SchildConstruct

We\'ll find out next year, when it\'s been decided. There\'s several proposals, which Wikipedia explains here: Proposed future definitions. Fun fact: The kilogram prototype is loosing mass, and nobody knows why.

This is a production-quality *cough, cough* release. In that it does seem to do what I want it to do. Anyway, I\'d like to get some feedback on a planned feature: Flight plans! What I was thinking was creating a flight plan telling you when you need to generate how much thrust into any direction to reach your next orbit. However: Is it worth my time to hunt for a PDF library for .NET and 'print' that sort of stuff in a PDF? Or would you rather see a nice window telling you where you are (I could create checklists. You could create checklists!), highlighting your next approach? Or both? Or something else entirely? Later on, when I have feelings of grandeur again, this could be integrated with a stage planner. What do you say?

So, I\'ve pushed out a new release and build of KOrbit. The version is still 0.2.0-pre, until I\'ve provide some better display of units (it\'s both a bug and a feature, and part of the 0.2.0 milestone). Things I learned: - MS\'s unit testing framework is made from feces. - Setting up CI is more involved than it should be, at least as far as Jenkins + .NET is involved. - I need to double check my formulas more carefuller, since I was calculating the major axis of the ellipsis all wrong. - Nobody of you checked the data. Kerbin\'s radius was off by .54 km, and no one noticed.

Gotcha! It\'s on the todo list.

Meaning? At the moment, I simply use unmodified Si units (i.e. meters, seconds, kilograms). Making everything a little more readable comes after 'functional'.

New version hot off the build system.

The picture I posted above? That\'s from a German textbook from 1848. And at that time, Germany started to become the powerhouse of the sciences, as well.

Considering that almost all of the world used feet once upon a time, I call BS on that argument. We switched to decimal measurements in most things because they simplify the math in engineering and the sciences. And the less math you do, the less mistakes you make. SI units are the proverbial cherry on top by providing internationally agreed upon standards WTF a 'meter' or 'second' is, so that everyone is on the same page.

It\'s from my development version. A plot has to go somewhere. 8) So, the app is smaller, but I\'m preparing the plotting component already, while I have the space to put it somewhere without having to spawn off another form instance (since inter-Form communication in .NET is a fracking hassle, I rather want to avoid that). Speaking of plotting: .NET 4.0 masks an out of memory condition when creating large (17.5k px * 2 on my system) bitmaps as an ArgumentException. That\'s incredibly fun to debug!

That\'s a couple of historical lengths of feet for a handful of European countries. And different German *cities*. So, how many feet *are* in a meter? Speaking of accuracy: The last meter prototype was accurate to 10-7. The original meter prototype was accurate to 10-4. So, to answer your question: The prototype is much more accurate than you or I ever measure.

GUI. Screenshot\'s comingbeen added.

## KOrbit ### Description KOrbit is a simple, almost simplistic, orbital calculator written in C#. ### Download Installers are available at: Main: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4294562/KOrbit%200.2.0%20Setup.msi Mirror: https://github.com/CynicalRyan/Kerbal-Tools/downloads #### Requirements - .NET 4.0 Client Profile - Windows Installer 3.1 The installer package will detect and download both if necessary. ### Features - Circular Orbits - Select a celestial body, and choose your altitude - Uses SI units - Very primitive plotting of your orbit - Choose if you want to have your orbit plotted or not - Human friendly display of units. ### Known Defects - Only a few unit tests. - Doesn\'t calculate orbits from all possibilities ### Upcoming Features - Calculate an orbit from its period or your current velocity - Plotting your orbit with a reference point - Elliptical orbits calculated from various more options ## Building Of And Hacking On The Tools - git clone git://github.com/CynicalRyan/Kerbal-Tools.git - Open the Visual Studio Solution file ### Development Requirements - Visual Studio 2010 or Visual C# Express 2010 - NUnit # Acknowledgements - Warringer for inspiring me to work on KOrbit. - Napster for the awesome icon.

You are both wrong, though. The SI units are deeply entrenched in the scientific literature. You two are also, consistently, ignoring the fact that SI units are derived from cosmological constants. You only need a 'better' system when the old system cannot be defined properly any more due to scientific advancements in measurements. And the rate of nuclear decay and the speed of light are fixed. Plus using Base 10 is as easy as it gets, since most people have 10 digits on hands and/or feet.

It\'s from 1982 (bought in \'87, though). 0.985 MHz CPU 64 kB RAM + 20 kB ROM Yes, a C=64 is a personal computer!

It\'s called 'editing'.

It doesn\'t work in all sub-fora. But in Off Topic it does work.

I think of myself more as a donkey.

If you want accuracy in maths, you use something like Mathematica or Maple, since the IEEE 754 standard is inherently inaccurate.

It\'s only incorrect if you have significant digits behind the decimal point. Which you don\'t, if all you have is a display showing integers.

And Google has how many papers published in astronomy? As the IAU says: 'Although there are several different kinds of year, the IAU regards a year as a Julian year of 365.25 days (31.5576 million seconds) unless otherwise specified.' source[url=http://The IAU is, in their own words: 'The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was founded in 1919. Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation. Its individual members - structured in Divisions, Commissions, Working groups and Program Groups - are professional astronomers from all over the world, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, and active in professional research and education in astronomy.' And Google is, in their own words: 'Google’s mission: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.' source] The IAU is, in their own words: 'The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was founded in 1919. Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation. Its individual members - structured in Divisions, Commissions, Working groups and Program Groups - are professional astronomers from all over the world, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, and active in professional research and education in astronomy.' And Google is, in their own words: 'Google’s mission: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.' source. So, who\'s the astronomical authority here?

'it\'s' and 'its' are not interchangeable. I\'ll now go and kick a puppy. No worries, it had it coming. Like anyone who confuses 'it\'s' and 'its'.

Meh. 2.5 + 2.5 works in this instance just as well, and is *actually* 5.

Well. 'Fly-by-wire' means that instead of mechanic or hydraulic input, you use electronics (electric signals are much quicker and lighter than aforementioned hydraulics or a pulley system ). That doesn\'t mean that the plane/rocket does automatic adjustments of/to its current flight state.

I figured it\'d be i.

*facepalm* You calculate the distance in parsec from a point that is 1AU from your position (from the Sun to Wolf 365, say). So, yes, two points will always be the same distance away, since the angle between you and the observed point is always 1 arcsecond. Related: I hate trigonometry. Also: sketches help. Finally: Need moar COFFEE!