Re: [Stellarium-pubdevel] New plugin: PrintSky

[Bogdan M. <dag...@gm...>]

2010/6/5 Pep i Mercè <mas...@gm...>:
> Hi.
>
> I just finished a plugin beta version to print a report of the stellarium
> current screen plus some aditional data.
>
> The purpose of this plugin is able to print the current screen field on
> paper that could serve as a field reference in case you do not have computer
> on site observation.
>
> I have attached three sample screens:
>
> 1 .- PrintSelection.PNG: Selection screen. As you can see you can choose
> options to determine the format of the image and additional data which group
> you want to print (a group on every page).
>
> 2 .- PrintGeneralData.PNG: It would be the first report page, which always
> includes the image data, and site observation and field data such as FOV and
> the relationship between the star's radius and its apparent magnitude.
>
> 3 .- PrintSolarSystemEphemerides.PNG: It would be the second report page
> (optional) where the time of rise, transit and set of solar system bodies to
> know what can be seen each night and what time.

Looks interesting. The plug-in is a nice idea and something like this
has been requested several times.

Just to make sure: this is built using only Qt, isn't it? A plug-in
should work on all three platforms.

You may want to consider hiding the GUI (the bottom tool bar) before
taking the screen-shot (such an option exists - try pressing Ctrl+T to
see the effect).

You should also consider inverting the colours and/or changing them to
grayscale/black-and-white, to conserve printer resources. An option to
invert colours in screen-shots already exists, you can have a look at
the code.

Also, some parts of the text don't look like good English to me, but
this is easily fixable. :)

> Well, I have not never added anything to the repository. Also is the first
> time I work on a open source project. Could you guide me, please? My
> questions:
>
> 1 .- I must add the plugin to the Blueprint's list?

Not necessarily. The Blueprints at Launchpad are supposed to help with
organisation, not to serve as a bureaucracy. :)

> 2 .- I guess that someone must approve the plugin? Who does it?

Depends on what do you mean by "approve". Nobody can stop you from
writing it or publishing it anywhere, as Stellarium is licensed under
the GNU GPL. :)

If you mean "add it to Stellarium's official code repository", then -
the team, and the project managers in particular (Fabien Chéreau and
Matthew Gates).

> 3 .- If it is approved, Can I commit the source? Or I must give the sources
> to someone?

If you have a user account at SourceForge, some of the project
managers will add you to the team and give you commit rights for the
repository.

The process looks something like:
1) You send the code so we can have a look at it.
2) If it is approved, someone gives you commit rights.
3) You can import your code to the repository.
4) At first it should be in the /extmodules directory. When it becomes
stable enough, it can be moved to /stellarium/plugins as a "static"
plug-in that is distributed with Stellarium itself.

> 4 .- If I can commit the sources, I can do it anytime?

Once you get commit rights, yes.

Regards,
Bogdan Marinov