Hi Dave, being a private pilot and an ATC sim fan myself this is a very interesting project. Looks like a nice initial concept. Are you going to share the source code for this somewhere (github, sourceforge, ...) ?
Maybe couple of different types of aircraft and related performace values. Would add nice flavour when you can't tell a Cessna to maintain a 2500 fpm climb ;) Or tell a LearJet to slow down to 80 on the final. Best of luck with the project and especially your recovery! Cheers, Petri On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 12:49 PM, Plastic <plasticu...@gmail.com> wrote: > So, I have started on my ATC project. > > I thought I'd document here my struggles, learning, and how I did it. I'm > hoping it'll engage other BASIC programmers in discussion, and maybe you > (yes, YOU!) will help me if you can see me getting stuck. Please remember > this is primarily an exercise in improving and restoring my mind after a > bump on the noggin. I'm fighting against some short term memory problems. > > I'm using the Mac version 1.0 of Q-Emulator, and SuperBASIC on JS ROMS with > TK2. I'm writing it to run at standard QL speeds, and to run at a consistent > speed on faster hardware. > > So far, I have written out a table of some of the variables I need, and > their valid ranges, and how I will auto-generate pseudo-random flight > numbers, altitudes and speeds for various aircraft profiles. > > Next, I will work out a co-ordinate base for a local airport. I have chosen > Bergstrom because it is local to me, and I know where all the beacons and > VORs are. > > I have decided that there are "hard bits" (it's a technical term) in this > project for me (I know to some of you, these will be trivial, but to me, the > solution isn't obvious): > > 1. I'll be keeping the aircraft, their altitude, speed, direction, intended > alt, speed and direction, etc, in a large DIMmed array that can hold 10 > aircraft. Landed or departed aircraft will be removed from the array and any > newer aircraft will be scrolled up one spot. Like in real life, the oldest > aircraft is always at the top of the stack. There will be inbound and > outbound aircraft. Inbound aircraft will be announced and placed at the edge > of the screen, and outbound aircraft will originate from the runway when > given flight instructions and clearance to take off. The aircraft must > always maintain "separation" of 1000 feet altitude and 3 miles horizontally. > Checking all the aircraft against each other to see if any violate airspace > of others, or have collided, might be hard to code. > > 2. I need to write a command parser to accept input from the user, namely > instruction for flights. There is a standard way of doing this and I will > follow this. This means I need to accept input and add it to a stack, then > when it is "entered" I need to parse it to ensure valid, rational input. > Once I know it is within bounds, I need to carry out the action, i.e. > instruct the aircraft to follow the instruction. > > 3. I need to write routines for landing aircraft. Once instructed to land, I > need to detect when they cross the glide-slope, and get them to follow it to > landing, land, then remove themselves from the stack. > > 4. I need to write a "ticker"... No matter the speed of the hardware, the > game should run at the same speed. This means events should be triggered at > an interval, complete (even on the slowest hardware) before the next > interval. This interval should ideally be 1 second, but could be 2 seconds. > Despite the ticker, the input routines need to continue unaffected. > Responsiveness of keyboard input is essential. > > 5. I need to plot this on a 512x256 screen. I can't let flights go off the > edge of the screen. > > 6. I need to detect valid landings of arrivals and proper exits of > departures. > > 7. I'd like to add an element of realism where planes, including departures, > can declare emergencies. > > Well, those are the "hard bits" I can see up front. > > I can foresee earning a little money next week, so maybe a compiler will be > in my future? I'd prefer an easy compiler over a good compiler. I would also > love to have an external USB floppy so I could save my stuff somewhere other > than my OS X HD... Maybe later... > > In the mean time, I'll work on this and keep sharing. Hopefully it'll work > out. > > Dave > _______________________________________________ > QL-Users Mailing List > http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm > _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
