Pulsar Sounds Tour (pre)

[maxim]

In order to do some final tests on my hybrid script, I'd like to find someone with

1. a slow system
2. a linux system
3. a macos system

who let's run the script, to see if all works fine, or if there are some incompatibilities.
Thanks for your help.

maxim

[Bob Hegwood]

Maxim,

Do you suppose you could post the script package - or a link to it - here on the
forum? It seems that my machinations with Cygwin have caused me to lose
one or two items. Unfortunately, your Sounds package was one of them.

Take care, Bob

[maxim]

Here it is Bob:
The Tour
The pulsar package

maxim

BTW, nice Venus tour - there should be a way to fade the cloud layer.

Remark added later:
There are comment markers around on line in one of the package files: PulsarSoundIntro.html.
These have to be removed, so that the containing checkbox becomes existent.

[Bob Hegwood]

Thanks Maxim...

I'll be playing with it some more tonight as per your e-mailed instructions.

I agree with your "Fade" idea for the Venus clouds. You can probably *do* this
with celx, but I just don't like that damned stuff.

Take care, Bob

[Rich]

Hi Maxim,
I tried to email you several times last week, but got bounce-backs!

I couldn't get the html stuff to run with celestia; I couldn't get past the initial startup screen.
Any special setting-up I must do ahead of time...? I have a feeling it's a mac-incompatibility......

The pulsars, however, when visited "by hand" in Celestia, look cool.

-Rich

[maxim]

Rich,

yes, it seems that my reply adress is a bit outdated. But that one here in the forum should be ok.

The pulsar package is not mine, but out here from the forum. I only adjusted the textures a bit.

maxim

[don]

maxim,

This really is a COOL package.

To be able to see AND hear the pulsars is quite amazing.

Keep up your great work!

[Bob Hegwood]

Mr. Gee,

Any thoughts or ideas about why Maxim's package works on your XP, but it
doesn't work on mine? I'm using the latest IE and just re-downloaded it to make
certain that THAT wasn't the problem.

Maybe we can define your atmosphere a bit better. For example, where did you
get your JavaScript package? Is this a console or a runtime environment?
Maxim is killing himself trying to figure out why it won't work on my system, but
I think it's probably just me and/or my system.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Bob

[selden]

maxim,

I'm sorry to say that your Pulsar Tour doesn't work for me, either.

The initial browser window opens and resizes itself (much too small, by the way. The Exit and Go buttons are below the bottom of the window). I started Celestia separately (in a desktop window). Neither the Go nor the Exit buttons do anything.

I have J2sdk1.4.1_03 installed. Java programs and other Web pages using Java work fine (e.g. JavaStart runs Sun's demo Java programs).

System:
256MB 512MHz P3, WinXP Pro SP1
128MB GF4 Ti4200, drivers v56.72
Celestia v1.3.2pre8+ (compiled from cvs)

[don]

If it makes any difference, I am using Java 2 Runtime Environment version 1.4.2_04 (from the Sun site button download).

[Bob Hegwood]

If it makes any difference, I am using Java 2 Runtime Environment version 1.4.2_04 (from the Sun site button download).

Same one I have, Don, but the stuff *works* on your system. What else could
be different I wonder? Perhaps one or two of the many options available under
the IE "Tools\Internet Options" header? Just a thought...

Thanks, Bob

[don]

An interesting thought, to be sure.

I'm re-downloading the current version and will go play with it to see if I can break it with resetting anything in IE. I'd hate to try and type all the options and settings into a message. Maybe Selden knows of some secret Windows way to list / print out all these options?

I'll let you know if I can find anything...

[don]

Guess what? The current download version doesn't run on my machine either.

Try this guys...

Open the file "...\Celestia\html\PulsarSound\PulsarSoundIntro.html in a plain text editor. Towards the bottom of the file, look for "<!--" and delete that line. Also, look for "-->" and delete that line. This should UNcomment the line in between...

Code: Select all

<td align="right" class="ht">Journey Sound on<input type="checkbox" name="js" value="1"/></td>

Next, run the start html file again and you will now see a checkbox in the main pop-up form. Check it and click Go.

Does this work?

[selden]

After checking the box and clicking on "Go", I got several seconds of electronic music but then it stopped. There was no change of viewpoint.

