Disable ASCOM on Qt6 #3887

gzotti · 2024-09-07T16:05:20Z

Description

We had a lot of complaints about unexpected crashes while running ASCOM-controlled telescopes.
It seems to be a conflict between ASCOM and Qt6 which we probably cannot solve.

This branch disables ASCOM builds on Qt6. The selector radio button is greyed out, and an explanation displayed..

Other people had 2 years to help. So, disable for now, if anybody still wants to help us, you are free to do so.

In a later phase, we may consider adding support for ASCOM Alpaca, a wrapper that avoids the COM-based stuff.

Fixes #2821, #2874,

Screenshots (if appropriate):

Type of change

Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)
This change requires a documentation update
Housekeeping

How Has This Been Tested?

Test Configuration:

Operating system: Windows 11
Graphics Card: (irrelevant)

Checklist:

My code follows the code style of this project.
I have performed a self-review of my own code
I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
I have made corresponding changes to the documentation (header file)
I have updated the respective chapter in the Stellarium User Guide
My changes generate no new warnings
I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
New and existing unit tests pass locally with my changes
Any dependent changes have been merged and published in downstream modules

- due to some incomprehensible error apparently out of our hands.

github-actions · 2024-09-07T16:06:08Z

Great PR! Please pay attention to the following items before merging:

Files matching guide/**:

Did you remember to update screenshots to match new updates?
Did you remember to grammar check in changed part of documentation?

This is an automatically generated QA checklist based on modified files.

10110111 · 2024-09-07T16:20:19Z

guide/plg_atTheTelescope.tex

@@ -921,7 +921,7 @@ \subsection{INDI}
 \item IOptron GotoNova Upgrade Kit 8400
 \end{itemize}

-\subsection{ASCOM (Windows only)}
+\subsection{ASCOM (Windows and Qt5-based builds only)}


Without "and" it will be less ambiguous.

It's a simple Boolean "and". I can live with a comma instead.

10110111 · 2024-09-07T16:25:28Z

guide/plg_atTheTelescope.tex

@@ -933,7 +933,10 @@ \subsection{ASCOM (Windows only)}
 and most of the astronomy software and tools can communicate with
 ASCOM compatible devices.

-The ASCOM telescope support has been added to Stellarium's Telescope Control plugin by Gion Kunz in version 0.19.3.
+The ASCOM telescope support has been added to Stellarium's Telescope Control plugin by Gion Kunz in version 0.19.3.\footnote{%
+Unfortunately ASCOM seems to be incompatible with Qt6. 


Not ASCOM, but "COM ASCOM" or "ASCOM COM". This is the name their official website uses for this Windows-specific interface (the other being Alpaca).

OK. 20 years ago ASCOM was presented, the COM part of the name coming from Windows-specific COM. Maybe "traditional ASCOM". So far we do not mention Alpaca.

10110111 · 2024-09-07T16:30:57Z

plugins/TelescopeControl/src/common/Socket.cpp

@@ -40,7 +40,11 @@ long long int GetNow(void)
 		qint64 t;
 	} tmp;
 	GetSystemTimeAsFileTime(&tmp.file_time);
-	t = (tmp.t/10) - 86400000000LL*(369*365+89); // TODO: Explain this magic please!
+	// convert from NT/NTFS time epoch (1601-01-01 0:00:00 UTC) in μs to UNIX epoch (1970-01-01 0:00:00 UTC) in μs. The difference is:
+	// 24 hour/day × 3600 s/hour × ((369×365+89) day).


This misses the 10⁶μs/s factor that I edited into the comment a few minutes after posting it. Without it you get a million times smaller number.

10110111 · 2024-09-07T16:35:05Z

plugins/TelescopeControl/src/gui/TelescopeConfigurationDialog.cpp

@@ -155,7 +155,12 @@ void TelescopeConfigurationDialog::createDialogContent()
 	connect(ui->radioButtonTelescopeRTS2, SIGNAL(toggled(bool)), this, SLOT(toggleTypeRTS2(bool)));
 	connect(ui->radioButtonTelescopeINDI, SIGNAL(toggled(bool)), this, SLOT(toggleTypeINDI(bool)));
 	#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
-	connect(ui->radioButtonTelescopeASCOM, SIGNAL(toggled(bool)), this, SLOT(toggleTypeASCOM(bool)));
+	#if (QT_VERSION>=QT_VERSION_CHECK(6,0,0))
+		ui->radioButtonTelescopeASCOM->setToolTip(q_("Disabled due to apparent incompatibility. Please use Qt5-based build."));


"Use Qt5-based build" is a very cryptic advice for people far from software development. At the very least it should be "Use the Qt5-based build of Stellarium". Maybe even "Use the Qt5 build of Stellarium (the one for Windows 7+)" or something like this.

How large shall tooltips get? Are hyperlinks to the download allowed?
OTOH I agree, the download button label should include qt5/qt6.

Hyperlinks will not work in tooltips

The tooltips can have line breaks, which will reduce their horizontal size.

There is always room for improvement...

github-actions · 2024-09-08T15:08:27Z

Hello @gzotti!

Please check the fresh version (development snapshot) of Stellarium:
https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium-data/releases/tag/weekly-snapshot

github-actions · 2024-09-22T14:46:58Z

Hello @gzotti!

Please check the latest stable version of Stellarium:
https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/releases/latest

gzotti added 3 commits September 7, 2024 15:28

Docfixes

583c2a8

SUG: Update description of ASCOM support

ef8dd4b

Disable ASCOM on Qt6-based builds

dc44dab

- due to some incomprehensible error apparently out of our hands.

gzotti added enhancement Improve existing functionality importance: medium A bit annoying, minor miscalculation, but no crash qt Issues, related to Qt framework labels Sep 7, 2024

gzotti added this to the 24.3 milestone Sep 7, 2024

gzotti self-assigned this Sep 7, 2024

github-actions bot requested review from 10110111 and alex-w September 7, 2024 16:05

gzotti marked this pull request as ready for review September 7, 2024 16:08

10110111 reviewed Sep 7, 2024

View reviewed changes

alex-w linked an issue Sep 7, 2024 that may be closed by this pull request

Crashes of Stellarium 1.1 (1.22.4 based on Qt 6.4) #2874

Closed

Cosmetics

cfcbb5f

alex-w approved these changes Sep 7, 2024

View reviewed changes

gzotti merged commit 91efb8e into master Sep 7, 2024
26 of 27 checks passed

gzotti deleted the fix/disableASCOMqt6 branch September 7, 2024 17:58

alex-w added the state: published The fix has been published for testing in weekly binary package label Sep 8, 2024

alex-w removed the state: published The fix has been published for testing in weekly binary package label Sep 22, 2024

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Disable ASCOM on Qt6 #3887

Disable ASCOM on Qt6 #3887

gzotti commented Sep 7, 2024

github-actions bot commented Sep 7, 2024

10110111 Sep 7, 2024

gzotti Sep 7, 2024

10110111 Sep 7, 2024

gzotti Sep 7, 2024

10110111 Sep 7, 2024

10110111 Sep 7, 2024

gzotti Sep 7, 2024 •

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github-actions bot commented Sep 22, 2024

Disable ASCOM on Qt6 #3887

Disable ASCOM on Qt6 #3887

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gzotti commented Sep 7, 2024

Description

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Type of change

How Has This Been Tested?

Checklist:

github-actions bot commented Sep 7, 2024

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github-actions bot commented Sep 22, 2024

gzotti Sep 7, 2024 •

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