Change Log


0.6.2a (2009-03-08)

1. Added configuration "Secondary Progression".
2. Error fixed: if a non-existing orb table was specified in configuration file, the "Orb Table" combobox
   still showed the previously selected orb table, while the program worked without any orb table.
   Now in such situation the "Orb Table" combobox shows no text at all.


0.6.1a (2009-03-01)

1. Data tips are available when the mouse cursor is over chart element. If Ctrl key is pressed
   at the same time, the element is also selected in Chart Info window (if is there according
   to the current view mode).
2. Data in Chart Info window slightly reorganized.
3. Coordinate displaying format changed for Equatorial coordinate system.
4. Slight changes in menu structure:
   - Sub items in "Settings/Arc of Direction Based On" menu renamed.
   - Event/Edit... menu item removed when there are no open documents or
     the current document is in database mode.
5. SE_EPHE_PATH environment variable is no longer taken into account when setting the path to
   Swiss Ephemeris files. PDExplorer works only with files located in <PDExplorer>\Swiss directory.
6. The golden section aspects (68.75 = 180 * 0.618..., 111.25 = 180 - 68.75) added into aspect tables.
   To turn them on activate the aspect group Other in Chart Setting window, Aspect page.


0.6.0a (2009-02-23)

1. Now PDExplorer has a full-fledged installer.
   - When installing updates, the installer asks whether you want to overwrite the existing
     configuration and aspect table files.
   - When uninstalling, the existing configuration and aspect table files will not be removed.
2. Demo aspect tables (Demo*.orb) were replaced by standard aspect tables.
3. Several standard configurations added (look in Configuration menu).
4. Chart look improved.
5. Days of week are displayed near Significator and Promissor chart dates in chart window.
6. Minor internal overpatching.


0.5.5a (2009-02-09)

1. 'Other' page added into Chart Settings panel. It contains the rest of chart drawing options.
2. 'Configuration\Reset Aspects...' menu item added. It resets aspect colors and line types.
3. Menu chapter order changed.
4. Demo aspect tables modified.
6. Chart look improved due to a small optimization in aspect drawing.
5. Several default configuration values changed.
7. Minor overpatching in user interface.
8. Error fixed (introduced in previous version): on printer all aspects were drawn with solid line
   despite of chosen line type.
9. Error fixed: if default configuration file was missing on program startup, all standard aspects
   were disabled, a user had to enabled them explicitly.


0.5.4a (2009-01-25)

1. Chart Settings panel added (menu View\Panel Chart Settings):
   - Allows to edit visibility, aspectation and color of chart elements.
   - Allows to edit visibility, color and line type of aspects.
   - Contains 3 pages: Significator, Promissor, Aspect.
   - The settings on Significator and Promissor pages are part of configuration: the program saves
     them along with configuration. The settings on the Aspect page are a little bit different:
     . The visibility of aspect is part of configuration, the program saves them along with configuration.
     . The color and line type of aspect are not part of configuration. These settings are shared
       between all configurations and stored in file <PDExplorer>/Aspect/ColorLT.ini. The program
       loads this file on startup and saves it on exit.
   - The Aspect page contains 25 most popular aspects and group names to those these aspects
     belong to. The group Other defines settings for any aspect that is not among the standard 25.
     Non-standard aspects can be defined in Orb Table file (*.orb) like any usual aspects.
   - In order an aspect to be displayed in the chart two conditions must be fulfilled:
     . The aspect must be defined in the current aspect table.
     . The aspect must be set Enabled on the Aspect page.
   - Significator and Promissor pages contain visibility, aspectation and color settings
     for planets, signs and house cusps:
     . Used abbreviations in table columns: E = Enabled, A - Aspected. These settings are common
       for Normal and Oblique projections of each chart element.
     . Different color settings are used for Normal and Oblique projections of every chart element.
     . Each chart element has from one to three associated colors. These colors are used
       for chart element drawing:
       - Planet - a single color (1 - planet glyph)
       - House cusp - two colors (1 - cusp, 2 - cusp label)
       - Zodiac sign - three colors (1 - sign background, 2 - sign glyph, 3 - sign label).
   - The Chart Settings panel takes a rather significant part of usable screen area. After all
     settings are done, it is recommended to save configuration and hide the Chart Settings panel.
     Visibility is controlled through menu View\Panel Chart Settings or F9 key.
   - In order to achieve maximum performance it is recommended to create several configurations
     for various typically used settings. You can quickly switch between them using Configuration
     menu items.
   - In the next program version an additional page will be added for editing the rest chart settings.
2. Demo aspect tables modified. Aspect table "Demo - PD Essensial.orb" excluded.
3. Chart menu: Normal-Oblique and Oblique-Normal items are moved into submenu. The meaning of these
   items is inverted. Now the first part of menu item text indicates the Promissor Chart projection,
   the second part of menu item text indicates the Significator Chart projection. In previous versions
   the meaning was opposite.
4. Dialog bar Settings renamed to Chart Type.
5. Another change in planet speed calculation. Now the speed is calculated on [-1,+1] minute interval
   relative to chart calculation time. This update is critical for oblique equatorial and ecliptic
   planet projections, the speed of those sometimes is changed significantly within a few minutes.
6. Fixed terminology: the term Oblique Ascension was used incorrectly in the program. Not really
   Oblique Ascension was meant but an oblique chart element's projection to equator. The related text
   is updated throughout the program.
7. Error fixed: incomplete configuration restoration on Configuration\Reset... command.
8. Minor overpatching in Configuration Manager dialog.
9. Internal overpatching.


