Hi Bill
Tanks, for your quick answer.

About the comets, on other list issue, I venture here some strategies to go
around the problem:

1 - Creation of another separated and editable file,
were we could edit and fill with all the names known for a particular comet,
and it's equivalents with the epoch were each particular name is in use, and
if wanted, with the notes or stories for that comet.
2 - The last designator appearing there will be the one displayed.
3 - In goto, and info events, Guide, if not founding the comet, will look
also for a possible match in that file list, and if positive will ask for
updating the data.
4 - In the duplicate case, Guide will also ask if user wanted to suppress
the older.
5 - With info window activated Guide should also look and display all notes
and anterior designators as presented in that list.

That's only one more thought. I hope this is not too much,
I have deserted from the programmer crazy fever several hears ago, it's
creative, passionate, addicted, stressing and that's too much for me, too
many hours, too many late in night and a failing health compelled me to
desertion. This, to say how much I admired that who have the "Force" with
theme.

Antonio Alves



----Original Message-----
From: guide-user@yahoogroups.com [mailto:guide-user@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Bill J Gray
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 3:10 AM
To: guide-user@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [guide-user] Removing duplicate comets, such as (73P)
Schwassmann-Wachmann 3

Bernd Brinkmann asked about removing duplicate comets such as (73P)
Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. The thing to do here is to make sure that the
new comet file you add actually contains the text "(73P)". Guide will
look at that comet designation, rather than the discoverer's name. But
if it sees (73P) as part of the comet's designation, it'll know that it
should remove the original (73P).

That will work just fine in this particular case. Bernd also
mentions 173P/Mueller = P/2005 T1 and 171P/Spahr = P/1998 W1. Here,
there's a complication: the comet _was_ known as P/1998 W1, for
example, and then got a permanent designation. I've yet to resolve
that particular headache.

Comets have been a headache for some years now. Ideally, I'd be
able to direct people to a comprehensive list of all comets, resembling
the ASTORB and MPCORB databases for asteroids. But the lists of which I
am aware are the MPC's comet list (only recent objects) and the JPL
DASTCOM list (contains most objects, but not all, and doesn't give
magnitude data.) So Guide has to splice the MPC "current comet" list
onto its own "historic comet" dataset. And sometimes, the splicing
isn't perfect. Designation systems change (73P used to be known as
Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, for example... still _is_ known as that in some
lists, such as the JPL one.)

-- Bill


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