Contents
Introduction
Requirements
Usage
The command line
The configuration
file
The
header section
The
system configuration section
The
data selection section
Running Transitron
ToDos
Known Problems
Feedback
Copyright
Thanks
Transitron is meant to be an addition to Walter D. Pullen's "Astrolog"-program, namely Astrolog 5.4. I have been looking for a way to visualise the effects of transits and found that Astrolog does not offer anything very useful here, although it can provide (almost) all the data needed.
Consequently, Transitron uses Astrolog 5.4's output, puts it into another order which can be read by StarCalc, which is part of StarOffice 5.2 (and by other spreadsheets, too). StarCalc can then be used to draw line diagrams which I find very useful in determining the way in which transit influences develop over time.
I found it difficult to estimate the various influences that occur when more than one transit occurs at one time (which is the case almost all the time). The Transitron output shows very clearly how these influences develop over time and how they are at one point in time. So, it's easy to see whether the transiting planet is appending or separating, how many times it has passed over a certain point (i.e. when planets pass over a point, then become retrograde and pass back over the point again, then pass over it a third time). This is very useful to know if you feel that the first passing-over is qualitatively different from the second etc. Some astrologers see it this way.
Since Transitron writes an output file that can be read by almost every
spreadsheet program (e.g. Corel Quattro Pro, StarCalc, Microsoft Excel),
you can use these programs to alter the output in the way you need.
Requirements
To run the DOS/Windows version, you need:
-Transitron 0.9 for Windows95 (tr09w95.zip), available at http://home.rz-online.de/~dahug/transitron
-a PC (any will do as long as it has WIndows95 running)
-Windows95 (I compiled Transitron using DJGPP, which is a 32-bit compiler.
As soon as I find a good freeware 16-bit compiler I will compile a DOS
version.)
-Astrolog 5.4 for DOS (ast54dos.zip) (available
at http://www.magitech.com/~cruiser1/astrolog.htm)
-some kind of spreadsheet program to make use of the output
Please note that with the DOS/Windows95 Version there is a problem with long filenames: They simply do not work. You have to use short (eight characters + 3 characters suffix, so called 8.3 format) filenames. The Linux version does not have this restriction.
The command line is very simple, only one of the following parameters is allowed at one time:
| 'transitron --help' | This results in a short online help being printed to the screen. |
| 'transitron configfile.tcf' | This tells Transitron which configuration file to use. You are free to choose any suffix you like or to leave the filename without suffix. I use 'tcf' because it is not used by any other program I use and so I can tell my GUI to run Transitron with a configuration file when I click on it. |
This is how to tell Transitron what to do. I will go through this in detail now. If you are impatient to get started, you may wish to look at 'default.tcf', which is a commented configuration file supplied with Transitron. If you want a more detailed description, read on.
The configuration file is divided into three sections: a header section, a system configuration section and a data selection section. Since the parser (the part of the program that reads this file) does not do many checks, you may very easily confuse Transitron if you change the position of the relevant lines or if you have certain lines twice and so on. This may result in an error message or in an endless loop (worst case). If you are kind to the configuration file, Transitron will work faultlessly. Please take care that always and only after an equation mark '=' you leave a space. Right: 'option= 1'. Wrong: 'option=1' or 'option = 1'. Any comments you want to make within a configuration file have to start with a hash character '#' at the beginning of the line.
Although the header section is parsed, it is not yet really used. It is included in case there will be later versions of Transitron to ensure that older configuration files can be used or rejected if not usable. I recommend you just leave it the way it is.
