Hi folks,
I've just posted another update. Its primary purpose is just as a
bug fix; all the color bugs are fixed, the hotkey list now includes
_all_ hotkeys, not just those currently active (thanks to Pat Madden
for pointing that problem out), SGP4 is now dead-on instead of being
an arcminute or two off, the "Go To... Comet" function now lists
comets again, plus a host of others.
One minor improvement was made in the display of some tables of
events: in these cases, links are shown as red if the event is
below your horizon, yellow if it's below altitude ten degrees,
green otherwise, a blatant rip-off of an idea suggested in a
_Sky & Telescope_ review of another program. I will probably be
ripping it off still further in the future, so that "Go To
Constellation", "Go to Common-Name Star", and "Go To Planet"
(among others) will bring up similarly color-coded lists.
However, the primary purpose of this update was to catch the
known bugs and fix them.
About the time format: I've updated
http://www.projectpluto.com/future.htm#time_format
to expand on this idea, and to provide a link to some documentation
of how to set the time format in STARTUP.MAR.
Something which I now realize is _not_ documented: setting planet
symbols. With previous versions, you could set symbols for DSOs,
satellites, the central cross-hair, the symbol used to indicate
a "picked" object, etc. as described at
http://www.projectpluto.com/update7.htm#dso_symbols
With the current version, you can also add a line such as
PLANET_SYM=m-32,16;l32,-16;m16,32;l-16,-32;
to define a new planet-display symbol.
-- Bill