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The documentation I wrote and many of the scripts I wrote that are included in this package are under the GNU General Public License v3.0. There are also short, simple scripts by me which are in the public domain.

Other things in this package that aren't by me are under other licenses - see Swiss Ephemeris License Conditions.

The below copyright notice only applies to things by me, except things in the public domain.

Copyright (C) 2013 Apollia

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Contact info: http://astroblahhh.com/contact-apollia.shtml

A copy of the license is included in the section titled GNU General Public License.

The documentation I wrote and many of the scripts I wrote that are included in this package are under the GNU General Public License v3.0. There are also short, simple scripts by me which are in the public domain.

Other things in this package that aren't by me are under other licenses - see Swiss Ephemeris License Conditions.

Why did I choose the GNU General Public License (GPL) rather than the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) for the documentation I wrote?

Because the terms in the GFDL about invariant sections made me uneasy. I didn't want modified versions of this page possibly acquiring unremovable new sections. If people want to use or modify relatively small parts, I want them to be free to do so without having to also reproduce the entirety of all the invariant sections too.

I, Apollia of Astroblahhh.Com, had nothing to do with authoring the Swiss Ephemeris, its official documentation, ephemerides, or anything I forgot to mention.

I just included the Swiss Ephemeris in this package in the form of a PHP extension after compiling it using instructions and files from the PHP-SWEPH project, and I also included the Swiss Ephemeris official manuals, some other odds and ends, and official ephemerides downloaded from: ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/

For the official Swiss Ephemeris license conditions, see: ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/LICENSE.TXT

Or: Swiss_Ephemeris-LICENSE.TXT (retrieved March 17, 2013)

The PHP-SWEPH project (a project separate from the official, main Swiss Ephemeris) is under the GNU General Public License v2.0**.

I'm currently not involved in the PHP-SWEPH project, and never was, so far (as of 4/29/2013).

It probably would've taken me years to build anything like the Swiss Ephemeris from scratch (if I ever could figure it out at all), and I would've probably had a really difficult time figuring out how to make the Swiss Ephemeris into a PHP extension without PHP-SWEPH.

So, tremendous thanks to the authors of the Swiss Ephemeris and the authors of PHP-SWEPH!

The Swiss Ephemeris is "a toolset for programmers to build into their astrological software."

This Eryss/Swiss Ephemeris package contains the Swiss Ephemeris made into an extension for PHP, using files and instructions from the PHP-SWEPH project.

See also: Swiss Ephemeris License Conditions

Eryss is a free/libre/open source** astrology software project I started, which I placed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

Eryss relies on the Swiss Ephemeris for the astrological calculations.

At first I used the GNU General Public License only because I had to, due to the Swiss Ephemeris license conditions - but then I decided I preferred using the GNU General Public License anyway. As explained somewhere in the What is free, libre, open source software?** section of the file Some Puppy Linux Basics** - I had a major change of heart about releasing almost any of my work into the public domain.

The edition of Eryss in this package was written in PHP** and Bash**, but I will probably release other editions in other programming languages.

The other editions likely won't all have all the same features, due to limited time, energy, patience, money (especially that), and so on. But, one thing probably all editions of Eryss will have in common is a heavy emphasis on asteroids and dwarf planets, since I consider asteroids to be some of the most amusing things in astrology.

The name Eryss is a variation on the name of Eris, the current largest known dwarf planet, which is even bigger than Pluto.

But, most of the reason I picked this name was due to luck. Last January, I was browsing Godaddy Auctions, probably looking at cheap 5-letter dot-coms with a Buy Now option - and I just happened to see Eryss.com for $10 (though there was about a $15 extra fee because it was an expired domain) - such a low price even I was able to afford it, though not comfortably.

(That Godaddy link is an affiliate link which I could make money from if you buy something from Godaddy.)

Probably if I hadn't stumbled across Eryss.com, I would have picked some other name, perhaps even just Astroblahhh.

Eryss seemed like a perfect name for something astrological that has a lot to do with relatively new-fangled astrological concepts such as asteroids and dwarf planets, which were all unknown to anyone prior to 1801, when Ceres was discovered.

I also considered the name Plootoh, but that was already taken. :-)

Unlike most PHP** software, this edition of Eryss wasn't written to run on a web server. It runs locally and doesn't use a web server at all, though it outputs HTML web pages and by default opens them in a web browser.

Eryss could be adapted for use on a web server, but, I'm not up to doing that yet, since I currently have more pressing (or interesting) things to work on. Someone else could do it, though.

Or, being paid would give me a reason to make Eryss a higher priority. Actually, so would feature requests that don't involve payment - but, being paid would make it a lot more practical for me.

Eryss is definitely not as polished as I'd like, since I've been too oppressed by poverty to have the patience to figure out how to do things perfectly.

