Celestia 1.2.5pre7: too restrictive date field

[selden]

Whenever I try to type in a year that's far away from the current year, Celestia's "Set Time" window "fixes" it and picks a recent year.

For example, whenever I try to type in 12 Sep 1170, Celestia changes it to 12 Sep 2002.

While one can turn up the backward rate of time passage to get to the desired date, this is rather frustrating.

[granthutchison]

I also have trouble entering minutes and seconds in the time field: it always seems to flip back to the previous value.

Grant

[t00fri]

I just checked, both bugs above are at least not present in the CVS KDE and gtk Linux versions...

Note that the time display code in the Linux and Windows versions are separate, however, and hence independent.

Bye Fridger

[selden]

Sorry, I forgot to be precise: this happens to me with
Celestia 1.2.5pre7 running under Windows XP Pro SP1
256MB, 500 MHz P3, Nvidia GeForce4, Ti 4200.

The year reverts to 2002 the instant I type the 4th digit.

[granthutchison]

Windows XP Pro SP1, Pentium 4, 1.9GHz.

Grant

[JackHiggins]

You have to change each field seperately it doesnt seem to let you change more than one at the same time... (In other words) go into clock, change the hour, click ok, go into clock, change the minute, click ok, go into clock, change the second, click ok.

I can change the date all in one go though that seems to work ok!

[granthutchison]

... go into clock, change the hour, click ok, go into clock, change the minute, click ok, go into clock, change the second, click ok.

Thanks, that works. But, sheesh, it's a user-beligerent interface as it stands.
I do have exactly the same problem as Selden describes with date entry, though - as soon as I type the last digit of, say, 1150, Celestia flips me back to the current year.

Grant

[JackHiggins]

Um... yeah i probably should have added that its really annoying and takes ages!!! I'm used to this kind of hassle with my computer though so having to do things the long way round a couple of times over doesnt bother me much really!!!

I spose you could reverse time and run it back really fast, until you get to the correct year, then specify the date without changing the year...? would that work i havent tried it?

[granthutchison]

I spose you could reverse time and run it back really fast, until you get to the correct year, then specify the date without changing the year...?

Yes, that's what I'm having to do at present.

Grant

[billybob884]

I've also noticed that the earliest date it will let you go to by clickingthe date and changing it with the arrows is 14 sep 1752

[granthutchison]

I've also noticed that the earliest date it will let you go to by clickingthe date and changing it with the arrows is 14 sep 1752

Ah - the first day of the Gregorian calendar in the USA (and the UK).

Grant

[chris]

I've also noticed that the earliest date it will let you go to by clickingthe date and changing it with the arrows is 14 sep 1752

It seems to be a limitation with the Windows time/date control. Thanks Microsoft. I certainly didn't code this behavior and find it rather onerous myself. I'll see if there are some settings that I can use to get around the earliest date restriction.

--Chris

[Christophe]

It seems to be a limitation with the Windows time/date control. Thanks Microsoft. I certainly didn't code this behavior and find it rather onerous myself. I'll see if there are some settings that I can use to get around the earliest date restriction.

There's the same limitation with KDE's date picker widget, it's even more restrictive (not allowing dates before the 20th century). That's why I replaced that widget by spinboxes, it's not as nice looking, you can't see the week day or week number but there's no limitation, at least not beyond those of astro::Date.

Besides you can't really blame Microsoft for not supporting dates that never existed!

--
Christophe

[granthutchison]

Besides you can't really blame Microsoft for not supporting dates that never existed!

But some of them did exist - in France you've had the Gregorian calendar since 1582!

Grant

[billybob884]

I've also noticed that the earliest date it will let you go to by clickingthe date and changing it with the arrows is 14 sep 1752

It seems to be a limitation with the Windows time/date control. Thanks Microsoft. I certainly didn't code this behavior and find it rather onerous myself. I'll see if there are some settings that I can use to get around the earliest date restriction.

--Chris

thats why i dont let microsoft get me down