Requesting A Copy of Blue Line
To request a copy of this software, please
and I will reply to your email with the ~205kB blue_line.SIS
file attached. This way I can at least start to keep track of who has the
software. Anyone who does choose to make a donation to
St. Mary's, Cheltenham
bell funds will automatically be sent any updates if and when they happen.
(Instructions on how to make your donation will be sent with the software.)
Blue Line was written in OPL Basic making extensive use of the nListBox OPX
available on the Internet from
Neuon.
- Ver 4.08 - 10/04/02
- First release to the general public.
- Ver 4.09 - 16/04/02
- Corrected formatting of text during ringing. Changes of methods did not
line up with calls.
- Ver 4.10 - 6/05/02
- Fixed a minor problem with compositions. In previous versions the 12 &
13 spliced compos would not parse due to a repeated "B" & "C". The
compositions were corrected, and the program will now allow repeated letters
like "B,B,..." instead of insisting on "B,,..".
- Ver 4.11 - 17/05/02
- Added a new feature to determine the lead head type from the lead head and
place notation. The results have been extensively compared with those in
the place notation libraries to ensure they are the
same (however, there is bound to be something small I have missed). During
this development work, a bug was found in the parsing of lead heads when reading
in methods from the libaries. A bug with calls who's place notation was
longer than two changes was fixed and now calls in Scientific Triples can be
specified, for which an example file is now included. Under some circumstances
the timeout feature when ringing did not notice you had taken too long to press
a key. This has been fixed so that it will only fail once at most at midnight.
Finally, a trivial screen redrawing problem was fixed when cancelling a library
search with no new method.
- Ver 4.12 - 26/05/02
- Added a simple composition to Scientific Triples. Added audible warnings
for calls and changes of methods, two different pitches to distinguish the
two, each with a short double beep, so as not to be confused with a beep on
mistake. Changed the "Ringing Bell" to "Place Bell", as it did not make
sense during ringing of spliced or compositions and is now more helpful.
Fixed a bad bug with ringing compositions where the second call in a string
such as "...METH call, METH call, ..." would be omitted. It looks like this
is a fix for a 'feature' introduced in Ver 4.10. Improved support for differential
methods by detecting they are in fact differential and using the correct number
of leads per course when vewing the line and numbers. Array limits have been
reviewed so the "Weewillywinkie Hybrid Maximus" and "Doublehelix Differential
Major" may now be read from the place notation files..
- Ver 4.13 - 22/06/02
- Corrected minor bug where drawing was interrupted by the OS after restarting
Blue Line after a backup or change of application focus. Compositions of Erin
did not work correctly. Fixed composition parsing with a new and different
implementation, to cope with all known boundary cases more reliably. Now
create a separate file for the aspects database (to solve a problem with a
single OPL string exceeding 255 characters). Added "File Types" list button
to interpret the library file names. Better parsing for mehod names in
library files (e.g. Namebob -> Name Bob). Learning or Ringing Type printed
on screen to remind the user which was selected. New improved "graphics" icon.
Added Splash screen at startup and for the "about" menu item. Fixed dimming
of "zoom" menu items when switching between "numbers" and "line" views. Now
allow an even smaller font to be used in numbers view. "Home" and "End" key
now defined. Displayed line widths increase with zoom. Improved zooming in
& out by keeping the center view fixed. Addition checks for options t
alter on method change. Drawing options can now be automatically changed
when the method is changed. Or you can be prompted for suggested changes,
or they can be disabled. Added toolbar button icons for Series 5 users. Revo
users can only have text OR icons but not both, so you get text only (sorry).
- Ver 4.14 - 29/06/02
- When the method being viewed had more bells that the methods being rung to
spliced or compositions, the program would crash if the selected bell to ring
was greater in value than the number of bells in the method newly selected
method - FIXED. Also a minor fix to the colour of the method titles printed
after dismissing the "grid" view. Finally, one of the automatic option changes
only worked when changing from methods with more than one hunt bell. Improved
the action of the toolbar buttons during a redraws (mainly affected Series 5
users who have the extra button).
- Ver 4.15 - 08/07/02
- Fixed a minor bug with annotation where during a redraw, lines would be
drawn all over the screen.