But, one of the many great things about free, libre, open source** software is that it can always be perfected someday, with or without the original author's help.

Already, though, Eryss is nice to have. As of 4/29/2013, I'm not sure there's any easier, more convenient way other than Eryss to get a list of tons of positions of whatever asteroids, etc. you want. (But, haven't looked very hard lately.)

I'm hoping that Eryss might encourage more people to build custom astrology software. In my opinion, there has been a stifling lack of many free, libre, open source** tools for researching and analyzing astrology, and so few people with the time, inclination, and expertise to make such tools.

One quite notable and wonderful exception is the Swiss Ephemeris itself - but, it took me until 2011 (partly because of being too oppressed and distracted by poverty and its many nasty, life-ruining side effects) to even figure out how to use it at all in my own projects.

So, once I finally somewhat figured it out, I thought I might as well try to make this stuff a lot easier for even not-so-technical people to get started playing with, by making Astroblahhh GLMP-GTK, Astroblahhh PH-GTK, this Eryss/Swiss Ephemeris PHP extension package, and, perhaps most importantly of all, lots of hopefully easy to follow documentation.

(Except I wrote plenty more about Puppy Linux-related topics** rather than astrology software-related topics, but, hopefully this is adequate, at least for now.)

I hope this and the eventual development of more free, libre, open source** tools will make it easier for anyone curious (including skeptics) to investigate, analyze, and attempt to prove or debunk various astrological ideas. The more, the merrier. :-D

To run this software, either Astroblahhh GLMP-GTK or Astroblahhh PH-GTK is required. See What Puppy Linuxes will Astroblahhh GLMP-GTK work in? or What Puppy Linuxes will Astroblahhh PH-GTK work in?

While running a Puppy Linux which will work, just install Astroblahhh GLMP-GTK or Astroblahhh PH-GTK, then install the Eryss/Swiss Ephemeris PHP extension .pet or .sfs.

The .pet** installs about 12 MB of files, so you'll need at least that much "personal storage space" RAM (if running Puppy in RAM), or else that much space in your Pupsave file or hard disk.

If you use the .sfs**, somehow that doesn't use up "personal storage space" RAM, but, just watch out for the various nuisances .sfs files have. (See the .sfs**-related sections of the file Some Puppy Linux Basics**.)

If you want to be able to see astrological glyphs, you might (or might not) need to install a Unicode font. Looks like in Lucid Puppy 5.2.8 version 004, it's not necessary.

Fortunately, it's easy to install fonts if necessary. (At least in Lucid Puppy 5.2.8 version 004.)

All you need to do to install a TrueType font file (with the filename extension .ttf) is put it in this folder:

/usr/share/fonts/default/TTF/

• Wikipedia: Open-source Unicode typefaces

• Unifont

Some examples of how to use the Swiss Ephmeris PHP extension are in the Eryss software, which you can find in the /root/0000-Eryss and Readme and Extras for Eryss 0.1 and Swiss Ephemeris 1.78.00 Extension Package 1.0 for Astroblahhh GLMP-GTK or PH-GTK/Eryss 0.1/ folder.

The PHP-SWEPH project's website might help too: http://code.google.com/p/php-sweph/

The official Swiss Ephemeris manual and official Swiss Ephemeris programmer's manual are in the /root/sweph/Documentation/ folder.

They're also on the web:

• http://www.astro.com/swisseph/swephprg.htm

• http://www.astro.com/swisseph/swisseph.htm

Hopefully it's easy enough that it's possible to skip reading this section.

After installing Astroblahhh GLMP-GTK or Astroblahhh PH-GTK - then, by default, it should be possible to just double-click on the file "Eryss 0.1.phpb" to run it. (Or single-click, depending on your Rox-Filer file manager settings**.)

That only won't work if you changed your default Rox-Filer run action for .phpb files. But, in any case, you should be able to right-click on Eryss 0.1.phpb and choose Run in terminal window.

If you want to input a custom date/time/location, double-click on one of the Date-Time-Location Prompt Bash** scripts.

You can input dates and times in a remarkable variety of formats.

A complete summary is in these PHP manual pages: Time Formats, Date Formats, Compound Formats, Relative Formats.

However, I haven't built in anything to handle non-Gregorian calendar dates, so, probably the wrong astrological data will be displayed for dates before about 1753.

To change various settings, you can either edit Eryss's source code, or files inside the prefs/ folder, or even the Example Date-Time-Location Prompt with All Command Line Options, Most of Them Set Weirdly script (written in Bash**).

The other scripts in the Eryss 0.1/ folder are hopefully self-explanatory enough.

A complete list of named asteroids (last updated April 27, 2013) is located at:

/root/sweph/Asteroid List/seasnam.txt

The web page where I obtained that list was:

• http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/MPNames.html

You can update your local complete list of asteroids by copying and pasting the asteroid list from that web page into the seasnam.txt file.

