posted
I've just completed a program, written in Visual Basic, that will allow you to change TNG/DS9/VOY era calendar dates into Stardates and vice-versa.
For years now I had the system worked out on a piece of paper that only I could make heads or tails of, but now I've put it in computer form. I invite anyone interested to download it and see what they think of it. It's available for download near the bottom of this page: Stardate Converter
A couple of the main assumtions about Stardates I had to make was:
1) Stardates increase at a steady rate throughout the year. 2) A full year would take the form xx000.x to xx999.x
There's a FAQ form in the program that lists the asumptions made when designing the application.
I'd appreciate feedback on the program, good or bad!
As it's too early in the morning for me to be downloading strange executables, can you tell us how you dealt with leap years? Is it either of: (a) stardates are slightly longer in leap years (b) stardate years are a fixed length and therefore don't match up exactly with Earth years.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I tried to code it so every year is the same. The problem I encountered is that when converting the days of the year back into a specific day and month, the calculation happens for the year 1900 and there's no way I know to override this default. Therefore, some of the days are off by about a day at most.
I had seen your version at one time. The first set of computatiuons I tried ended up similar to yours. The thing is, the first TNG Stardate we ever knew a calendar date for with certainty was the commissioning date of the Enterprise-D: Stardate 40759.5 is October 4, 2363. My first trial produced what yours did, 40757.8. I considered this date to be the touchstone of stardate conversion and wanted to modify my computations so that this one worked. I'd still like to increase the accuracy of the leap year issue.
posted
Okuda and Sternbach screwed up with the E-D launch date. They forgot that 'today' should not be counted when counting the number of complete days in the year. So 12 noon on Jan 2nd is 1.5 days into the year and not 2.5 days.
This is why the launch date is out by a day.
But you probably already know that as it's in the stardate FAQ linked to from my page.
-------------------- "My theories appal you, my heresies outrage you, I never answer letters and you don't like my tie." - The Doctor
Registered: Mar 1999
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![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
That's brilliant, just what I needed. Thanks!![[Cool]](cool.gif)
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