Beginnings of a manual

[chris]

Here's the beginning of a manual for Celestia:

http://www.celestiaproject.net/celestia/manual.txt

I hope that this is somewhat helpful.

--Chris

[Axel]

Hi Chris,

very good idea. How about a simple on-screen help as in OU?

I'm very happy to see the first step towards a manual, although I fear this to become a major project in itself I'm really sorry I don't have much time on my hands right now or I would ask to help you as I did with Raul.

Whatever, you have started and your incredible speed in mind I guess you'll have it very soon )

CU,
Axel

[Guest]

To be perfectly honest, I think Celestia is too easy to use to need a manual ! It's all very straightforward.... so far I don't think I've come across a command I've had difficulty with. I suppose some of the features in the controls menu might benifit from a little explanation - for example what is per pixel lighting ? But the main controls are pretty much intuitive, a rare thing ineed for a freeware program ! Personally, I think what needs more explanation are the scripting commands - examples of how to use each one would be nice. Though maybe that should wait, as I've read somewhere on the forum that the scripting system is being revamped.

(Mad Boris)

[t00fri]

To be perfectly honest, I think Celestia is too easy to use to need a manual ! It's all very straightforward.... so far I don't think I've come across a command I've had difficulty with. I suppose some of the features in the controls menu might benifit from a little explanation - for example what is per pixel lighting ? But the main controls are pretty much intuitive, a rare thing ineed for a freeware program ! Personally, I think what needs more explanation are the scripting commands - examples of how to use each one would be nice. Though maybe that should wait, as I've read somewhere on the forum that the scripting system is being revamped.

(Mad Boris)

I do agree with you that the commands in Celestia are very intuitive, indeed. Yet there are quite a number of tricks that are much less obvious if it comes to practical tasks.

Example: How do you place yourself into the backyard of your house at 53.312345634 N 9.21435267 E turn your "eyes" to the sky and watch that shadow passage of one of Jupiter's moons at a particular time with a particular small field of view (telescope mode) without Jupiter running away;-)...

Since there a very many similarly interesting but slightly involved sequences of commands let me refrain from explaining this particular one here.

In the future, the solution would clearly be to associate such macro sequences of script commands with well-designed icons on a nice toolbar...

For now, I think, some /explicit examples/ of general interest like the above one would be great to have in a manual.

Bye Fridger

[Guest]

I agree with every post above. Since my initial discovery of Celestia, I have figured out many of the comments and functions. However, as Fridger points out, there are particular examples which can be difficult (especially for newbies) to get set up correctly.
All help is appreciated, Chris! Great job!
Regards,
Ron A

[Guest]

Good points, Fridger. You've convinced me - a manual IS a good idea. Perhaps it could also include troubleshooting/known bugs ? Works fine on my computer but obviously not everyones..... might save a few posts on the forum.

(Mad Boris)

[t00fri]

Good points, Fridger. You've convinced me - a manual IS a good idea. Perhaps it could also include troubleshooting/known bugs ? Works fine on my computer but obviously not everyones..... might save a few posts on the forum.

(Mad Boris)

Another possibility with probably the steepest learning curve could be a context sensitive help that pops up with /related concrete examples/ for people to try out.

This scheme was incorporated very successfully e.g. into XEphem.

Bye Fridger