The
system configuration section
| wait_after_errors | As with all switches in the configuration file, '1' means 'on' and '0' means 'off'. When an error occurs, Transitron outputs an error message on the screen and exits. If you set this value to '1', Transitron will wait for a <RETURN> before it exits after displaying an error message. I implemented this, because I let Transitron run in a window that automatically closes after program execution. If you do the same, you may wish to know what went wrong and so you have to delay program termination until you had the opportunity to read the message. With just this switch set to '1', Transitron will still exit immediately after the program has been successfully executed, so you will only have the window staying if something went wrong. |
| wait_after_end | This is the complementary switch: Switching this on ('1') means that Transitron will wait for a <RETURN> before terminating after successful execution. This will not make Transitron wait if an error occurred! Usually, you will want to have this switched off ('0'). |
| astrolog_commandline | Here, astrolog needs to know how to invoke Astrolog. If
Astrolog is in the path, you can just enter 'astrolog' and skip the pathname.
Otherwise, you have to enter the entire path with the program name at the
end, i.e. c:\astrolog\astrolog on
a Windows95 system or /home/buddy/astrolog/astrolog
on a Linux system. If you make a mistake here, astrolog will output an
error message. But: Transitron only checks whether the file you indicated
exists or not. If you point to another (existing) file, like command
or mytext.txt, this check will be
passed but Transitron will not work. Since you will only have to define
this once, there should not be a problem with taking some care here.
Windows95-users: Please make sure that you point to the DOS version of Astrolog on your computer! The Windows version will not work! |
| astrolog_datfile | Transitron needs to know what default configuration file Astrolog shall use. Astrolog usually has one in its standard directory. If you don't intend to change anything withing this file, you may well point to this file which is usually called astrolog.dat. If you want to change it for use with Transitron, you may wish to copy it to some other directory and point there. So, a standard value for this may be /home/buddy/astrolog/astrolog.dat or c:\astrolog\astrolog.dat. Again: if you point to a file that's not there, you will get an error message. If you point to some existing file that ist not an Astrolog default configuration file, you get nonsense output. |
| input_data | Here you enter which astrological data is to be used. You
have to use the chart info files that Astrolog writes with the -o switch
(see Astrolog manual for details). Just enter name and path and Transitron
will use the data in this file. The check performed here is the same as
above: If you indicate a file that does not exist, Transitron will exit
with an error message. If you indicate an existing file which is not an
Astrolog chart info file, it will pass this check but you won't get any
results.
These chart info files look like this: @0102 ; Astrolog chart info. /qb 01 13 1967 12:34 ST -1:00 8:30E 50:15N
/zi "Joe Average" "Hometown"
You can easily alter them with any ASCII text editor, such as Notepad or
Vi. This is how I usually create new chart info files: load an old one,
change it, and save it under a new filename. |
| astrolog_output | Here you tell Transitron where to direct Astrolog's output files. On a Windows system, you are quite free to choose where this file will be created but on a Linux system, you will have to direct it to a directory where you have write access, usually your home directory. Please note that any existing file with the same name and path will be overwritten without any further question! Please also note that currently, Transitron does not delete this file after exiting, so it will remain there. It is just a small text file, so it may not bother you at all but you may wish to have it written somewhere where it does not get in your way, i.e. some temp directory or in Transitron's own directory or the like. |
| transitron_output settings | Finally, you have to tell Transitron where to create it's actual output file: This is the file you will want to import with your spreadsheet program (like StarCalc). Again, please note that any existing file with the same name and path will be overwritten without any further question! You will, of course, need write access in the directory you specify here. If Transitron can't create this file, you will receive an error message. |
