
Intended Upgrades
=================

   Here is a list of some of the things I intend to do to !Spotter in the
future.

   Known Bugs: Sometimes the eclipses in the WIMPY don't work properly. Using
               different start and end times for the WIMPY usually fixes this,
               but I intend to rewrite this section of code in the near future
               anyway (it is a bit slow at the moment). It is known that this
               application does not run well in conjunction with other
               applications that fiddle with the internal clock (such as
               !Technique). I will try and do something about this, but I
               cannot see an easy way around it at the moment.

   New Features:

   1. Enable manual editing of satellite elements from the !FrontEnd
      applications, so that the edited elements can be saved in case NORAD
      format elements are not available.

   2. Implement other solar system bodies, so that this application can be used
      for finding (for example) planets and asteroids.

   3. Enable claimed memory to be returned to the Wimp when it is no longer
      required. This is particularly relevant for plot generations and for
      the Map display, but currently my experiments with DeskLib have not been
      very successful.
      
   4. Create an additional utility that can scan through a set of satellites,
      and compute which will be visible at a given location during a given
      interval. This could be used for matching unplanned observations with
      satellites.

   5. Add a 'Night Sky' option. This will show the major stars in the sky for
      for any location, and then also where in the sky the satellite is
      (if it is above the horizon, of course).

   As you can see, there are still plenty of things I want to do to this
program, but if you have any other suggestions, or would like to attach some
priorities to the list above, then I would be very pleased to hear from you.
Users of earlier versions will note that this list is getting shorter, slowly !!
  
Addresses for correspondence are given in the !Help file.

Stuart Martin, 4th December 1993.