0.5.3a (2009-01-07)

 1. Configuration Manager added (menu Configuration). Configuration is a set of program settings
    available for saving in a file and restoring on demand.
    - Configuration Manager dialog (Configuration\Manage...) is used for saving and restoring
      configurations.
    - Any chart window has its own configuration.
    - There's one global configuration used for opening new chart windows.
    - Any time a chart window is closed, its configuration becomes global.
    - When the program is closed, its configuration is automatically saved in file
      <PDExplorer>/Config/Auto.pdecfg.
    - When the program starts, it attempts to load the global configuration from Auto.pdecfg.
    - The place for storing all configurations is the directory <PDExplorer>/Config.
    - You can create any number of user configurations. Ten of them can be accessed directly
      via the related Configuration menu items. If the number of configurations is greater than
      ten, you should use Configuration Manager dialog to browse and manage the whole list of them.
    - In the next program releases there will be more configuration options available for editing
      through GUI (individual coloring, visibility and aspectation for every chart element).
 2. For user aspect table files (*.orb) and configuration files (*.cfg) a name restriction introduced.
    A file name must start and end with a latin letter [A-Za-z] or decimal digit [0-9] or underscore.
    Inside a file name additional symbols are available: minus, dot, space and ampersand [-. &].
    The program will ignore any user files whose names violate this specification.
 3. There is a new helper Date & Time Converter dialog for converting dates and times
    (menu Event\Date & Time Converter...)
 4. You can now enter Julian Day instead of datetime in the Event Date & Time edit box, it will be
    understood and automatically converted into date and time. The range of valid Julian Day values
    is limited to program valid range of dates (for the moment it's 9.01.1200 .. 31.12.2399, that is
    equal to Julian Day 2159358.5 .. 2597640.5).
 5. Program initialization file name (PDExplorer.ini) is no longer dependent on the program version
    number. Before each version used its own initialization file, e.g. PDExplorer052a.ini.
    From now on all new versions will reuse the existing PDExplorer.ini.
 6. The value of the arc of direction is now limited to the program valid range of dates.
    Before the value of the arc of direction was limited to (-360, 360).
    *** WARNING!!! The arc of direction calculation is still under testing !!! ***
 7. The chart look changed.
 8. The chart window header forming rule changed.
 9. The current chart (Significator or Promissor) is now selected automatically when the user changes
    the displaying mode (Alt+1 .. Alt+5).
10. Two new options: Draw\Smart Cusp Degree and Draw\Smart Sign Degree. By default both are ON.
    Automatic decision whether to display cusp/sign degree or not was implemented in the program long ago.
    These two new options just allow to switch this behavior OFF:
    - Smart Cusp Degree: if ON then the program automatically determines whether to dispay
      cusp degrees or not.
    - Smart Cusp Degree: the same as previous, but for sign origins ("sign cusps").
11. Several unhappy changes made in previous versions are cancelled:
    - Cancelled: explicit rounding of body longitude in the last second of sign/house.
      Due to this feature the time of Pluto ingressing Capricorn was a few score of seconds
      different from the time calculated by Swiss Ephemeris library.
    - Returned: displaying primary direction age for Promissor chart aspects.
      Direction shifts in this case are calculated in reference to the Significator chart.
    - Returned: For date & time, latitude and longitude scrolling the Up/Down keys are used again
      instead of Right/Left keys. The designation of the other keys used for scrolling is not changed.
12. Quick Progression excluded (the definition to be verified).
13. Error fixed: body speed calculation. This mainly concerns of planet oblique projection speed in
    Equatorial and Ecliptic coordinate systems. In previous versions the speed calculation was based on
    1 second interval. In many cases this led to a wrong result (zero speed) and thus to wrong periods
    of planet direct and retrograde motion. Now the speed calculation is based on 15 minutes interval.
    The speed is still measured in degrees per day.
14. Error fixed: on opening Select Event dialog, the Description edit box was always initialized with
    the Comment text from the first table record while another record could be highlighted at the same time.
15. Some internal errors fixed.


