MAC Version - FLAME-ON!

[alan_federman]

O.k. Here are my Mac-10 Questions. For those of you familiar with Jewish
Passover - Why is this version different from all other versions?

In unix and Windows versions the Favorites are stored in Favorites.cel.
In the Mac version they are stored in celestia.plist in some folder far away from the rest of the celestia data files. Why?


The ring file textures that work fine in Unix and Windows often don't work on the Mac. For example - the Saturn and Uranus ring files worked, but
Neptune and Jupiter didn't.


Time is different - the clossest approach of an asteroid can occur a day apart on the different versions - I wonder about if eclipses are calculated correctly.

Pause seems to stop time and motion on the Unix and PC versions, but pause doesn't seem to stop you in the Mac version - if you try to locate a moving spacecraft - it is moving off at KM's per second.


Now an amazing amount of stuff does work correctly in the MAC version - but that last 1% is making me nuts!

[chris]

Alan,

Quick question: which Mac version are you using? If you have an old version, that could explain the orbit discrepancy--orbital accuracy was improved on Celestia for all platforms between versions 1.2.4 and 1.2.5.

--Chris

[HankR]

Alan,

As Chris mentioned, be sure you have the 1.3.0 version of Celestia for MacOS X. It's still behind the Windows 1.3.1 pre-releases, but it's much improved over the earlier 1.2.5 release.

To download the 1.3.0 version, go to 'http://sourceforge.net/projects/celestia/' and look for the "Celestia-macosx" entry in the "Latest File Releases" table.

Please let me know if you're using the 1.3.0 version and still have the problems you've indicated with ring textures, event times, and pause. Favorites storage hasn't changed, though. (I believe they're in the plist because that's the customary MacOS X practice for user settings. In retrospect maybe not such a good idea.)

- Hank

[scienceman]

Hm, I think it IS a good idea to keep the celestia prefs in the same place as prefs for other MacOS X applications -- especially given that the XML format is much easier to deal with than random locations and formats for different applications. But I admit that there is room for individual taste here.

Note that having all prefs in a given location (~Library/Preferences) makes it much easier to wipe them out if you are not happy with your tweaks for a given application or are encountering problems, and much easier to move your prefs to a new machine.

Just my 2c...

I also worry about code forking, though, and think we should otherwise ALL stick to standard Un*x practices (in the code itself, the above preferences location problem is simple) and keep the code tree as close (in time and content) to the Celestia base as possible, with perhaps a small team working on keeping the releases current and in synch. How about it, Hank?

[alan_federman]

I understand how one would want to add functionality. However added functionality is not the same as different functionality. If you want to use XML for the Favorites files that's fine, but there should be an option in the config file that says Pref style - new or old - thatway the default would be the old standard way, while the power user could customize to there hearts content. I think the scripts .cel and .clex work this way.

[Guest]

Nice. Dodge all the questions. I guess you really were trolling.

[HankR]

Alan,

I don't see any rings defined for Jupiter and Neptune in the current solarsys.ssc file. Do you have a customized version? If so, make sure it is properly installed in your CelestiaResources.

- Hank

[Guest]

Good to see that there is actually a 1.30 version for Mac OSX! I thought Mac development of this great app was dead.