KStars 0.9 To-Do list:
[April 2002]

+ Bug Fixes
  - Multiple window problems: 
    + Attempting to close a second KStars window quits the application 
      (closing the /original/ window correctly leaves the second window 
      running).  
    + However, if you open a second window, close the original, and then 
      try to open another new window from the second window, the program 
      crashes after data initialization.  Backtrace seems to point to 
      KTipDialog!  
    + Also, with the current implementation, the different windows 
      cannot share object data, because the object's current coordinates 
      are stored in the SkyObject class.  So, sharing the data would 
      require that both windows show the same clock time, which isn't 
      very useful.  However, it would probably be faster to copy the 
      data for the new window in RAM instead of reloading it from disk...

+ GUI Improvements
  - Field-of-view indicator.

  - "What's up tonight?" window:
    Popup dialog listing "interesting" objects that are visible in the
    sky, for the current date and location. Option to show this
    window whenever KStars starts, or even whenever the date changes.

  - Solar system viewer (a.k.a. "orrery", a rather unfortunate word)

  - Plot Altitude vs. time for any object.

  - Add a "What's this" button.

+ Add Functionality
  - Add minor planets and comets
  - Add planetary moons (esp. Jupiter)
  - Allow ephemerides of planetary bodies to be updated from online
    sources (e.g., JPL)
  - Add contour lines tracing the Magellanic Clouds and other nebulae
  - Ability to add text annotation to popup menu for any location
  - Add realistic sky-lighting effects?
  - Add more catalogs?  
  - Option for planets to leave a "trail", so their paths across the 
    sky can be traced.
  - Batch processing of calculator functions.

+ Long-term wishlist:
  - KStars: The Screensaver!  
    A "lite" version of KStars to be used as a screensaver. A few
    thousand stars plus the planets would not use much CPU. Could also
    optionally run in an accelerated-time mode in which the sky could
    be seen to  rotate with respect to the horizon. Plus, you'd see
    the Sun, moon and  planets drifting by, with the moon's phases
    changing. Sounds pretty neat! Unfortunately, I have no screensaver
    experience, and am having too much fun right now on regular KStars
    to think much about this part. Someday, I'll do it (unless you
    want to! :)  

  - KStars: The Scripting Language!
    This is already underway in the form of our DCOP interface.  We 
    need to add more functions (tracking, focus-to-coordinates, wait 
    for N seconds, and even things like opening small text windows and 
    drawing lines and arrows), and provide an easy way to write scripts 
    (such as recording manual actions, or providing a window with a 
    listbox of all the functions).

  - Sky Notes
    A popup menu option to "annotate" the selected object or
    location. A window pops up with a multi-line edit widget in which
    the user can enter text related to the object or location. Could
    be an observing log, more detailed information about the object,
    poetry, anything at all. Annotated objects would be tagged with
    some kind of small image (like a pushpin, for example). People
    could even exchange their sets of notes, and if they turn out to
    be really useful, we could build a comprehensive list of them and
    distribute it with KStars. Which brings us to...  

  - AstroInfo
    These last two items could be integrated into a comprehensive,
    interactive astronomy encyclopedia. It would be similar to other
    open online encyclopedias (everything2, wikipedia, GNUpedia): 
    user-contributed articles, and hyperlinks to other articles or to 
    websites. The difference would be that it could also "link" to
    KStars, and perhaps spawn a script that illustrates the article's
    topic. There are already some AstroInfo articles on the KStars
    webpage. I'll be including the first iteration of it in KStars
    soon (it will probably start out as just a menu item or button
    that spawns konqueror open to an index of articles). 

+ Ever-present needs
  - Translations
  - Improve documentation
  - More AstroInfo articles