0.5.2a (2008-11-23)

1. Dialog Open (menu File\Open): added possibility to select and open several files at once.
2. Dialog Select Event (menu Event\Select...): now allows to select an event from any open document.
   Before it was possible to select an event only from the current active document.
3. Menu item "File\Close Empty Documents" added. Designed for quickly closing empty documents.


0.5.1a (2008-11-13)

 1. Program terminology changed:
    - instead of the term Background Chart now using the term Significator Chart
    - instead of the term Foreground Chart now using the term Promissor Chart
 2. According to the changes in terminology some menu items renamed, some shortcuts reassigned.
    Menu structure slighty changed.
 3. In previous versions all charts belonging to the same document shared a single Background (Significator)
    chart. Any change in this chart caused recalculations in other winodows belonging to the same document.
    Now any chart window has its own Significator/Promissor chart pair. Any change in these charts does not
    affect the other windows.
 4. For a single wheel chart the primary direction age/date are no longer displayed across the aspect data.
    The Significator and Promissor charts coincide in this case, so the arc of directon is zero for any
    displayed aspect. It just makes no sense to display zero primary direction age for all listed aspects.
 5. Aspects can be calculated for coordinate system other than the one used to draw the chart. E.g. Mundane
    aspects can be calculated for Ecliptic chart. The related menu items are Aspect\Equatorial, Aspect\Ecliptic,
    Aspect\Mundane.
 6. Sinister/Dexter aspect filter implemented. The related menu items are Aspect\Sinister, Aspect\Dexter.
 7. Locality dialog improved. Many localities have alternative names, now these names are displayed as
    additional info text when you click on the locality item in the grid.
 8. Event and Select Event dialogs slightly improved.
 9. Error fixed: incorrect arc of direction sign for regressed time scales.
10. Error fixed: absolute arc of direction value could not be greater than 180 degrees. Now it can't
    be greater than 360 degrees.
11. Synchronisation improved between document data and their representation when document is edited.
12. Some errors in user interface fixed.
13. Internal overpatching.


0.5.0a (2008-10-26)

 1. The latest Swiss Ephemeris Release 1.75 is used.
 2. Equatorial coordinate system added (F2).
 3. Toolbar Settings: you can select the key of direction.
    For the moment two keys are supported (Ptolemy, Naibod).
 4. Data Grid dialog bar redesigned and renamed to Chart Info. You can see primary direction age
    across each aspect.
    *** WARNING!!! Arc of direction calculation algorithm is in process of testing !!! ***
 5. Arc of directon can be based either on right or oblique ascension. By default it is based on
    right ascension and this is a traditional approach. You can switch between using right and oblique
    ascension via menu Settings\Arc of Direction\. The setting is global, applies to all documents.
 6. Tertiary (1 sidereal day = 1 sidereal moon month) and Minor (1 sidereal moon month = 1 tropical
    year) progressions added. Anthropochronous progression temporary removed (definition to be verified).
 7. Regressive time scales added.
 8. Each wheel (Background, Foreground) can now display only one planet ring (Normal or Oblique; before
    it could display both). This change made possible reducing the number of toolbar buttons and menu items.
 9. The chart now contains the essential textual information.
10. The status bar now contains the cell explaining the selected key of direction.
11. Koch house system no longer supported as its math definition is ambigious.
12. Alcabitus house system is temporary excluded until some issues clarified.
    There seems to be a problem with this system in Swiss Ephemeris.
13. In order to scroll date and time it is no longer necessary to place the cursor into the correspondent
    edit box in the Event toolbar. (To scroll Latitude and Longitude you still need to place the cursor
    into a related edit box.)
14. Down/Up keys are no longer used for date & time, latitude and longitude scrolling.
    Left/Right keys are used instead.
15. Various program default settings changed.
16. Now you can open files associated with program (*.zbs) by drag-n-dropping them
    into the program window or "executing" them in Windows Explorer.
17. Decimal degrees can be displayed instead of DMS. The related option is in menu
    \Settings\More\Display Decimal Degrees. The setting is global, applies to all documents.
18. "Creative", "Karma", "Septile" aspect groups removed from "Demo - Natal.orb" aspect table.
    You can bring them back by uncommenting the related lines in this file.
19. Aspect\Stationary menu item removed (useless).
20. Error fixed: sometimes abnormal program termination when popping up Select Locality dialog.
21. Error fixed: totally wrong georgaphical coordinates for USA (eastern longitude was
    indicated instead of western). The file for USA is replaced by its new version.
22. Internal overpatching.
23. The latest SQLite version 3.6.3 is used.
24. The project is built is Visual Studio 2008 (previous versions were built in Visual Studio 2005).


0.4.6a (2008-08-10)

1. Bug fixed: wrong chart window header formed.
2. Bug fixed: skipped aspects sometimes.
3. Some overpatching in Select Locality dialog.
4. Latitude & longitude indicators removed from the Status Bar (useless).
5. Internal overpatching.


0.4.5a (2008-08-03)

1. Full-length geographical atlas added (sorry, it does not contain time zones).
   The atlas is integrated with Google Maps web service. Browsing maps online is available.
   See installation instructions in atlas/00_install.html.
   To open the atlas use Edit\Select Locality... menu command.
2. Added possibility to change astroproccessor's default locality.
   Use the Default... button in Select Locality dialog for this.
3. In previos versions different glyphs were used for increscent and waning Moon.
   Now it is controlled through menu option Settings\More\Increscent/Waning Moon Glyphs.
   By default this option is off, so for any Moon phase the increscent Moon glyph is used.
4. Minor overpatching in Select Event dialog.
5. Bug fixed: sometimes abnormal program termination on chart window closing
   in case the input focus belongs to the Event toolbar.


0.4.4a (2008-07-20)

1. Using the latest Swiss Ephemeris Release 1.74.
2. Event Editor dialog implemented (menu Edit\Event Editor...)
3. Select Event dialog redesigned.
4. Menu Edit. Several menu items' titles changed. Their purpose is still the same.
5. Fixed bug: new chart was always created with the same fixed datetime equal
   to program startup time. Now created with current datetime.
6. Minor bugs fixed.


0.4.3a (2008-06-15)

1. PDX file format is no longer supported.
2. Fixed a bug related to bitmap export (File\Export...) appeared in version 0.4.2a:
   the exported chart didn't fit into bitmap drawing area.
3. Minor improvements in database editor.


0.4.2a (2008-06-13)

1. Fixed bug in dialog bar Chart Data (DateTime/Latitude/Longitude controls):
   User input validation and automatic correction occurred before a user actually finished their input,
   therefore it was difficult (though still possible) to type the wanted value.
2. Aspect filter extended. Menu Aspect: Planet - Planet, Planet - Cusp etc.
   With this filter you can switch on/off particular types of aspects.
   E.g. if you only need planet to cusp aspects, you can switch off all other types.
3. Old-style (Date & Time, Location) dialog bars purged.
4. Project internal: massive changes in source code preparing the project to new functionality.


0.4.1a (2008-06-08)

1. New DateTime, Latitude, Longitude controls. You can either type a value or scroll it.
   To scroll use Up, Down, PgUp, PgDown, Home, End keys and/or Mouse Wheel in combination with Ctrl and/or Shift.
2. Orb Table syntax extended. See "Orb Table Syntax.txt" for reference, the current version is 1.2.
   Aspect highlighting is now possible with the new HIGHLIGHT tag.


