Stardate Clock - Development (C++ with Qt)

[kandrey89]

First post rewritten to elaborate on the purpose of the thread and keep up to date information available at the beginning of the thread.

PROGRAM NAME: STARDATE CLOCK

PROGRAM PURPOSE: Stardate Clock establishes a standard for the use of Stardates following a new "Stardate Time System" Draft developed by me for the purpose of developing a standard Stardate unit based on Star Trek Universe and science-centered view of time interval.
REASON: Frustration over inconsistent implementations of Stardate Time Systems across Star Trek shows, as well as lack of solid scientific reasoning and Earth-centric bias towards the definition of a Stardate.
CANNON: Since no standard definition for Stardate Time System was ever given and several implementations exist across different eras, individual Stardate events are considered cannon, as such they inherently lack any meaningful and complete order. I have therefor chosen Voyager era Stardate events to be the influencing factors in my Stardate Time System definitions. Voyager era was chosen for the few simple reasons, the Stardates were more cleanly ordered, had the most consistent 24th Century span of events, and the Stardate Time System more or less evolved from previous Star Trek shows such as TNG and DS9 to provide Voyager with more consistent Stardate chronology.

DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT: C++ with Qt UI Framework, allows for the development of cross-platform compatible code (Windows, Linux, OSX)
PLATFORM: First Availability - Windows; Available at a later date following First Release - Linux, OSX;
FEATURES:

• LCARS/TOS/ENT User Interface
• Star Trek Style Fonts
• Stardate Clock
• Stardate Time Conversion Matrix
• Stardate Calendar (proposed/unconfirmed)
• Full Screen(saver Type) Version w/UFP Logo
• For more, please CHECK DESIGN DOCUMENT!

WINDOW SIZE: #1 - 600 by 225/425 pixels OR a variation on this size; #2 - FULL SCREEN
LICENSE: To Be Determined upon Final Release of Official Working Version
STARDATE TIME SYSTEM SPECIFICATION: Released with the Official Working version of the Program.

SUGGESTIONS WELCOMED!

Works Cited:

• http://starchive.cs.umanitoba.ca/?stardates/part1
• http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Stardate
• http://www.trekguide.com/Stardates.htm
• http://www.hillschmidt.de/gbr/sternenzeit.htm

[kandrey89]

I'm just cross-posting, a lot of developmental updates have already been done on http://www.joseralat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2198 so if you want to see it, visit that link.

I'll try and cross-post here too.

Just finished with the LCARS-Display section of the program, fully working and etc.

[Robert]

Looking great there kandrey89.
A very insteresting project you have here! Keep us updated.
BTW very nice design!

[kandrey89]

Been working on the program's official name, icons, and logos.

Let me know which one you like better.







Icon for the program:


Here's how it looks in the task bar:


Gonna work on the final piece of graphic for LCARS after this, ie the CONVERT. Then work on the code to display and convert stardate to earth time and julian date.

[Robert]

I would definitely go with the second one... seems more finished to me. But I would had a kind of logo to the badge itself.

Maybe an hour-glass (sand glass) would do the trick!

[kandrey89]

I'd have used the hourglass if I found or was given a better looking version, but since I can't draw one, and don't like this one, I've decided to go with my initial version which makes use of the dark paths as watch hands displaying ~3:40 time.

Through some deliberation, I've decided to use the department name STARFLEET TIME SERVICE, and the logo without the blue teal ribbon across the arrowhead to better suite the non-time specific nature of the program.

Here's what I've been working on,
the conversion interface from stardate to earth time.

[kandrey89]

Here's some good progress update:
Stardate to earth time conversion works, though I need to add more code so that dates below 1970 are converted properly not sure yet how but it might be possible.
I'm considering adding to the interface a timezone selector, UTC, -8, etc... so that the stardate converts to the correct timezone if you would like to know what time it will be on Earth in a specific timezone based on a particular stardate.

Here's the program window showing converted Stardate to Earth Time in UTC timezone.

[kandrey89]

I was just fiddling with my code that translates stardates into earth time in order to get the conversion matrix to work fully, and I came to a realization that I'd need to use a composite structure to store and convert between the two. Reason? Because simply, the single conversion rate I'm using right now is stardates per millisecond, which is extremely small and has quite a lot of digits for precision, once you start converting, multiplying and dividing and etc, it is possible you could run out of range, though this is only for huge numbers and far away dates.

Until I rewrite my class to use a composite structure so that code doesn't overrun internally, even though I'm using 64bit data types, this will have to do. This will also require a lot of work because such a composite class will most likely require a lot of planning, writing a lot of functions to accomodate the different options, and a lot of testing time. I don't know when I'll be able to do it, but for now it all works as long as sane numbers are entered.

Also, the round off errors are causing a mismatch between conversions, when you convert large dates from ST to ET and then the same ET back to ST you will not get the same answer because of round off errors and etc. Hopefully I can work it out when I rewrite the code.

As for now, I believe I'm largely finished with the program, at least the LCARS version anyway.

The following still need to be performed:

1. redesign About window
2. design a Credit window
3. polish and check the entire LCARS design

The following will probably be scheduled for the next version of the program:

1. rewrite Stardate class to use composite type of data storage
2. add timezone settings for the conversion matrix

Here's the conversion matrix finished and working using both the ST->ET and the ET->ST.


One more thing, if you know about time ;) then you know there are leap seconds not just years. Well, after reading about leap seconds from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second , I had to figure out what to do about it, since leap seconds are added based on how fast Earth spins, it means that this leap second is both unpredictable which is why an organization monitors and issues leap seconds periodically instead of setting an algorithm or schedule to add leap seconds and leap seconds add up more and more the farther in years you move away from the year 1970. So Stardates do not account for leap seconds.

This brings us to another fine point, how is a Stardate defined and kept track of without using some other system of time which fluctuates in non-predictable manner. Simple answer, when Stardate System was established, the organization probably had access to sophisticated equipment that allowed it to set and keep track of time based on some cosmological event that is very linear and predictable. Hence, no need to manipulate or reupdate Stardate time because of something like the planet spinning faster in order to keep the day 24 hours long.

The nature of the two time systems is that in order for it to work in real life, they have separate origins. Meaning that Stardate cannot be derived from Earth time, however it can be converted to it, and vice versa. basically this means that by converting from Stardate to Earth time, the conversion has to account for Earth's extra time, specifically the leap seconds, all of them to be extremely precise and accurate.

[kandrey89]

TOS Purist finally got back to me with the finished version of the SMALL Window. I just finished redrawing them in Photoshop so I can export it into my program. I'll be spending some time customizing the code so it works with this not so easy interface. I'll post working pictures of the program when I'm done, but right now here are the design templates.

There are two versions,
Earth Time:


and

Stardate Time:

[kandrey89]

Here's the remastered version:


and here's the original version: