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<title>StarPlot - 3. Menu Items</title>
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content = "2008 Kevin B. McCarty" />
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<h1>StarPlot Documentation</h1>
<h2><a href = "index.html">Contents</a> | <a href = "ch2.html">Previous</a> |
<a href = "ch4.html">Next</a></h2>
<h2>3. Menu Items</h2>
<a name = "sec31"></a>
<h3>3.1. The File Menu</h3>
<img src = "images/menu-file.png" alt = "[StarPlot File menu]" style = "float: left;" />
<p> The File menu contains options for opening star catalogs,
loading and saving StarPlot parameter files, saving a screenshot
of the currently shown chart, and exiting the program.
</p>
<h4 style = "clear: left;">3.1.1. Open Star Database...</h4>
<p> <b>Related button:</b>
<img src = "images/button-open.png" alt = "[Open star database...]" />
</p>
<p> This option opens a standard GTK+ file dialog window, shown below,
from which you can select the
star catalog (.stars file) to view. By default StarPlot will look
in its data directory for .stars files (most likely either
<code>/usr/local/share/starplot</code> if you installed the program
from source, or <code>/usr/share/starplot</code> if you installed
it from a package shipped by a Linux distribution). You can use
the file dialog window to search in other directories, of course.
</p>
<p> Once you click "OK", any star catalog that is currently being viewed
will be abandoned in favor of the newly selected catalog. (Be warned
that no sanity check is made to see whether the selected file really
is a StarPlot data file.) Note also that other parameters
of the chart (for instance, the location of the chart center, the
chart radius, etc.) will not be changed by this operation.
</p>
<p> Selecting this menu option is exactly equivalent to clicking the
<img src = "images/button-open.png" alt = "Open star database" />
button on the button bar.
</p>
<img src = "images/dialog-file-open.png" alt = "[StarPlot file open dialog]" />
<h4>3.1.2. Merge Star Database...</h4>
<p> This option also allows you to open a star catalog, but unlike
"Open Star Database..." it will not cause the previous catalog
to be abandoned. Stars in both catalogs will be shown at once.
(If you already used this option, all accumulated catalogs will
be shown at once.)
</p>
<p> Beware that StarPlot does not currently make any attempt to check for
duplicate entries in simultaneously open catalogs. Doing so would
be non-trivial, as the same physical star may be known by different
designations and have different listed positions (particularly
for its distance from Earth) in different catalogs.
</p>
<p> There is no "Unmerge" option; instead, you can use the "Open Star
Database..." option and select the specific catalog which you want
to keep viewing.
</p>
<h4>3.1.3. Open Parameter File...</h4>
<p> As seen in <a href = "ch0.html#sec03">section 0.3</a>, this option lets
you open a StarPlot parameter file. Parameter files contain all
the information necessary to reproduce the exact appearance of
a StarPlot display viewed at an earlier time, assuming that you
have kept the same star catalogs on your computer in the same
places. They do <em>not</em> include
contents of star catalog(s).
</p>
<p> Parameter files are not intended to be portable across machines
since the location of the star catalog(s) is given as an absolute path.
However, judicious hand-editing of a parameter file should
be fairly trivial.
</p>
<p> The default search path for the parameter file is your current working
directory. If you started StarPlot from the command line, this is
the directory from which you typed "starplot"; otherwise it is most
likely your home directory.
</p>
<h4>3.1.4. Save Chart Parameters...</h4>
<p> This option lets you save the current chart parameters to a text file
which can be re-opened with the "Open Parameter File..." option.
In addition to the portability warnings above, also note that you
probably want the location of the currently open star catalog(s)
to be saved as an absolute rather than a relative path. The only
case where this might be a problem is if you opened the star catalog(s)
on the command line rather than from the Open or Merge Star Database
menu options.
</p>
<p> The default directory to which the parameter file will be saved
is your current working directory.
</p>
<h4>3.1.5. Save Chart as PNG...</h4>
<p> Use this to save an image (in PNG format) of the StarPlot display.
Only the chart display (and the legend and status, if they are
visible) will be saved, not any of the graphical widgets such as
the menu bar or button bar. Thus your image will look something
like the one below.
</p>
<p> The default directory to which the image will be saved
is your current working directory. In choosing the filename of the
image, if you omit the trailing "<code>.png</code>", it will
be added for you (only in StarPlot version 0.95.5 or later).
</p>
<img src = "images/starplot-png.png" alt = "[StarPlot-saved PNG]" />
<h4>3.1.6. Quit</h4>
<p> This option, naturally, quits the program. Upon quitting, StarPlot
automatically saves the current chart parameters to a file named
<code>.starplotrc</code> in your home directory. This file is
automatically reloaded to set the initial parameters the next time
StarPlot is started. It has exactly the same format as any other
StarPlot parameter file.
</p>
<a name = "sec32"></a>
<h3>3.2. The Chart Menu</h3>
<img src = "images/menu-chart.png" alt = "[StarPlot Chart menu]" style = "float: left;" />
<p> The Chart menu includes three menu options that open dialog windows,
which provide precise manual control of the fundamental parameters
of the StarPlot display.
</p>
<h4 style = "clear: left;">3.2.1. Define Chart...</h4>
<p> <b>Related buttons:</b>
<img src = "images/button-zoomin.png" alt = "[Zoom in]" />
<img src = "images/button-zoomout.png" alt = "[Zoom out]" />
[also, star symbols in chart display]
</p>
<img src = "images/dialog-define-chart.png" alt = "[StarPlot Define Chart dialog]" style = "float: right;" />
<p> The StarPlot Define Chart dialog window, shown at right, lets you
select the volume of space covered by the chart. Notice that when
you first open the dialog, the coordinates and size of the chart
are already filled in for you with the current values, using your
preferred coordinate system and standard distance unit.