| smart_mode | If this is switched on ('1'), only those transits that actually occur will be written into the output file. This takes some additional time because Transitron will first check which transits occur and which do not. If it is switched off ('0'), Transitron will write every transit into the output file that is theoretically possible (only restricted by the 'natal planets', 'transiting planets' and 'aspects' setting). Since the number of theoretically possible transits is usually very high (number of natal planets * number of transiting planets * number of aspects, that is up to 540!), it is recommended to leave this switched on. 'Off' is only useful if you want to do a series of scans and always want to have the same transits at the same position of the output file, regardless whether they occur or not, or if you restrict the number of theoretically possible transits to the number of actually occurring transits (i.e. to one, if you have one natal and one transiting planet and one aspect allowed). The maximum number of transits that can be dealt with in smart mode is 100. I feel, that if the number of transits exceeds 10, the chart will already look very messy. If you compile your own binaries you can change this value in 'transitron.h'. |
| smart_mode_power_threshold | Here, you can further restrict which transits will be written into the output file by defining the minimum strength they have to have at least once during the entire time span defined. This is only relevant if smart_mode is on. You can enter an integer (e.g. '123') or a float (e.g. '123.45') but please keep in mind that if you enter a float, you have to use a point '.', not a comma ','. |
| natal_sun, natal_moo, natal_mer, natal_ven, natal_mar,
natal_jup, natal_sat, natal_ura, natal_nep, natal_plu, natal_asc, natal_mid
transiting_sun, transiting_mer, transiting_ven... |
Here, you switch the planets on that you want to monitor. Leave the planets switched of that don't interest you anyway and you will save a great deal of time and get nice, small output files. As always, '1' means 'on', '0' means 'off'. Thus, natal_sun= 1 would include the natal sun in the calculations, etc. All bodies are considered to be planets, although some are not, like the ascendant and midheaven. Descendant and nadir are not yet implemented nor can the transiting moon be monitored. |
| Con, Opp, Sex, Squ, Tri | Here you specify which aspects you are interested in. Currently, only conjunctions, oppositions, squares, sextiles and trigons are supported. '1' means 'on', '0' means 'off'. |
| time_interval | This is a very important value. It determines how 'fine' the 'time resolution grid' is: time_interval= 1 will make Transitron check every day and write one line of output per day. time_interval= 7 will make Transitron check once every week and so on. This is a possibility to reduce the size of the output file by reducing redundancy. If you are monitoring transiting Mercury or the Sun, you will need a fine grid, maybe 1 or 2. But if you are interested in transits with transiting Uranus and Pluto, 7 or 14 should be more than enough, thus reducing the size of the output file considerably! |
| date_start
date_end |
Here, you determine when to start the scanning and when to stop it. If you have a large time_interval setting, the date_end may not be in the scan any more and you will have to add a few days. Please note that Transitron assumes every February to have 28 days but those in years which can be divided by four to have 29 days. This works all right for the time I usually need. But it does not work for 1900, for example. If you need those dates, you simply have to cut out February the 29th in you spreadsheet program after you have imported the output file. The format to enter the dates is European: DD MM YYYY. Please leave a space behind the equation mark ('='), behind the days and behind the months: date_start= 23 05 1967 If you use weird dates like 34 14 8765, you may confuse Transitron as it does not check for the validity of the dates. This goes especially for some end date that will not be reached, like 30th of February. This will result in an endless loop. |
After adjusting the configuration file, Transitron is invoked with the
configuration file as it's only parameter. Then, most of the information
from the configuration file is printed on the screen so that the user can
check whether everything is as desired, e.g.:
| TRANSITRON
0.9, (c) Daniel Hug 2001
Configfile default.tcf claims to be version
0.90. Fine.
N sun : 0 N
moon : 0 N mercury: 0 N venus : 0
N mars : 1
Calculating number of astrolog tables I will
need to read...53
Creating and processing astrolog output...
|
As can be seen above, Transitron has a progress bar for each step (one
in dumb mode, two in smart mode) it performs. That is because, as can not
be seen above, each step may take considerable time, especially if a large
number of transits is monitored in many steps. Especially owners of slow
computers will appreciate these progress bars.
After finishing the first step (in smart mode), Transitron prints the
number of transits it has found (four in the above case). If no transits
were found, Transitron exits here with an error message.
It's all over now and you can use the output file. Running it through StarCalc, it looks like this:
It is quite interesting to note how the curves look if a planet is approaching
another one, then becomes retrograde, then approaches again and passes
over the other planet, becomes retrograde again (power increases once more)
and then finally separates.
