Bug 136648

Summary:	getting data from the command line interface
Product:	[Applications] kstars	Reporter:	Fathi Boudra <fabo>
Component:	general	Assignee:	kstars
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	ana
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Debian testing
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Fathi Boudra 2006-11-01 16:03:48 UTC

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.5)
Installed from:    Debian testing/unstable Packages
OS:                Linux

This is a forwarded bug:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=396118

It would be nice to be able to retrieve information (sunrise or sunset)
from the command line. For example if you could run 'kstars LOCATION
SUN' to get the sunrise and sunset time for LOCATION. Location could be
a coordinate or a city name stored in kstars. Why not querying about
other celestial objects? That would be interesting for those who would
write scripts or programs that need such data.

cheers,

Fathi

Comment 1 kstars 2006-11-01 16:53:57 UTC

I agree that it would be a good idea to be able to generate text files containing this kind of information, and a command-line interface makes sense.

However, in the interest of "the right tool for the right job", I want to point out the applications SkyCalc and SkyCalendar:  http://imagiware.com/astro/skycalc_notes.html

These are command-line apps that do exactly what you are looking for, and they do it very well.  There's a web interface to the applications as well: http://imagiware.com/astro/

For KStars, I think I will concentrate on extending the Astrocalculator tool to provide more options like you describe.  The modules have a "batch mode" that allow for input/output via text files.  Right now, there isn't a module that does rise/set/transit times, but I am planning on adding one.  Maybe someday I will add a command-line interface for the calculator tools, but as long as excellent tools like SkyCalc and SkyCalendar already do the job, I'm not going to give it a high priority.

I guess I'll close this with WONTFIX, since I'm not planning to work on command-line access to the calculator, but I can reopen it until the Astrocalculator does rise/set times, if you wish.