consider setting your path to celestias ssc file directory like so

path=%PATH%;c:\program files\celestia\extras
at the prompt or
path=c:\;c:\windows\command;c:\program files\celestia\extras
in your autoexec.bat file so this can be preformed anywhere the prompt points...

autoexec.bat can be edited by typing sysedit in the run option in the start menu...Under win 2000 this will operate just fine as its just a text editor and cannot corrupt anything...just as long as you know what your doing

Hi Rass is a great programer but the SIMPLE way is
I am using win XP
example -- dobble click the solarsys .ssc file your defult txt opener should be wordpad or notepad ( you should see the text )

now close the file (the red x)
now right click the file (once) this will open a dropdown menw
left click copy then
right click the field (not the file) ,left click past

this will creat a file called --copy of solarsys.ssc--
now dobble click the copy this opens it
now click the edit button at the top of note or word pad.
click sellect all --this will hilight all the text
then find the deleat --it is in file or edit at the top-- ,and deleat all the text
now close the file (red x ) a popup window will apear and ask if you want to save the changes select -yes-

now you have a empty -copy of solarsys.ssc-


single left click the file ,waite 1 to 2 sec. then left click it again

now you can change the name i use empty.ssc


when you save a file from the forum save it as a .txt file

then all you have to do is open the txt file -select all-copy-,
then open the empty .ssc file -and past-


you can also select only some text by holding down the left mouse botton and draging the mouse over the text , then right click the highlited and look in the dropdown menwe for -copy-past-cut-deleat-


you also can right click the file and select rename -but get used to cut ,copy and past.

after a wile you wont even have to think about what your fingers are doing

Thank you John!
Although your spelling makes it "interesting" The explanations previous to yours were totally lost on me! This is a very good method. Hope your site stays up- good stuff!

Yes i know that my spelling is bad , . It's been bad sence i was in 3d
grade ,also my typing is not the best


PS. my new web page is up