Skyscript Astrology Forum

Larxene wrote:Hey Joao (is it pronounced Jo-ah, with a silent o?),

Hello again Larxene,

Jo?o does use the last "o", and the "?" (a with tilde) gives a kind of nasal sound to the "a" (something like "aun"). "Jo?o" is the "John" in English. Here is the sound of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH8H55wogoQ

In Portuguese we have lots of accents (?, ?, ?, ?) which changes the sound of vowels, sometimes using a more nasal sound, sometimes accentuating the strength, etc. Very hard to foreigners, specially for natives with languages similar to English (German, Danish, etc.), but is very phonetic and lyrical.

Larxene wrote: The advantage of this is that, if people are actually fine with the pre-installed templates, you wouldn't have wasted time trying to figure out the customisation code. You only need to create new templates when there is a real demand for it.

Yes, that is my idea! Those times when developers built their softwares in caves and in "stealth mode" for years are long gone. Too much competition forces developers to really listen to people needs. Even Apple, a highly proprietary company, has now a beta-testing program for their operating systems, so they can listen to their costumers needs.

Larxene wrote: ...But that depends on your target market, and how THEY use the Lots.

"How they use the Lots" are the keywords.. I only use Arabic Parts when they are conjunct to another planet, except Pars Fortuna, which I check for the aspect to its dispositor to check for signs of wealth. So, the table fits me perfectly. But with time, I'll see how people use them, but I already know that I can't please everyone..

Larxene wrote: Hmm, I have some other ideas for multiple charts, but I think tabs are okay for a start.

I am very much interested in hearing them. Send me an email (flatangleweb@gmail.com), or you can write them here if you want, maybe other developers can read them as well.


Thanks again for your ideas Larxene,
Jo?o Ventura

Deb wrote:A petty point, but I don't understand why most astro-software charts come with coloured glyphs by default. Who needs coloured glyphs? Is the glyph for Leo made red so the astrologer can remember it's a fire sign? What other benefit is there over using black fonts on a white background as standard - and then letting those who want to colour their charts make the changes?

Hello Deb,

in my case it was simply a proof-of-concept just to see how easy would be to add colors if needed, and how "pretty" could I make it. But I have the other "old style" which is simple enough, and it is easy (for me at least) to add other variations. I'll keep that in mind..

Deb wrote:Jo?o - will your chart templates include the option for proportional and non-proportional houses (ie., those that keep the angles upright and show the houses as 12 equal divisions of the chart)?

Are you referring to these type of charts?
It doesn't seem hard to implement, is it widely used? Do you use them?
By the way, is your email address the same as in the Contacts page and can I send you an email? (I don't like to send unsolicited emails)

Oh, and welcome to the Mac-side of computing!


Thanks for the petty point!
Jo?o Ventura

Paul wrote:I like the look of the image but am I right in saying that we can't actually view an example chart itself? Or am I just not looking in the right place?

Hello Paul,

isn't the chart wheel being rendered inside the PDF? Here is the link to it, in case something's not working: http://www.flatangle.com/static/files/FlatAngle-Elements.pdf.

Paul wrote: I am actually part way through creating an astrological application myself for a university assignment which will scale as you say without any blurriness.

Well, to be honest to all other developers and their applications, most of them create charts that scale well in the applications, because they are just drawing circles and lines, and that scales usually fine if you are using a graphics library which handles it for you. But the problem is the export, because they can only export them in bitmap formats such as PNG's, JPG's, etc.

I've solved somewhat that problem by exporting to SVG. SVG is a vector based format, and so it scales fine either up or down. The PDF file (another vector format) is just an SVG chart rendered to PDF, so everyone can see it without extra software.

It is not really hard, but you have to be creative while searching for solutions. I've built too many creative prototypes in my PhD..

Paul wrote: I was half considering making it live in the future but the reality is that I don't really have any drive in me to make marketable astrological software and really just wanted something for myself. But I'm glad someone somewhere is at least creating modern astrological software online which can respond fully to different devices.

I'm a big fan of simple designs as well - my design motto is that if you *can* remove it, you should remove it.

