Survex 0.99 released!

[Olly Betts]

Downloadable from:

http://www.survex.com/download.html

RISC OS and MSDOS for pre-386 machines to follow.

There's one minor cosmetic flaw with this release I'm aware of - the file
icons on MS Windows have a coloured background rather than a transparent
one.  I've worked out what went wrong, and this'll be fixed for 1.0.

I don't have much planned between this and 1.0 - a bit of tidying work on
the documentation, plus fixing any reported problems.

A full list of changes since the last prerelease is given at the end of the
message.  For the benefit of those not tracking the prereleases, I've also
compiled a summary of the huge number of improvements and fixes since 0.98.

Summary of changes between 0.98 and 0.99:

* (Unix version): Survex is now an official debian package, and should be
  included in the upcoming "woody" release.

* aven: New features: side panel with survey tree and station search,
  toolbar, distance measuring line, drag-and-drop support, click on station
  to centre.

* aven: Bug fixes: loading file on start-up now works; fixed bogus lines
  caused by coordinate wrap-around; fixed problem in repeated zoom with [ or
  ]; suppressed message box when wxWindows doesn't support the language
  Survex is set to use; Resolved a number of menu shortcut clashes; problems
  with dragging scalebar fixed; improved initial sizing of window; releasing
  mouse over menubar now ends drag.

* aven/caverot/xcaverot: Ctrl + Arrow keys is now the preferred way to
  rotate and tilt (easier to remember than "C"/"V" and "'"/"/").

* (MS DOS version): caverot: Shift + Arrow keys now works.

* xcaverot: Shift-ed movement keys now work faster as in caverot.

* cavern: improved error reporting in numerous places.

* cavern: Diving data can now accept DEPTHCHANGE in place of a DEPTH reading
  at each station; implemented covariances for diving data; added "cylpolar"
  data style - similar to diving, except the tape is measured horizontally
  rather than along the slope of the leg.

* cavern: *FIX now allows optional covariances to be specified.

* cavern: Fixed handling of interleaved nosurvey data; fixed reporting of
  node stats for stations fixed with error estimates.

* cavern: no longer generate a .inf file - the .log file generated by the
  --log option makes the .inf file obsolete; --new-format renamed to
  --chasm-format.

* cavern: *date now checks its argument.  It expects an ISO format date
  (e.g. 2001.09.13) or range (e.g. 2001.09.12-2001.09.13).  For cases
  where the exact date isn't know, the day and month can be omitted -
  e.g. 2001.09 and 2001 are also valid.

* (MS Windows version): Installer now uses a different compression
  method (bzip2) which reduces the download size by about 5% (and 
  should help keep the installer small enough to fit on a 1.44M floppy).
  Bzip2 is a little slower to uncompress, but not appreciably so on the
  machines I've checked it on.

* (MS Windows version): Should now install without errors for a
  non-admin user on MS Windows NT/2000/XP.

* (MS Windows version): Installer should now allow installation on NT 3.51.

* Major reworking of Survex Documentation; documentation for each program is
  now also available as a man page on Unix; renamed "svxdocs" to "manual";
  Include HTML documentation overview page and manual in all versions (was
  only included in MS Windows before); Text documentation converted to HTML;
  BUGS and TODO merged, ZOMBIES removed.

* print*: improved reporting of invalid scales; interpret a single number
  less than one as the scale in the obvious way (so "0.001" means "1:1000");
  "--crosses" no longer prevents "--station-names" from working; if running
  interactively, prompt for what elements to plot when run so MS Windows
  users don't have to resort to the command line; --skip-blanks fixed, and
  now forces --no-border; if restricting to a subsurvey, use that survey
  name for the title of the printout; intelligent handling of .3d files
  produced by extend.

* printps: thinner lines by default (0.1 points rather than 0.5).

* printhpgl: fixed paper size for A1 landscape (was actually A2 portrait!)

* printdm: added --calibrate option to print calibration page; if there's no
  calibration in the .ini file, refuse to print (apart from calibration
  pages) rather than printing to the wrong scale.

* extend: wasn't picking start station as documented - fixed and also
  enhanced to try to find an entrance with legs first.

* survex: conversion wrapper doesn't use --output unless it is actually
  needed, and displays corresponding cavern command line, and (if
  appropriate) file.

* cad3d: added --reduction option (from Leandro) which allows sketch
  output to be scaled down (default scale is 1:500); grid in sketch
  file is now visible by default; default output now goes in the
  current directory. 

* hto2svx, svx2hto: Removed HTO support - Survex appears to be the
  only released software to ever have provided support, and an
  exchange format that nobody else supports is useless.

* Much more rigorous checking for operating system errors when reading
  and writing files.

* 3d file reading code: Distinguish between a "bad" .3d file and one which
  has a newer revision of the format than we understand; can now read .pos
  files as if they were .3d files with just stations in, so all programs
  which can read .3d files can also now read .pos files; fixed bug which
  incorrectly reconstruct the survey hierarchy in rare cases.

* (RISC OS version): query Territory module to find currently selected
  language, and use that for messages.

* (MS DOS version): detect current codepage rather than assuming it's 850.
  We now support codepages 437 and 850 (the common ones) - for other
  codepages we fall back to using 7-bit ASCII; pick a default language for
  messages by looking at the currently set country.

* (MS Windows version): fixed default action for 3d files to be "Open".

* German, Brazillian Portuguese, Italian, and French translations updated.



Changes since 0.99-prerelease9:

* Fixed bug in .3d file reading code which would incorrectly reconstruct
  the survey hierarchy in rare cases.

* (MS Windows version): aven: fixed redraw problem for "N found".

* (MS Windows version): minor tweaks to .err, .pos, and .svx file icons.

* (Unix version): aven: Highlight of current station restores old background
  colour correctly rather than assuming it's white.

* aven: Resolved a number of menu shortcut clashes.

* (RISC OS version): fixed automatic detection of language.

* cavern: improved error reporting from *data; better handling of some
  incorrect usages of *sd and *units.

* Italian translation updated.


Cheers,
Olly