.CEL Script Problem

[don]

.CEL script problem ...

Windows ver 1.3.1 pre9.

If Celestia is not currently running, and you run the following script, it does not work. It flys right past the moon out to 207 au:

Code: Select all

{
select { object "Sol/Earth/Moon" }
goto   { distance 7 time 3 }
wait   { duration 3 }
chase  { }
}

This code works (note the wait command after the select command):

Code: Select all

{
select { object "Sol/Earth/Moon" }
wait   {}
goto   { distance 7 time 3 }
wait   { duration 3 }
chase  { }
}

This code works (note the longer wait command after the goto):

Code: Select all

{
select { object "Sol/Earth/Moon" }
goto   { distance 7 time 3 }
wait   { duration 4 }
chase  { }
}

This code works (note the moved chase command):

Code: Select all

{
select { object "Sol/Earth/Moon" }
chase  {}
goto   { distance 7 time 3 }
wait   { duration 3 }
}

Why doesn't the first code example work as expected?

[jamarsa]

Perhaps if the wait time is equal or less than the goto time, it stops the 'goto' before arriving to the moon (hence the 207 AU distance). Just my guess...

It flys right past the moon out to 207 au

Do you mean you see the moon passing by? If so, my previous hypothesis is wrong...

[don]

Do you mean you see the moon passing by? If so, my previous hypothesis is wrong...

Yep, sometimes you go right through the moon to the other side. Other times, you never even see the moon.

My understanding of the way .CEL scripting is supposed to work is that for every command that has a time parameter, you must code a wait command after it, with the duration equal to or greater than the amount of time the previous command used.

If this is true, then placing a wait after a select command should not be necessary because select does not have a time parameter.

My thought is that Celestia is doing some kind of start-up initialization tasks while the script is also trying to execute -- since this happens only when running the script when Celestia is not currently running.

My suggestion would be for the developers to put a longer "hold time" on script execution until Celestia is fully initialized at startup.

[jamarsa]

My thought is that Celestia is doing some kind of start-up initialization tasks while the script is also trying to execute -- since this happens only when running the script when Celestia is not currently running.

The default start point of Celestia before running the script is located (at least for me) at 207.137 AU from the moon, current time (I just put an empty start.cel to check this). The problem could be as you say: it selects the initial coordinates after starting the script and executing the goto command, therefore it changes it's behaviour.

[don]

Bingo, that is exactly the same au I get when running the script.

So, it appears that Celestia does in fact need to wait when executing a script upon startup. Thanks for the debugging help Javier <smile>.

Hope one of the developers can fix this.