Reaching production-ready is hard, even more for me with the level I'm trying to impose to myself. But whatever you implement, if it's good, don't let anything stopping you from sharing it.

In fact, I am also an open-source evangelist, even have my own github repo (https://github.com/joaoventura). Github is where the Linux kernel is also hosted. And I personally would love to open source this project, but I don't know how sustainable it would be in the long term. Maybe some day, who knows..

By the way, are you in Computer Science also? I see we share the same view for design simplicity..


Jo?o Ventura

Hi Jo?o

Yes, that's the sort of thing I mean - it's used a lot by horary astrologers such as myself, where the interpretation focus leans heavily on recognition of houses (i.e., planets in houses) and house cusps. It is also the more traditional way of dividing astrological charts.

And yes, feel free to email me on that address.

jventura wrote:isn't the chart wheel being rendered inside the PDF?

Oh sorry it is, I didn't realise the PDF had the SVG, I thought there was a webpage with it.

Well, to be honest to all other developers and their applications, most of them create charts that scale well in the applications, because they are just drawing circles and lines, and that scales usually fine if you are using a graphics library which handles it for you. But the problem is the export, because they can only export them in bitmap formats such as PNG's, JPG's, etc.

I have to say I disagree a little with this, one of my minor issues with sites as they exist today is that they only show the chart as a PNG (etc) but if you try to, say, zoom in, the image will get blurry. This is particularly a problem when I view sites on my phone - unlike Deb, I use my phone a lot. When sites, like astro.com, make the chart fit to the width of my screen, it can make it hard to zoom in, and when you do zoom in, you lack the crystal clarity of a vector.

I've solved somewhat that problem by exporting to SVG. SVG is a vector based format, and so it scales fine either up or down.

Right! That's what I've been doing too. I thought it was such a simple concept it seemed impossible to me that nobody was doing it, so I'm glad someone is doing it at least!

Reaching production-ready is hard, even more for me with the level I'm trying to impose to myself. But whatever you implement, if it's good, don't let anything stopping you from sharing it.

I may share it privately, I have no real plans to release it publicly though. Really it was just for me to calculate things that I wanted, in a manner that I wanted. However having seen this application you're building, I may well just go with this, because we seem to share a desire for clean simple graphics, uncluttered UI, and responsive scaling depending on device.

By the way, are you in Computer Science also? I see we share the same view for design simplicity..

Yes, but my bachelors was actually in design, not in computer science, but I work as a web developer now having changed to development rather than design straight after university.

Paul wrote:I have to say I disagree a little with this, one of my minor issues with sites as they exist today is that they only show the chart as a PNG (etc) but if you try to, say, zoom in, the image will get blurry. This is particularly a problem when I view sites on my phone - unlike Deb, I use my phone a lot. When sites, like astro.com, make the chart fit to the width of my screen, it can make it hard to zoom in, and when you do zoom in, you lack the crystal clarity of a vector.

Hi Paul,

we agree on this one! I was talking only about native applications and not web sites. If you use a graphics library in a native application you will use its vector function calls (lines/circles/drawText/etc). But then you won't be able to export those vector function calls to SVG because most of those graphics libraries don't care about SVG, so you must export a rendered bitmap.

Paul wrote: Right! That's what I've been doing too. I thought it was such a simple concept it seemed impossible to me that nobody was doing it, so I'm glad someone is doing it at least!

Most astrology applications out there are quite dated and only work for Windows. If you only develop for one platform, you don't need to care about standards and inter-operability, so you don't need SVGs and platform-independence. For multi-platform, you must use frameworks like Qt (if native) or the web. I chose web tools (although I can deploy them in a native environment, not only the browser).

I could also generate server-side PNGs (as I have done with my previous skyPlux webapp), but doesn't solve the bluriness (even worse because I now have a retina macbook) and imposes a weight on my server. So now I send an SVG to the client and let the client do the rendering itself. And I'll eventually reach a solution where I just send a JSON with the ephemeris data, and let the client generate and render the SVG (through client-side templating, for instance)..