0.4.0.1a (2008-06-01)

1. The latest available Swiss Ephemeris version (1.73) is used.
2. Two new house systems supported: Alcabitus, Whole Sign.
3. Chart printing quality improved.
4. Print Preview feature temporary disabled.
5. Changes in chart drawing style.
6. Changes in Demo* aspect tables.


0.3.7a (2008-05-18)

1. Export chart to a picture file (PNG, JPEG, BMP). Menu File\Export...
2. Printing & Print Preview. (File\Print Setup, File\Print..., File\Print Preview...)


0.3.6a (2008-04-20)

1. The Orb dialog bar settings now affect only the current View.
   Before its Scale & Composition options affected all documents globally.
2. Database Editor now allows record sorting in ascending order only.
3. Pasting any amount of data now allowed in Database Editor. Before there was a 4K restriction.
4. Minor bugs fixed.


0.3.4a (2008-04-05)

1. A bug related to Direction time scale fixed.
2. Quick Direction (1 Sidereal Day = 12 Tropical Years) introduced.
3. Menu Chart/Background and Chart/Foreground added.
4. Toolbars duplicating menu items Aspect/Background and Aspect/Foreground added.
5. Several inconsistencies related to aspect calculation and drawing resolved:
   now toggling aspectation of Background/Foreground chart elements works correctly.
6. The range of Planet and other point degree displayed on the chart is now 1..30. Before it was 0..29.
7. A number of smaller bugs fixed. Internal improvements are made.


0.3.3a (2008-03-22)

1. Basic chart drawing is complete.
2. The Aspect menu provides basic aspect filtering.
3. The Draw menu introduces a few new chart drawing options.
4. Several program-related URL added to the Help menu.
5. The source code reorganized (directory structure changed).


0.3.1a (2008-03-12)

This release fixes a number of bugs related to Database Editor (such as input control, data sorting etc).
For performance reason bulk data insert from clipboard is limited to 4K.


0.3.0a (2008-03-09)

This release includes several major changes, though the program's basic functionality is still not complete.

1. Chart drawing implemented, not complete yet.
2. User interface redesigned.
3. Aspect table format changed.
4. Bug fixed: GDI resources leak.
5. Number of other bugs fixed.
6. Project development status changed from Pre-Alpha to Alpha.


0.2.4a (2008-01-20)

This is a bug-fixing release. The intension was to make the existing functionality stable.
No new functionality added. User interface improved.


0.2.3a (2008-01-13)

This is a bug-fix release fixing some minor errors introduced in release 0.2.2a.


0.2.2a (2008-01-13)

This is an intermediate bug-fixing release.

Changes/News:
- Changes in user interface;
- New Synastry chart type implemented. Similar to Transit,
  but takes bodies' speed into account in a different way
  when calculating BF aspects.


0.2.0a (2008-01-05)

This is a major release. Several new important features added.

- Aspect calculation implemented. You'll find the related stuff
  (how to define your own orb tables) in the program's Aspect directory.
- A self-extracting archive is now used as kind of installer.
  It lets you choose installation path, copies files, creates a desktop shortcut for the program.
- Swiss Ephemeris library updated. New version 1.72 is used.
- Document look improved.
- Database Editor: a click on a column now sorts the data.
  (The Date+Time+GMT columns are treated as single column).
- It's now possible to treat the real time related to progression/direction event
  as an independent event (menu Edit or Shift+R).
- Some smaller changes.
- A number of bugs fixed.


0.1.2a (2007-11-18)
- Database editor is now available
- ZET 8 (*.zbs) file format is supported
- Document structure and PDX file format changed
- A number of bugs fixed (probably new bugs introduced ;-))
- The program package includes Swiss Ephemeris files
  to calculate horoscopes through 1200 to 2399 A.D.

This release has not been tested thoroughly due to a lack of time.
More testing will be performed on the upcoming releases.


0.1.1a (2007-11-06)
- Simple document open/save implemented
- New features added to the program Edit menu


0.1.0a (2007-11-06)

Steps to a nicer GUI:
- started using Ultimate Grid in the project
- document look redesigned


0.0.7a (2007-10-28)


0.0.6a (2007-10-28)

Project placed at sourceforge.net. The first public release.


Before 0.0.6a
The project has been started in August 2007. Several first releases were not available to public.