> Now, as to persuading Guide to load up a .mar file: there

isn't a

> way to get it to load 'startup.mar' in this manner, but there _is_

a

> way to do something resembling what you ask about. I have only now
> documented it, at
>
> http://www.projectpluto.com/hot_mark.htm
>
> Not mentioned there is the fact that if you found the main
> application window for Guide and issued message 9841 to it, that

would

> force Guide to load 'mark41.txt', and similarly for other marks.
>

Hi Bill,

thanks for this info! I'm going to try this. Do you mean that a
WM_COMMAND has to be posted with 98+<X> as the first param if
mark<X>.txt should be loaded? I know, I could have tried myself, but
asking is faster than trying ;-)

You know that I'm busy with my observation planner. If your solution
works for me, this would be great because of a decoupling of
the "remote controlling" from any potential GUI changes. When there
are some research results I'll let you know.

Meanwhile there is also a solution that polls for changes in the
picklist.txt file. Thanks again for introducing the OBJECT keyword!

This solution is a small standalone application (with open sources)
originally developed to demonstrate the new OLE Automation interface
of Eye&Telescope 2.5.

After a new name is recognized, the tool asks Eye&Telescope via a COM
interface whether the object is known to the database. If this is the
case, a dialog comes up which offers to display a simulated eyepiece
view, create a new log entry or you might add the object to a
planning list. This commands are issued via the OLE interface as
well. With this, Guide and Eye&Telescope join for a great team! Maybe
you like to include some automation calls from GUIDE (like "add to
observing plan" or "create log entry") when some day an
international version of Eye&Telescope is available. I'm working on
this.

Greetings and clear skies,
Tom