I tried several of the html files. They created sound but no motion.

[Bob Hegwood]

Don,

Like I told you in e-mail, I have already fixed that particular error, and Mr.
Maxim had me add some debugging code to my version of the Java scripts.

At this point, I'm still in the same boat as Selden. I can hear the sounds, and
I can actually go from one html screen to another while hearing the different
sounds associated with each screen.

The continuing problem is that Celestia will absolutely *not* start up when
called via cel scripts from the Java scripts. I have my cel scripts associated
with the Celestia program as suggested by Maxim, and I've tried a multitude
of various settings for both the IE and the Java Script runtime environment.

So the fact remains that there's *something* different about Don's XP installation.
Something is set - or exists - on Don's system, that does not exist on my system
and on Selden's. We should be able to find this I would think.

Take care, Bob

[don]

What is your default browser Selden (the one that opens when you dbl-click a HTML file)? (Mine is IE version: 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030422-1633)

You have downloaded and installed the Pulsar files, yes?

You are dbl-clicking the "startPulsarSound.html" file, yes?

Here are some IE settings to try...

Tools/Internet Options/Advanced ...
"Browsing" category:
* CHECK Display notification about every script error (Display errors as they happen.)
* UNcheck Reuse windows for launching shortcuts

"Microsoft VM" category:
* UNcheck all items since you have Java (Sun) installed

Short of listing every IE option and it's setting on my system, I'm not sure what else to offer.

[selden]

Don,

I'm using IE6 sp1 -- as shipped with XP plus all critical patches.

I fear that there may be unrecognized but inappropriate assumptions in the code about the user's system configuration. (As an example, it may be depending on the user allowing Web pages to be drawn with whatever font sizes the Web page's author has specified. I don't allow that. I have a lower limit set on the size of font that may be drawn.) Unfortunately, I simply don't have the time to try to help track the bugs down.

[don]

I understand Selden. I'm sure maxim will get it figured out.

[Bob Hegwood]

Brain-Dead Bob again...

Just to enlighten a bit further, I can now get the scripts to work with the exception
of activating the Celestia CEL scripts. When I open up the small, controlling
IE window, I can see that each script has been loaded by IE, but it's just not
being activated. In other words, the scripts are displayed by IE as if they're
Notepad files. It's also interesting to note that the different cel scripts *are*
actually loaded into the controlling IE window each time I press "GO" in the
Touring windows. Does this help at all?

Don and I have investigated a pretty large number of the IE settings now, but
thus far, with no luck.

Take care, Bob

[maxim]

Thanks for all your help guys.
I've been off in France for a week, and so couldn't respond to the thread.
Sorry for the unremoved comments - I hadn't found time to do the corrected upload yet.

Some replies:

Selden:
Yes, I have to make some assumptions about the users system. When I use browser windows for beeing displayed in front of Celestia views they have to be small, to not hide important things. As there is no way (at least I haven't found one yet) to automatically decide for a windows size from the final layout look of a page, when used with different font sizes, I created a setup file called 'pluginConfig.js' where every user can adjust window position and size to his personal needs.
There may be ('are' indeed) other inappropriaties, that's why I started this thread.
The sound you hear is no electronic music but a sequence of millisecond pulsars detected in the 47 tucanae cluster. The sequence order itself is artificial.
It should be possible to run the whole script even without celestia running. The journey from one pulsar to the next is between 25-50 secs. After that time you should get a new popup window and a new sound. Unfortunately you then don't see what you hear.

Don:
Thanks for all your support. I'm quite sure it has nothing to do with the Sun-Java environment, or the standart IE settings. To me it looks like either as if the cel-mime type isn't defined in those systems (wich is unlikely, but that would cause the IE to display the cel-script as text instead of executing it), or that any security plugin or system setting doesn't allow any scripts that could cause trouble beeing started and displays them instead as pure text.

Bob:
You told me some time ago that you can start cel-scripts by typing the scripts filename and path into the adress line of the browser. If you type the name of the actual displayed script into the controller window and hit return - what happens?


I'm a bit busy at the moment, but I will continue to find a common solution that will work for everyone. I would like to get a feedback from someone with a linux system.

maxim