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In a message dated 1/6/04 12:52:44 PM Eastern Standard Time,
cft98208@YAHOO.COM writes:

> We won't be hearing from Tony any more, not unless he
>  has found an internet connection in the next world.  I
>  miss him.  Any idea what happened to the source code
>  of his NAVIG-94?  It would be a pity if it died with
>  him.

I also miss Tony.  We spent many long distance hours on the telephone
discussing NAVIG94.  We first made contact when he called me after seeing an offer I
made in the United States Power Squadrons magazine THE ENSIGN offering some
navigation software I wrote to anyone interested.  I became a beta tester for
NAVIG96B, which I don't believe ever got released beyond the beta stage.  Her is
the README file included with it:

All the unzipped files should be loaded to a separate
directory from NAVIG94. Here is what is included:

    NAVIG.BAT
    NAVIG96.DAT
    NAVIG96B.EXE
    1996-00D.BIN
    (plus this readme file)

    This beta version has the 1996 to 2000 High-Precision data
files plus the ability to display "Plane of the Celestial Meridian".
Otherwise it is the same as NAVIG94.  Please note that NAVIG96.DAT
is not interchangeable with that of NAVIG94

    If you need or want: MASTERH4.EXE and NAVPO.EXE can be
transferred from the NAVIG94 set of files.  Also note that the
navig.bat file is slightly different; and that NAVIG96.DAT must
be present.

    There is one peculiarity:  MOON cannot be called from PBF or
SUN; from SRF it is OK.  Why? ...I don't know yet! ;-(

    Please let me know your thoughts on the overall.  Or brickbats
on "details".  Thanks.

    -=Tony=-

Alas, I do not know the status of the source code.  I have a recollection
that it was written in some old language, not one of the ones popular today.
Perhaps one of us should contact his family... [After continuing to catch up with
my e-mail, I realize that Dan already tried this.  Now that I think about it,
didn't Dan and I have this conversation shortly after Tony's death?]

Interestingly (at least to me) the Plane of the Celestial Meridian Diagram
was constructed the exact way, using ellipses, rather than the approximate
method taught in the USPS Navigation Course, using arcs of circles, something much
easier to do on paper.  I asked Tony why he did it this way, which did not
allow a student to make a direct comparison of his work with the program.  He
said it was actually easier to construct the ellipses  USPS now has a program
that does both.  It would be nice if the arc method could be incorporated into
the next version of NAVIG, which would probably be NAVIG06, including a
high-precision almanac for 2006-2010.  I recall that Tony used Yallop and Hohenkerk
(Compact Data...) for the high-precision data, but I don't recall what he used
for the 1950-2050 medium-precision almanac.

Stan

   

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