- Ver 4.16 - 29/07/02
- Fixed a bug-fix that stopped the screen redraw after shortcut keys had been
used (e.g. to display the grid or the PN dialogue box). PN dialogue box now
optionally clears the currently defined calls for a method (before it just
deleted them, even for trivial changes to the method name). Added new
methods and touches to the "Regular" example file. Software version number
now appears on the splash screen and in the help file instead of just in the
control panel's "Add/remove" utility. Altered the icons used in the toolbar
of series 5 machines.
- Ver 4.17 - 03/08/02
- Fixed a bug-fix causing a crash when entering compositions longer than 255
characters, the user is now prompted with a problem to fix. Added "Petts23"
and "45Spliced" example files.
- Ver 4.18 - 15/09/02
- Added the ability to "play" a plain of the method with different pitched
beeps. It is unlikely that real bells sounds will ever be used due to a
large pause introduced between playing different sound files which I cannot
(yet?) avoid. Fixed a bug with the "part" number changing up to one lead too
early (due to a bug fix in Ver 4.13), and added the display of the last
part-end change to help check new compositions entered via the composition
editor. (The current part number and the last part-end are displayed whilst
ringing and change at the same time, at first this might be counter intuitive!)
Ensured that any strings used to add methods to the current set are within
the 255 character string bound. Added a new check for options to change
automatically (or with prompting) - if the second bell is a hunt bell,
turn off dots & numbers. Whenever creating a new method set, you are
unable to choose an existing file name, likewise with "Save As". Slow method
library searches may be cancelled by the user pressing a key.
- Ver 4.19 - 5/1/03
- Added the code necessary to check the calls requested in half lead spliced
compositions. Changed the hotkey for "check composition" to CTRL+K so that
CTRL+C can be used to copy text. Fixed a bug with ringin compositions with
half lead calls that caused Sandleton's 14 part 23 Spliced to fail. Added
many more multi-spliced composition files.
- Ver 4.20 - 1/2/03
- Found the complete set of compositions for Leary's 15-23 spliced and noted
the existing composition I had was really only an arrangement of Smith's, so
the "Learys23" has now been updated. Blue Line now checks for repeated
abbreviations and warns the user when an abbreviation is changed (but doe
not refuse to accept it). If any abbreviations are left repeated at the end,
you will be unable to exit the method manager. You may now search for a
method over multiple place notation libraries. Entering the empty substring
when searching over all files will build a menu of all methods in your
libraries in the selected directory, which is long (!) and takes a significant
amount of time. You can always press a key to stop the search at any time though.
Changed the way the line thickness is chosen when viewing methods without
numbers, whilst ringing methods and viewing the grid. People mentioned that
it was hard to see the line if not facing the PDA square on, and the Revo
has no backlight to make matters worse. Several other display features have
been "improved" at the same time.
- Ver 4.21 - 21/6/03
- Fixed a bug with half lead compositions printing the part end change a lead
late. Added a drawing option to put dots and numbers at all half leads.
- Ver 4.22 - 20/7/03
- At a request from a user, added a lead counter for all ringing modes where
more than one lead is rung at a time. This in turn lead to the addition of a
"faults per lead" measure and a slight re-arrangement of the ringing status
information on the right hand side of the screen. Now the guess at the default
calls for methods of lead head types "2z" and "8z". Also a bug with ringing
spliced where pressing a bell number after a change of method is called, but
before the blow where the change takes place has been corrected. Now when you
press a bell number you will be ringing the stated method.
- Ver 4.23 - 12/10/06
- A user found a bug - after all this time! When entering the place notation for the whole
course so that the first lead end is rounds, the software sees all the bells as fixed.
This causes problems with working out the best methods presentation. The understandable
situation was 'Plain Hunt Minor' entered as "&-1-1-1,1" rather than 'Original Minor'
as "&-,1" as would have been done when extracting the method from the place notation
file 'O6'. A check has now been entered for this condition and the user informed of the
cause of the problem. Lastly, a new composition file has been added for PAB Saddleton's
"11 Triples" spliced.
Please feel free to send me any
feedback
and suggestions or bug reports, although
I cannot only promise to implement anything. However, hopefully you will agree there
is a good chance after seeing the above development work.