Laurent Zimmermann Aug 8, 2003
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill J Gray" <pluto@...>
To: <guide-user@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2003 4:07 AM
Subject: [guide-user] City names, etc.
> Hi Laurent,
>
> Those columns give the "level of importance" (LOI) of a city
> (1=major international metropolis to 7=very small town), and
> the three-digit country identifier. For details:
>
> http://www.projectpluto.com/random.htm#city_format
>
> You can modify them in the manner you suggest without any
> great risk. Making the LOI into a tenths-of-arcminute field
> means that the "city" in question may become more or less
> "important", which would cause it to be more or less likely
> to appear on the chart. (Guide draws the most "important"
> cities first; less "important" cities may not have room for
> their labels to be shown.) The country field isn't currently
> used for anything at all.
>
> Your comments about the problems with different longitude
> formats are well-taken. I've revised the program to work
> "logically": you can always enter + or - for latitudes,
> since there is no "south is positive" convention to confuse
> us. If you've selected display of lat/lon with compass
> letters (in the increasingly misnamed RA/Dec Format
> dialog), you can't enter + or - for longitudes, because Guide
> can't figure out if positive is east or west (both conventions
> get roughly equal use).
>
> If you do select +/- for longitude display, with either the
> "E positive" or "W positive" convention, then Guide will
> accept longitude "compass signs" of E, W, +, or -,
> with the last two interpreted depending on whether
> you selected "E positive" or "W positive". Confusing to
> describe, perhaps, but it should be passably intuitive
> to use.
>
> -- Bill