Locations menu fails after adding a new location

[Martin Joustra]

I have the latest version of Celestia. It amazed me by it's graphics, but yet I have problem.
As I go from location to location, everything is working normally. But when I add a new location the Locations menu won't open until I restart Celestia.

Specs of my PC are:

Windows 98
AMD 1.2 GHz
GeForce4 MX 440/AGP/3DNOW!
Version: 1.3.1
Max simultaneous textures: 2
Max texture size: 2048

[JackHiggins]

I have the same problem...

Win98SE
pentium 4 1.7GHz
Celestia 1.3.1pre6
127MB RAM
Geforce 4 MX440

[don]

Maybe I'm a bit slow this morning ... but I can't figure out what you guys are talking about. The only "Locations" item I see in 1.3.1 pre6 is "Render / Locations ..." which opens a dialog box.

Are you talking about the Bookmarks menu item, or something else?

[JackHiggins]

Yeah it's the bookmarks thing that has the problem...

[chris]

I renamed the Locations menu to Bookmarks for a couple reasons: to match the KDE version more closely (which will ease i18n when I get to that) and to avoid confusion with the new meaning of locations i.e. surface landmarks.

Anyhow, I'm unable to reproduce the problem with the Bookmarks menu . . . Not that I doubt it's there; this feature is somewhat buggy (in the Windows version) and should be rewritten to use cel:// URLs.

--Chris

[don]

I'm not able to reproduce it either, so maybe it has to do with a certain sequence of keystrokes or events?

Martin and Jack, are you both able to reproduce the problem every single time you add a Bookmark? If so, what are the exact steps you take to make it happen?

[JackHiggins]

I renamed the Locations menu to Bookmarks for a couple reasons: to match the KDE version more closely (which will ease i18n when I get to that) and to avoid confusion with the new meaning of locations i.e. surface landmarks.

Anyhow, I'm unable to reproduce the problem with the Bookmarks menu . . . Not that I doubt it's there; this feature is somewhat buggy (in the Windows version) and should be rewritten to use cel:// URLs.

Well at least I now know it's not just me & martin...

I still think Celestia should have a "reload" function somewhere on the menu- instead of having to exit & open again, could the same be done inside the program?

What does KDE stand for anyway?

I'm not able to reproduce it either, so maybe it has to do with a certain sequence of keystrokes or events?

Martin and Jack, are you both able to reproduce the problem every single time you add a Bookmark? If so, what are the exact steps you take to make it happen?

Don't think it has to do with keystrokes, because i've done it over 30 times, over a very long time span...

Ok heres what i do:

1. Go to a location, ANY location, with ANY combinations of orbits, labels, galaxies on/off, planets close by, 3ds models etc etc etc...
2. Click bookmarks
3. Add bookmark
4. Enter any name (mine are usually just the name of the craft or the scene)
5. Click ok
6. Et Voila! Now when i click on the Bookmarks menu bar item, it "lights up" but no matter what way i click or Alt+ whatever, it won't drop down.

The plot thickens...

[jamarsa]

What does KDE stand for anyway?

Uh, oh... A Windows guy, aren't you?

KDE is one of the graphical desktops for Linux. Look at here for some info:

http://www.kde.org

And here for some screenshots of Celestia running into KDE (courtesy of Christophe):


http://teyssier.nerim.net/celestia/screenshots/


Mmm, or perhaps I misinterpreted you? Really, you *should* know all of this already... Well, I thought first the question was posted by don, which is new (but *very* active ) here, before reviewing my post...

[don]

Don't think it has to do with keystrokes, because i've done it over 30 times, over a very long time span...

Thank you Jack.

Okay ... Just trying to help narrow it down (smile) ... I know you're one of the Celestia experts here, so you've probably already checked/done these things, but they came to my mind so here they are:

* Do you have LOTS of entries in your Bookmarks (favorites.cel) file? I only have 8 and mine still works properly.

* Do you store your Bookmarks in a different folder/directory, other than the default (main Celestia folder)?

* You are running pre6 of 1.3.1, yes?

* I think this one is a rare possibility, since Celestia *does* open the file upon re-run, but ... Have you displayed the favorites.cel file in an editor to see if all the entries are correct? Like the code below shows (object surrounded by double quotes, parameters surrounded by curly braces, double quotes for text strings, square brackets for vectors, etc.)? I ask this because disk drives do have data storage areas go bad every so often, which then corrupts the file being stored there. And, since Chris says the function is buggy, maybe *it* corrupted the file in some way?

Code: Select all

"Earth" {
   isFolder false
   parentFolder ""
   base   [ 0.003267391225515001 2.578919803344403e-010 1.500869009406365e-005 ]
   offset [ -2.20628962148417e-013 0 -5.288196096298048e-016 ]
   axis   [ 0.0396616 0.99886 0.0265482 ]
   angle  3.11236
   time   2452834.219110519
   selection "#0/Earth"
   coordsys "universal"
}


-Don

[Martin Joustra]

I downloaded celestia-win32-1.3.0.exe from celestiaproject.net/celestia/. Where is the difference between that and 1.3.1 pre6?

Anyway don, I reproduce the problem just alike Jack does. Moreover, I have 10 entries now, but the problem already started with the first.