Doing so will enable the Swiss Ephemeris, Eryss and Eryss's companion asteroid-related scripts to handle newly-named asteroids.

Alternatively, instead of copying and pasting from that web page - you could download a new seasnam.txt file from my website:

• http://astroblahhh.com/astrology/asteroid_list/seasnam.txt

But, I probably won't always keep that page up to date.

I figured everyone who downloads this is going to be using GNU/Linux, since it's currently required to even run this software.

So, perhaps you'll be interested in GNU/Linux-related asteroids like GNU, Linux, Richard, Stallman, Torvalds, and Ubuntu. (There is no asteroid Linus yet, so I chose the closest-seeming one other than asteroid Linux itself: Linnaeus.)

I also included asteroids possibly of interest to Puppy Linux users - Doga, Upupa (the only asteroid so far whose name contains the word "Pup"), Barry, and Kaula (the asteroid whose name is closest to the last name of the creator of Puppy Linux, Barry Kauler).

And I included asteroid Kleopatra because it's shaped like a dog bone. :-)

• NASA.gov, May 4, 2000: Astronomers Catch Images of Giant Metal Dog Bone Asteroid

• CNN.com, May 5, 2000: NASA unveils images of giant 'dog bone' asteroid

Apollonia is pretty close to the name I've usually used on the internet (Apollia), which I started using in June 2003.

I included Astrowizard and Blaha because they amuse me and are somewhat close to Astroblahhh, the name of my personal website.

As for the dwarf planets - I included all the official and possible dwarf planets I saw listed here: Wikipedia: Dwarf planets and possible dwarf planets

Including a not-yet-officially-named possible dwarf planet, 2007 OR₁₀, the largest known not-yet-named body in the solar system, which has the nickname "Snow White".

Quoted from Wikipedia:

"It was also the "seventh dwarf" discovered by Brown's team, after Quaoar in 2002, Sedna in 2003, Haumea and Orcus in 2004, and Makemake and Eris in 2005. However, "Snow White" turned out to be one of the reddest objects in the Kuiper belt, comparable only to Quaoar, making the nickname inappropriate."

Here are 3 articles about "Snow White", apparently by Mike Brown (one of the discoverers):

• Mike Brown's Planets: The redemption of Snow White (Part 1)
• Mike Brown's Planets: The redemption of Snow White (Part 2)
• Mike Brown's Planets: The redemption of Snow White (Part 3 of 3)

Here's a fun Wikipedia article: List of Solar System objects by size

See the section titled Beware of RAM in the file Some Puppy Linux Basics for a longer explanation of why this might be a problem.

Basically, anything in a RAM disk is at great risk of being irretrievably lost, so, anything you want to keep, you should store in a (so-called) permanent storage medium, like a hard disk.

So, you might want to move the "sweph" folder and "Eryss and Readme and Extras" folder to a location in a permanent storage medium, or at least back them up to there.

I actually think it might be best to just back up the folders to a permanent storage location but leave copies in the RAM disk, because Eryss hasn't been designed with efficiency in mind yet, so, currently, Eryss might read from your disk unnecessarily often.

I consider that a problem, but it's one I haven't yet addressed because I'm satisfied with just keeping copies of both folders in my RAM disk and having Eryss read from there instead of my physical disk.

If you want to store your "sweph" folder somewhere other than /root/sweph after all, though - you should probably put a symlink at /root/sweph pointing to the new location of the "sweph" folder, so the Swiss Ephemeris PHP extension and Eryss will be able to access your ephemerides, etc. at their new location without you having to edit scripts to change the Swiss Ephemeris path.

To make that symlink:

• Go to the location on a permanent storage medium where you moved the "sweph" folder to.

• Right-click on the "sweph" folder, go to the Dir 'sweph' menu item, and choose Link... from the submenu. (Be careful, "Link..." is just above "Delete".)

• In the little Symlink window that appeared, uncheck the Relative link checkbox.

• Then, in the text field above the checkbox, put this path:

  /root/sweph

• Then, click the Symlink button.

No worries if you accidentally lose the "Eryss and Readme and Extras" folder. You can always download a fresh copy from:

There, you can also get a fresh copy of the "sweph" folder, containing just default ephemerides.

And, of course, copies of both folders exist inside the .pet** or .sfs**.

Activism | Astrology | Astronomy | Blog | Credit Card Boycott | Firefox Add-Ons | GNU/Linux | How To Guides | Ideas | Languages | Music | Opinions | Pictures | Second Life | Self-Help | Software | Windows

About This Site | Contact Apollia | Disclaimer | Updates

Eryss.Com - Non24.Com

Eryss.Com Forum - Non24.Com Forum

Donations | Services (none available currently)

Request Free/Libre/Open Source Software or Documentation, or Ask Programming Questions (but only if you're very patient)

Or, Donate In Second Life

GitHub