Paul wrote:However having seen this application you're building, I may well just go with this, because we seem to share a desire for clean simple graphics, uncluttered UI, and responsive scaling depending on device.

Oh God, now I feel the pressure to do something minimally good..

Paul wrote:Yes, but my bachelors was actually in design, not in computer science, but I work as a web developer now having changed to development rather than design straight after university.

Design hein? Just what I've been fighting these last months with.. Curiously enough, I've been finding too many references to web designers switching to web development (like this, this and this). I have always been a developer only, but it seems something is changing on the web, maybe because of the standards?!


Jo?o Ventura

jventura wrote:So now I send an SVG to the client and let the client do the rendering itself. And I'll eventually reach a solution where I just send a JSON with the ephemeris data, and let the client generate and render the SVG (through client-side templating, for instance)..

Right, that's exactly what I'm doing with my project for University. I send the request via AJAX, and return JSON with the positional data I need (further data can be retrieved by subsequent AJAX requests), and then the chart is rendered client side and draw it in SVG.

I had sort of wondered why nobody either had thought of doing it like that before, or if it was just because nobody bothered. I have to say it makes me feel better knowing someone somewhere is at least creating professional software with modern web approaches. (no pressure!!)

I have always been a developer only, but it seems something is changing on the web, maybe because of the standards?!

For me it was just a matter of preference, I just preferred it to design.

Best of luck with the software, I look forward to when it goes live!!

Hello everyone,

lately I have been very busy rewriting some old source code for Elements, my new application. Since some of the code was on the Primary Directions module, I took the chance to rewrite an article that I wrote previously.

This article talks about Diurnal and Nocturnal arcs, and presents a simple method for calculating them. Diurnal and nocturnal arcs are essential for the calculation of Primary Directions.

The article is somewhat technical and I believe it will appeal mostly for astrologers that like to know the "technicalities" behind the methods. It is relevant also for people writing their own software, or for other commercial astrology software developers.

You can find the article at http://blog.flatangle.com/2014/diurnal-nocturnal-arcs/.

After this article I will republish another one which presents also a simpler (and correct) method for calculating Primary Directions. I will then inform here when I publish the article.


Jo?o Ventura

Hi there,

following the previous article about Diurnal and Nocturnal arcs, I've rewritten and republished another article which presents a simpler approach for calculating Primary Directions. Primary Directions, as you may know, are one of the most powerful and renowned methods for astrology forecasting.

Similarly to the previous, this article is quite technical and I think it will appeal mostly for those astrologers that like to know the math behind the methods they use.

You can find the article at http://blog.flatangle.com/2014/primary- ... ns-simple/.


Jo?o Ventura
Flat Angle - http://www.flatangle.com/

Hi everyone,

just a small post to let you know that I have created a Facebook account, where I hope to post also some news about the Flat Angle project.

I am quite inexperient on Facebook pages, but I think that if you use Facebook and want to get news from there as well, you will have to Like my page there.

Here's the link for it: https://www.facebook.com/flatangle


Jo?o Ventura
http://www.flatangle.com/

Dear all,

sometimes in life things do not work as we hope and we have to adapt. Software tools for traditional astrologers is a very small market, and by my numbers, it would hardly ever turn into a profitable business.

Therefore I decided to pivot this project: Flatangle is now aimed at the dissemination of traditional astrology best practices. I will provide astrology consultancy and reports as commercial services, and software tools will remain, for the most part, free.

This means that software tools such as Charts and Flatlib can continue to be used without restrictions. There aren't many traditional astrology tools out there.

Finally, one of the main purposes with Flatangle has always been to build software tools for statistical research on astrology. I hope that open-source tools such as Flatlib will be used someday for some interesting research.


Regards,
Jo?o Ventura

PS: Don't forget to check the new website (http://flatangle.com/).
PS#2: I wrote a blog post about this new start which explains it in greater detail (http://flatangle.com/blog/2015/a-new-start/).

You've found a way to offer both a high-quality, freely available chart calculation resource for traditional astrologers, and a means to support your ongoing work. Kudos and best wishes. Your website is beautiful and informative.