[net.micro.mac] Stupid bugs in $#%

robertm@dartvax.UUCP (Robert P. Munafo) (10/01/85)

A few days ago I posted a "Space Flight Simulator" program for the
Macintosh, on net.sources.mac
   Although it functions fairly well as a space flight simulator, it
has so many problems that I am requesting everyone to refrain from
giving it to other people until I post version 1.1 .  Among the worst
of the bugs are the following:
  
o  The graphic "ORION" logo used in two of the help screens is identical
   (or at least nearly identical) to that of a company by the same name
   (a film distributor, fom what I've heard.)  I must have seen the logo
   somewhere and forgotten where I had seen it; I certainly thought that
   I had made it up.
 
o  The "do not alter the program in any way" clause is rediculous - I
   was not considering people who would be changing fonts and other
   resources to make useful changes to the program.  The statement should
   really state that the user "is not to modify or remove this statement"
   or something like that.  To that effect, you are all hereby authorized
   to modify anything except the "freeware statement", author's address,
   etc. on the first help screen.

o  Lots of people are trying to fly as close to a star as they can, and
   encounter the round-off error (which occurs because the program is
   at the limit of resolution of the lowest of the four different scales
   of distance which are used.)  They are also trying to venture further
   than 20 light-years from the sun; in both cases I need to make the 
   program do something more intelligent than what it does now.

o  The help screens are not half as verbose as they ought to be; they need
   to be expanded.

o  The database has only 150 stars (not nearly enough.)  I am trying to
   get the machine-readable Yale Catalog of Bright Stars, failing that I
   will type them in myself from a conventional human-readable Yale Bright
   Star Catalog.  Animation speed is no problem; it's just getting the data.
   (By the way, what kind of planets should I put on the other stars?)

   So, if you want to play around with the program, you can, but a better
version will be coming soon so you might just want to wait for it.

					Robert P. Munafo

briand@tekig4.UUCP (Brian Diehm) (10/03/85)

In article <3646@dartvax.UUCP> robertm@dartvax.UUCP (Robert P. Munafo) writes:
>A few days ago I posted a "Space Flight Simulator" program for the
>Macintosh, on net.sources.mac
>   Although it functions fairly well as a space flight simulator, it
>has so many problems that I am requesting everyone to refrain from
>giving it to other people until I post version 1.1 .  Among the worst
>of the bugs are the following:
> 
   . . .

>   (By the way, what kind of planets should I put on the other stars?)

Well, obviously, the ones that are *really there*!!!  Let's be accurate here!

Is the :-) necessary?

But seriously folks, any intention of including Messier objects as well?  May-
hap some small mention of the great nebula in Orion?

In all, a neat fun program, but difficult to fly.  Much promise, in my opinion.

-Brian Diehm
Tektronix, Inc.