</p>
<p> Three of the four parameters required to define a chart volume are the
coordinates of the center of the volume. You have the option of
entering this information in two ways. The simpler is to type the
name of a star into the uppermost text entry field, and then click
the "Search" button. (You can also just hit Enter on the keyboard.)
The field is case-insensitive.
If the star can be found in the currently
open star database file(s), its coordinates will automatically be
entered into the central part of the dialog for you. If the search
string is not matched by any star, a pop-up error message tells you so.
(If you have a large file such as the SKY2000 catalog open,
it may take several seconds for the matching star or the error message
to come up.)
</p>
<p> Alternatively to the star search function,
you can enter the coordinates of the star manually.
This is also useful in case you want to center the chart on a position
where there is no star. The two angular coordinates must each be
entered in three separate fields, in the formats HH MM SS and
±DD MM SS, respectively
for right ascension and declination. (In Galactic coordinate mode,
the Galactic longitude is entered in the DDD MM SS
format.) However,
if you prefer to use a decimal format such as ±DD.dddd for the
declination, for instance, you can enter this decimal
number in the first entry box (for degrees) and enter 0 in the
corresponding minute- and second-of-arc entry boxes.
</p>
<p> The fourth parameter needed, the radius of the chart volume,
can be entered at the bottom of the
window. The number entered in that text field is interpreted to be
in either light-years or parsecs, depending upon what set of units
you have selected to use from the Options->Distance Units submenu.
(Prior to StarPlot 0.95.5, only light-years were supported.)
</p>
<p> When finished entering the desired chart location and size, click
the "OK" button to confirm, or the "Cancel" button to abort the
operation. The "Revert" button can be used to restore the chart
location and size to the default starting values of the program:
a chart of radius 10 light-years, centered on the Sun.
</p>
<div class = "aside" style = "clear: both;">
<h4>Aside regarding the star search</h4>
<p> It may be useful to understand the details of how the search for a
star name is
performed. First, any constellation genitive names in the search
string are converted to the corresponding
constellation abbreviation. The presumption is that
constellations are always abbreviated in the star database files
in order to use less disk space. For instance, the search string
<tt>Alpha Coronae Borealis</tt> is internally converted to
<tt>Alpha CrB</tt>. Any lowercase Greek letters, supposing that you
are able to type them in easily, are converted to their spelled-out
English names, such as <tt>α</tt> to <tt>Alpha</tt>.
Asterisks * are
converted to degree symbols ° for your convenience (most
people do not have a degree sign on their keyboard).
After these transformations, StarPlot looks for a star
record having a name field
of which the search string is a case-insensitive exact match.
</p>
<p> If there
is no exactly-matching record, a tokenizing substring search is then
attempted on the original
(non-transformed) search string using the same algorithm as in the
<a href = "ch4.html#sec43">star search dialog</a>, with a
case-sensitive search. If there is still no match, StarPlot
re-tries the same algorithm with a case-insensitive search. If at any
stage more than one match is found, only the first match is used, but
no warning of this fact is given. You can skip these attempts to
search for inexact matches by tokenizing if you wrap the search
string in double-quote marks <tt>"</tt>.
</p>
<p> Usually this procedure does what you want; for
instance, the search string <tt>alpha centauri</tt>
will match the star having a name field Alpha(1) Cen.
However, surprises can occur. For instance, if you enter
<tt>HD 12</tt> in the search field, but
that star is not in the currently open database(s), you may end up
with the star HD 123 being
found instead. Searching for
<tt>HD [12]</tt> or <tt>"HD 12"</tt>
instead will do what you want,
producing an error message if there is no such star. In any case,
once a match is found, it is wise to double-check the contents of the
search string field for the matching star name,
to be sure it is what you expect.
</p>
</div>
<h4>3.2.2. Orientation...</h4>
<p> <b>Related buttons:</b>
<img src = "images/button-cw.png" alt = "[Rotate chart clockwise about its axis]" />
<img src = "images/button-ccw.png" alt = "[Rotate chart counterclockwise about its axis]" />
<img src = "images/button-up.png" alt = "[Tilt chart north pole towards you]" />
<img src = "images/button-down.png" alt = "[Tilt chart south pole towards you]" />
<img src = "images/button-earthview.png" alt = "[Set chart orientation as seen from Earth]" />
</p>
<p>This subsection is not yet written.</p>
<h4>3.2.3. Star Filter...</h4>
<p> <b>Related buttons:</b>
<img src = "images/button-brighter.png" alt = "[Decrease magnitude limit (Show fewer stars)]" />
<img src = "images/button-dimmer.png" alt = "[Increase magnitude limit (Show more stars)]" />
[also, spectral class icons in chart legend]</p>
<p>This subsection is not yet written.</p>
<a name = "sec33"></a>
<h3 style = "clear: right;">3.3. The Options Menu</h3>
<p>This section is not yet written.</p>
<a name = "sec34"></a>
<h3>3.4. The Stars Menu</h3>
<p>This section is not yet written.</p>
<a name = "sec35"></a>
<h3>3.5. The Help Menu</h3>
<p>This section is not yet written.</p>
<h2><a href = "ch4.html">Continue to Chapter 4...</a></h2>
</div>
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