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Program Triangulator

Program Triangulator
by Seamus Donohue of EVE University
Saturday, November 28, 2015, Space Engineers version 01.110.006.

This is a triangulation program that records measurements taken by the user to calculate the coordinates of a target as seen from different perspectives.

This program, when invoked with a null argument, will record the position of a cockpit on the ship and a point in front of that same cockpit. When invoked later with a non-null argument, it will again record these two positions and perform a calculation as discussed below.

Each measurement defines a line; two measurements will result in two lines, typcially skew to each other. This program will then calculate the points of closest approach on each line, and then calculates the midpoint. The midpoint is recorded to an LCD Panel in a correctly-formatted GPS line, using an incrementing integer for the name of the GPS entry.

USAGE:

Choose which cockpit you will be sitting in while using Triangulator. Give that cockpit a unique name, and put that name (case sensitive) into the string constant below.
**THE USER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!**

Choose a Text Panel or LCD Panel and put its name in the string constant, below.
**THE USER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!**

Get in the cockpit and point your ship as closely as possible at a desired target (station, asteroid, whatever, as long as it's still). Run this program with a null argument (and a keybinding in your Cockpit is recommended for this purpose). Move your ship some distance to the side, then point your ship closely at the same target and run this program with any non-null argument. The program doesn't care WHAT the non-null argument is, just so long as it is not null, the empty string "", is not exactly the string "reset", and doesn't start with the string "reset ".

Successful triangulations will be recorded to the text or LCD panel specified.

User's aim does not need to be perfect. In most cases, two consecutive measurements will result in a pair of skew rays that don't actually intersect, but come close. So, this program calculates the points of closest approach and records the midpoint in-between them. But, the target must be either stationary or much, much slower than the user.

Calling the program with "reset" or "reset ####" (where #### is any valid 4-byte integer; that is, in the range -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647) will change the label number to use for the next target. The program will continue to increment upwards (more positive, less negative) from that value for each successful triangulation. Note that invoking a reset does not clear the LCD Panel nor take a triangulation measurement.