Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/astronom/skyglb36.zip/README

Text File | 1993-09-12 | 7KB | 125 lines

Greetings!  Thank you for registering SkyGlobe or perhaps upgrading to
this Version 3.6.  I hope you enjoy it!

Here are a few notes for things that may have changed a bit since the
manual was printed.

I have simplified the printing menu, so in almost all cases you won't
need to use function keys for settings, and it should be easier to tell
the program what type of printer setup you have.  Most 24-pin printers
can emulate either the Epson or the Proprinter, and the latter often has
an alternate graphics mode available that is similar to the Epson.  You
may want to try one printout in each mode if you have a 24-pin printer
to see which works best on your system the way you have it set up.

You can now print to DeskJet 500C or compatible color printers.  Due to
the highly optimized nature of the Milky Way, I had to fiddle with colors
a little, but it looks pretty good.  I'll be working on printing quite
heavily for the next version, hopefully including PostScript.

If you like to remap the keyboard using ANSI.SYS so your function keys
do interesting things in DOS, but don't like the effect that has on
SkyGlobe, start the program with SKYGLOBE K to use an alternate keyboard
reading method, or press ']' (right bracket) during program operation.

The Enter exact value mode that is accessed with the Enter key is a handy
way to type in the settings you desire if you would rather not hold down
a key for several redraws or use Turbo.  The screen will switch into text
mode and display several prompts for settings that can be changed.  Either
enter a numerical value and press Enter, or simply press Enter without
entering a value if you don't want to use a particular settings.  Some
combinations conflict with others, such as Elev and Direction with RA-Dec,
so you won't be able to use both.  Please enter angles as decimals, such
as 30.45 degrees, or 12.25 hours for RA.

If you would like to enter an exact location, it will replace the third
spot in the menu or the third custom location.  If you don't make an entry
for the location name you won't have to enter the other values.  Again,
use decimal values for the lat and long, and use negative values for E
longitudes.  The time zone numbers are in half hours as explained in the
manual, with Eastern Time in the US being the number 10.

You can now have up to 10 extra objects display, in case there is a
stunning new supernova or something.  Create an ASCII file called
SKYGLOBE.EXT with each line having RA followed by a space followed by
Dec followed by a space followed by the name of the object.  The RA-Dec
values should be decimals again, not minutes and seconds, with RA in hours
and Dec in degrees.

Even if Help is not visible, you can click in the upper right-hand corner
where the F1 entry should be to turn it on.  If you get too far from the
corner itself, you may find yourself sliding towards one edge or another.

Configuration files now use the currently displayed time no matter when
they are loaded, EXCEPT for .CF0, which as what I assume is a new default
always takes the system time when it is loaded.  This seems to be a little
less hassle than always asking the user which method they would prefer.
There is no message after saving a config file by pressing a number key,
but rest assured the next time you press the shifted number key you will
indeed retrieve those settings.  Press I followed by the shifted number to
check this out if you like.

This version of SkyGlobe is more sophisticated in its use of memory, so
let me take a moment or two to explain.  The .EXE itself contains the
coordinates for 3216 stars and 300 star names.  SKYGLOBE.DAT has the
remaining stars up to 29000+, the RA-Dec lines, the constellation boundary
lines (Guidelines), and the star names up to 3216 past the first 300.

Once the program is started, it attempts to load as much of that infor-
mation as will fit on your system.  First it loads the RA-Dec lines, then
boundary lines, and finally as many of the 29000 stars as there is room for.
No one will have room for everything, if you define everything as including
all the extra stars, but systems with about 530K will have room for all
the lines in VGA mode.

When you try to display dim stars, SkyGlobe checks to see if they are in
memory from that initial loading sequence.  If not, it loads them as needed
from the file.  If you have a disk cache running, the effect is to make
good use of all that wonderful extended memory on your system.  If you are
running from a floppy or without a disk cache, though, there will be some
number of stars to display that will significantly slow down your system
due to extensive disk activity.  Your mileage may vary. :)

If there isn't enough memory for some of those other features, you won't be
able to display them at all, but you can always display the full complement
of stars, it just takes slightly longer if they aren't loaded initially.

I would sure hate for the addition of new SkyGlobe features to mean that
you can't have color now, or that you can't see RA-Decs, or guidelines.  It
takes about 500K free for color, up to about 550K for the other features in
SVGA mode.  If you haven't already done so I STRONGLY urge you to take a
look at today's sophisticated memory managers such as MemMaker, QEMM, etc.
I have a lot of drivers loaded on my system, but still have well over 600K
free in my normal configuration using lowly EMM386.  I do have an alternate
setup with only about 540K, though, so I know what it is to try to turn on
RA-Dec lines or guidelines and have them not show up in SVGA mode.  It's
worth it for the new features, no doubt, but it's still a pain!

In one recent change, some memory in the image display functions was forced
to do double duty, in keeping with the "Biggest bang for the byte policy"
where I try to squeeze the absolute most use (and fun!) out of your system.
This means the program will reload some information from SKYGLOBE.DAT after
image displays, but it should happen so fast you will hardly notice.

Finally, if for some reason SKYGLOBE.DAT isn't present, but there is room
enough for the RA-Dec lines, the program takes a few seconds at startup
and figures them out for itself.  This can be a bit slow on some systems
that don't have coprocessors, but as long as SKYGLOBE.DAT is present you
won't ever notice any delay.

One note about CircumSpace:  I had heard from a few people that sunny
locations and dimmer monitors meant that the lower brightness settings
were not entirely visible, so I punched up the colors just a tad and made
the brightest setting the default.  Now '<' will dim the palette if you
have a bright monitor and a dark room, and while '>' will re-brighten the
display after you do so, it won't have any effect at program startup
because it is already as bright as it gets.

Thank you again for supporting shareware, SkyGlobe, and CircumSpace.  I
hope you find the programs entertaining and educational. :)

Peace and Clear Skies!

Mark A Haney
Roscommon, MI