The below diagram shows this quite nicely (transiting Saturn in conjunction
with natal Mercury): The first phase of approach, then becoming retrograde
(first peak, A), the second peak with the transit over Mercury(B) and the
third peak when Saturn becomes retrograde again after having passed, thus
getting into conjunction with Mercury once again (C) before heading of
into space. ;) Please note that there is only one actual passing
over Mercury, which is at point B. The shape of peak B might confuse some
of you, so I ask you to please read "Known Problems".
This Transitron has version number 0.9 to point out, that it does not yet do everything that I want it to do. Several things are missing:
There is no kind of GUI to run Transitron from. While I am not very fond of blinking animated icons, I feel that some kind of interactive UI would be desirable, even a curses-style one. Whether I will do this or not will be depending on user feedback and available time and interest on my side. If anybody would program such a module, I'd greatly appreciate this! (Not including this in the main code has the advantage of the main code staying pure ANSI C and thus being portable with little changes.)
It would be nice to invoke Astrolog with just the necessary planets, restricting those that Transitron won't be interested in anyway. This would reduce the time needed to parse Astrolog's output (which is the bulk of time).
Currently, output has European style numbers, i.e. 123,45, while some users may wish it to have American style numbers, i.e.: 123.45 I plan to include this via a configuration file switch. output_style= american, for example. I will do this if some users ask for it. I don't need it personally.
Sometimes I think it would be nice not to have the power-values but the degrees between the two bodies. I might one fine day include this, too. But since this is a lot of work, this will not be done very soon.
If this program turns out to be frequently used, I might add a better way to check whether the Astrolog files (file containing astrological data, standard configuration file) are really valid Astrolog files. As for now, just be a bit careful.
Compiling the DOS version with a 16 bit compiler, so you can run it on every i286+.
If I get questions concerning Transitron, I will add a FAQ section
to this manual. I may also make a FAQ section online, which will be at
http://home.rz-online.de/~dahug/transitron
One problem is that, while Transitron uses the "power" that Astrolog calculates (see Astrolog manual for details), and the calculation of this "power" value is not very accurate, as the author points out himself:
"(The influence of the orb varies linearly from max power at exact to zero power at the limit of the orb - sorry Maggie M. and Mark K. - no complex aspect wave functions, at least for this version :)"
This should be regarded when interpreting a diagram which results from a Transitron output. I hope that later versions of Astrolog will include some wave functions but as for now, this is all there is. The below diagrams show what a planet transiting over another actually looks like when it is displayed (A), and how I feel it actually should be displayed (B).
I still feel that the power calculated by Astrolog is good enough to use it. The conclusion must simply be that the effects of transits are not as exact as suggested by the output, i.e. when you have a peak on a certain date, just be sure that you don't forget that it's not really a peak on that day but the top of a curve around this day.
Feedback
If you want to give me some feedback, please write me an email: transitron@wiesbaden-online.de
I am interested in how you like Transitron, how often you use it, and,
what improvements you would like to see implemented.
If you find bugs in the program or mistakes in the manual, please give
me a short notice!
Copyright
Currently, Transitron is neither Open Source nor Public Domain nor
anything the like. I hold all copyrights that can be applied. You are permitted
to use Transitron 0.9 on as many machines as you wish and you may give
it to other persons as long as no charge or fee whatsoever is taken. I
don't think that anybody could think of including it into some commercial
package or CD, but anyway: it's forbidden.
I am considering to make this code OpenSource, but currently the legal
situation seems to be to unclear and until this changes (to the better),
things will stay as stated above.
Thanks
Thanks to all people who helped me to write this program. It was written
& compiled using free and OpenSource Software like Linux, Kwrite, and
the Gnu C Compiler. Without Astrolog 5.4, another free program, Transitron
is useless. StarOffice, also freely available, enables me to transform
the tables into nice, informative charts. Thanks to Martina and Isabelle
for introducing me into the subject of astrology. Thanks to Arkadiusz for
helping me with programming problems.
May you be happy!
Daniel Hug