Update: Code & Language
It ’s been a while since my last post but that doesn’t mean that code development has stopped here at Chromoscope HQ. Far from it. Since version 1.0.1 (a minor bug fix to 1.0.0) I’ve been working on some fairly big changes to the code based on ideas that germinated in the enthusiastic atmosphere of .Astronomy, Leiden. Most of these should not affect the user interface but I think they are significant and decided I should share them here.
There are two main improvements: it would be useful to be able to embed Chromoscope in a small box on a webpage (as you can with Google Maps and Wikisky); and translating the text into other languages would allow more people to use Chromoscope. These changes are welcome but implementing them has required the code to be re-written (re-factored) a lot over the past few weeks. Version numbers have been increasing merrily through versions 1.1 and into the 1.2s.
The idea of non-English language support was suggested by Jan Pomierny (astronomia.pl). His comments were given more weight, in the week following the official launch of version 1.0.0, when huge numbers of Italians started visiting the site following a mention in La Reppublica. Although we’ve tried to keep the interface minimal – and therefore short on words – it was obvious that other languages would be a good idea. Thanks to Mike (from Milan) and Janine Van Eymeren I’ve been able to get much of the text translated into Italian and German. On a technical point, language switching is all done in the browser with no remote server required. The code contains ‘phrase books’ for each language and Chromoscope can switch between them, as necessary, without changing the current sky view. If anyone is a native speaker in another language and would like to provide a translation, please get in touch.
The latest test version is 1.2.2 (see it in Italian or German). It isn’t yet ready to replace the live version but I’m happy for people to find bugs or just have a look to see where Chromoscope is going.
Clear skies.
Leave a Reply