User:Daggerstab/TelescopeControl rewrite

DRAFT/BRAINSTORMING

Short-term

Tasks and steps necessary for completing the ongoing rewrite of the Telescope Control plug-in:

• doing away with "slots". Telescope clients/reticles should be identified with a string.
  • the implementation of the new telescopes.json format should be finished (at the moment, it still uses slots).
  • telescope numbers/shortcuts should be another telescope property
• INDI client class(es?)
  • INCOMING: should emit signals when a property is defined/updated/deleted
  • OUTGOING: should provide a mechanism for setting property values by the client (unclear paradigm at the moment)
  • should support multiple named devices in the same INDI stream (connection)
  • should support multiple INDI streams
  • should support acting as a server/calling indiserver (long term target?)
  • should support all kinds of INDI properties, including BLOBs
    • in the beginning, BLOBs can just be saved with an appropriate filename/timestamp
  • should be able to provide "device snooping" (redirecting the output from one device to another)
  • should be able to provide logging
• INDI telescope client class
  • should be based on INDI standard properties
  • should be able to connect/disconnect
  • should be able to detect whether J2000 or JNow coordinates are used
  • all functions other than the basic "go to" and "receive current position" should be handled by the INDI control panel (see below)
• GUI: INDI device selector/editor (a window or a tab allowing the selection of installed INDI devices/drivers)
  • should be able to detect if the INDI package/drivers is installed
  • should read the XML list of drivers and display a device selector (a QComboBox listing only telescopes as a beginning)
  • should provide a way of changing the directory where it looks for the INDI drivers/indiserver
• GUI: INDI control panel - a dynamically generated window.
  • uses tabs within tabs - top level for devices, another level within devices for groups of properties
  • receives signals from the INDI client
  • (I'm still not sure what mechanism exactly to use for setting new values of the properties)

Long term

• porting of some basic INDI drivers to Windows
• built-in FITS viewer (requires a dependency on cfitsio)

Information

• INDI whitepaper - describes the INDI "wire protocol"
• INDI Developers Manual (concerns mostly drivers)
• CFITSIO home page