Digital Universe Patch, 96/09/15 This patch changes your version 1.02 DigitalUniverse executable file to bring it up to version 1.03. It primarily fixes a few minor bugs in the software. The exact modifications involved are provided at the end of this document. To apply this patch, you need the SAS/C "spatch" utility. It is available at the same Web page that you obtained this archive, the DU support section of http://www.syz.com/ Of course, it is a good idea to make a backup of the old version of your executable before applying the patch in case something goes wrong. Brief documentation on how to use "spatch" is included in the spatch.lha archive. If you accidentally obtained the wrong patch file for your particular executable, "spatch" will display an error message. There are three different patch files - one for 68000 executables, one for 68020+ executables, and one for 68020+/68881+ executables. Make sure you obtain the correct one. Please contact us via Internet email at support@syz.com if you run into any problems. Please note - the "DigitalUniverseNoIntro" file is just a link to the "DigitalUniverse" executable, required to provide an additional icon to run the software without the introduction. If the "DigitalUniverse" executable is not deleted before copying the new version on top of it, "DigitalUniverseNoIntro" should be automagically updated as well. If not, just delete DigitalUniverseNoIntro and type: MakeLink from DigitalUniverseNoIntro to DigitalUniverse at a shell prompt. Changes since version 1.02: =========================== Bug fixes --------- - Sidereal time was being calculated from Dynamical Time, and not Universal time as it should have been. This meant that sidereal time was off by the value of Delta T. Thus, though the positions of objects with respect to the background stars was perfectly accurate, their positions with respect to the local horizon were slightly off. As a result, rise and set times were off by the value of Delta T. Since Delta T is currently only about a minute, this bug had gone unnoticed. However 2000 years ago, the difference was almost 3 hours. Thanks to Ray Cole for reporting the problem. - On some monitors, the shade of blue used to represent the Right Ascension and Declination grid was too dark. It has been lightened up to make it easier to see. - If a planet was clicked on while it was being rendered with features, garbage was rendered after the info window appeared. This has now been fixed. Changes since version 1.01: =========================== New features ------------ - Now, numerical reports can be output to the screen as well as the printer, or saved to disk. - A few useful keyboard shortcuts dealing with time were added: 'a' - toggles to automatic time advancement 'm' - toggles to manual time advancement 't' - sets "The Digital Universe" to use the current time - 10 more user-settable fields of view were added, bringing the total to 20. The first ten are used by pressing a number key (above the 'querty' keyboard. The last ten are used by holding down the SHIFT key while doing so. Since the preferences file format had to change as a result of this modification, you'll have to re-initialize the file when running "The Digital Universe" for the first time after upgrading. Type "DigitalUniverse init" at a shell prompt to do this. - The string gadget in "Find Star", "Find Galaxy", and "Search Hypertext" is automatically activated when their respective windows are opened. Bug fixes --------- - MUI 2.3 and 3.1 have problems in dealing with >V34 amigaguide.library (it can only deal with a single amigaguide file, and "The Digital Universe" requires 9 separate flies. To get around this problem, "The Digital Universe" pre-loads V34 amigaguide.library, regardless of the version of amigaguide.library normally used on your system. This works fine, but has one small problem - V34 amigaguide.library was never meant to deal with screens having more than 32 colors, and caused the system to crash if a hypertext window was brought up on such a screen. The interim solution is to restrict screen depths to 32 colors, and this modification was made to V1.02. Of course, when a future version of MUI and amigaguide.library >V34 are happy with one another, we'll be removing the temporary restriction. - If you'd accidentally deleted your Mode_Names icon from your WBStartup drawer, your Amiga would not know the names for different screen modes. "The Digital Universe" previously never anticipated this scenario, and crashed if it couldn't find any valid screen mode names. V1.02 has fixed this problem, providing the system with a screen even if there is not a valid name for it. This stops the program from crashing, but of course the best solution is to restore the Mode_Names icon from your original Workbench disks. - Western Australia Daylight Time and Western Australia Standard Time offsets were wrong. They've been fixed from their previous values of +8 and +7 respectively to the correct values of +9 and +8. - Animations generated on overscanned screens with WB3.1 would sometimes be corrupted. We believe we've found and fixed the problem (special thanks to Chris Gray for his incredible patience in helping us track it down). Changes since version 1.00: =========================== New features ------------ - In the Display/Object preferences window, a new option entitled "Show Titlebar" is now available. If the user disables this gadget, the title bar at the top of the screen is removed, and menu options are only visible while the right mouse button is held down. - If the user wishes to view the effects of proper motion and has the software set up to draw constellation figures, the figures will change shape as the stars move around. Note that this change invalidates the second paragraph under "Constellation Figures" on page 3-24 of the user manual. Bug fixes --------- - Three minor Enforcer hits which occurred during the introduction sequence have been eliminated. - After the introduction sequence, the audio filter is turned back on. It was previously left off. Syzygy Research & Technology Ltd. B 1204-17a St. NE Calgary, AB T2E 4V5 CANADA sales@syz.com support@syz.com