I am supposed to be doing anything but programming. Instead, today I spent most of my time writing code for Stellarium. I lose.
When I’m working on Stellarium, I am also supposed to be working on the Device Control plug-in (the descendent of the Telescope Control plug-in), and in particular, on re-writing its INDI client. Instead, today I spent most of my time writing a simple GUI for adding satellites in the Satellite plug-in. Telescope users lose. Satellite lovers gain. Well, after my branch is merged with the trunk. The merge proposal is here:
https://code.launchpad.net/~daggerstab/stellarium/satellites-import-gui/+merge/87865
This morning I though that I can finish the basic part for two hours. It took me more than ten. 
Of course, one of the reasons is that I’m working on a netbook and operations such as compilation, version control and code comparison are slow. I also had to study other people’s code and re-factor some of it. Nevertheless… It’s still ten hours of my life that I’m not getting back.
Anyway, I have some ideas for improving the way the Satellites plug-in handles its updates. Both require adding a checkbox to the configuration window and some code in the update function:
- An option for automatic removing the satellites that are no longer in the update lists during an update.
- An option for automatic adding of the new satellites in a given source file (in particular, CelesTrak’s “last month’s launches” file).
The combination of the two will allow the users to have a constantly updated snapshot of the currently active satellites. 
I’m going to leave the implementation to someone else, though. I’ve had enough of Stellarium for now.