And by the way, because I'm quite new to this program and I wonder what kind of editor you mean. Notepad or WordPad?

[don]

Howdy Martin,

Oops, your first post said "Version: 1.3.1". This post says you downloaded 1.3.0. I am using 1.3.1 pre6.

Would you go to Celestia's Help menu, select About Celestia, and tell us what version it says at the top of the display window?

If it is not "1.3.1" (current pre-release version is 6), then you might want to try 1.3.1 pre6, which fixes some bugs that were in 1.3.0 as well as adds some new functionality.

The following is from A prelimiary Celestia User's FAQ, located at http://ennui.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2291, which is a "sticky" thread at the top of the Users Forum.

Q3: Where can I get another version of Celestia that might work better?

A3: a) Older versions of Celestia are available on SourceForge:
See http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... p_id=21302
v1.2.4 seems the most robust, but does not include many recent features.

b) Some "prerelease" versions of Celestia for Windows are available
on Shatters.net: See http://63.224.48.65/celestia/files/
The most recent "prerelease" (e.g. V1.3.1 pre6) may work better for you.

To view the Celestia ChangeLog, which lists all changes to Celestia from one version to the next, go here: http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/celestia/celestia/ChangeLog. Look at the upper-most listing, where it says "Revision #.##", and just to the right, click the "(view)" link to display the list.

Hope this helps!

-Don

[JackHiggins]

Uh, oh... A Windows guy, aren't you?

[Embarrasment...]Er.. Yes I am...[/embarrasment]

I knew it was Linux, just didn't know what it stood for...

I've actually only ever run Celestia /myself/ on my home computer, and my previous machine... Since they were both windows I never had the need to try it on Mac/Linux etc... I have used Macs before, but not linux, I've just never run Celestia on a Mac/linux machine...

Right ok so yeah I admit I know nothing about linux...!! What are the big advantages over windows if I was to change over?

* Do you have LOTS of entries in your Bookmarks (favorites.cel) file? I only have 8 and mine still works properly.

I only have 2 at the moment, but it happens every time I add one (I had something like 20 in 1.3.1pre3 & the exact same thing happened.) The very first time you add one it happens!

* Do you store your Bookmarks in a different folder/directory, other than the default (main Celestia folder)?

Nope...

* You are running pre6 of 1.3.1, yes?

Yup...

* I think this one is a rare possibility, since Celestia *does* open the file upon re-run, but ... Have you displayed the favorites.cel file in an editor to see if all the entries are correct? Like the code below shows (object surrounded by double quotes, parameters surrounded by curly braces, double quotes for text strings, square brackets for vectors, etc.)? I ask this because disk drives do have data storage areas go bad every so often, which then corrupts the file being stored there. And, since Chris says the function is buggy, maybe *it* corrupted the file in some way?

I've checked it & everything is exactly like your example...

It's probably just a bug with the windows version- I can live with it; I don't add in bookmaks that much, just for when I want to do nice screenshots etc

And by the way, because I'm quite new to this program and I wonder what kind of editor you mean. Notepad or WordPad?

Wordpad & Notepad open celestia text files exactly the same, except that wordpad can open bigger files. (Eg you probably won't be able to open xyz files with notepad.

[don]

It's probably just a bug with the windows version- I can live with it; I don't add in bookmaks that much, just for when I want to do nice screenshots etc.

Thanks for checking Jack.

The weird thing is that I too am running the Windows version, and don't see the problem. So I guess Chris is right, if it's buggy enough, it would affect some systems and not others I suppose -- and/or affect different versions of Windows (and patch levels) in different ways too.

Compared to Windows, things used to be a breeze to debug in DOS, mainframe, and mini-computers, but that gives away my age <laughing>. I'm still amazed that *any* program can actually run in Windows, because I've seen "under the hood of Windows" (it's API), tried working with it,as an experienced programmer at the time, but ran the other way, screaming madly, as fast as I could, and haven't looked back since <laughing>! So I hold anyone who can actually write a functioning Windows program (let alone have it running on multiple OS's) in high esteem, which includes the entire Celestia team.

This program simply blows me away, every time I run it, and think of all the possibilities, and all the add-ons out there, and the ones on the way. It's my first time being involved in an open-source project in any way, and it's kind of amazing to see how people living on different continents, that have probably never even met in person, can accomplish so much. And for the most part, it all WORKS -- REAL-TIME -- and in 3-D!

Man alive, if we had this kind of stuff when I was a kid, I would have become an astronaut or astronomer. I always had more questions than teachers / parents could answer -- you know, Enquiring minds want to know <grin>. Programs like Celestia, and other educational programs, are absolutely incredible "teaching" tools, 'cause kids think they're games, but they are learning math, programming, astronomy, space flight, artistic abilities, etc., etc., whatever the program is "teaching" -- and they're actually having FUN doing it <smile>.

Well, I'd better stop now or this will turn out to be a hundred pages long! I'm just "hyped" about Celestia, especially after having to really think about it to describe it and how it works to my wife at lunch today. I also had to reflect on my past couple weeks experience with it and a lot of "possibilities" as a teaching tool dawned on me when we both kinda said at the same time, "Imagine if WE had programs like this when we were kids?".

Soooo, go for the Gold, Celestia team! It's lookin' REAL GOOD from out here <great big smile>!

-Don