Recent Version Changes

MAJOR VERSION CHANGES: The following major changes have occurred which are signalled through the change in the major version number.

From Version 12: ``Readline'' has been removed completely, and replaced with similar functionality file name completion code. ``Readline'' caused problems of missing shared libraries on some Unix systems. The new code means that the escape key can be used once more for user escape.

From Version 11: Windows XP becomes the best supported and tested version. Correction to bug when using negative angle ranges in ``CAKE'' menu.

From Version 10: WindowsNT and Windows 9X support is available. This is still a testing stage, but gradually FIT2D will become available on Windows based systems as well as Unix systems.

The ``symbol'' system was replaced by the ``variable'' system. The ``variable'' system allows internal program variables to be defined from the command-line or within FIT2D and used within macros to allow attempts like file names to be automatically varied. The ``variable'' system is very similar to the previous ``symbol'' system, but variables have the concept of type i.e. a variable may be an integer value, a logical (boolean) state value, a floating point real value, or a character string value. The commands DEFINE SYMBOL, SYMBOL, LIST SYMBOLS and UN-DEFINE SYMBOL have been replaced by the commands DEFINE VARIABLE, VARIABLE, LIST VARIABLES and UN-DEFINE VARIABLE. The DEFINE VARIABLE / VARIABLE command now prompts for the type of variable to be defined. (The SYMBOL command is now an alias for the DEFINE VARIABLE command.)

At Version 9: all NAG code was removed from FIT2D, so that no NAG licence (or other commercial licence) is necessary to run FIT2D. This mainly affected the fitting code and associated options.

At Version 8: the ``Graphics User Interface'' (GUI) became the default interface to FIT2D. (The command line (``Keyboard'') interface can still be used directly as the default interface, by entering the option -key or -keyboard on the command line when starting FIT2D.)

NEW FEATURES: The following major changes and new features have been added since Version 10.97 (as well as many minor ones):

• Correct error which caused rotation to stall for rectangular arrays (V10.98) .

• Faster output of 3-D surfaces (V10.99).

• Fixed problem in "QUESTION" command when defining an input file (V10.102).

• Add "SUMMATION" command to "FILE SERIES" interface. Add "MATHS" command to "SAX / GISAXS" interface (V10.104).

• Windows version: changes to graphics to stop resource losses (V10.106).

• Add support of 32-bits per pixel TIFF (V10.108).

• Correct display problem for 24-bit 'Truecolor' displays which use "little-endian" 4-bytes per pixel images e.g. RedHat Linux 6.2 system (V10.112).

• Add support for direct input of Bruker format files (V10.113).

• Option to output simple "KLORA" format (V10.115).

• Add option to 'SAXS/GISAXS' menu to allow the region of interest to be remembered between input images (V10.117).

• Correct problem with input of Bruker format when there is 1 byte per pixel (V10.119).

• Add support for direct input of ADSC detector format files (V10.121).

• Add support for input of Rigaku R-AXIS format (V10.124).

• For image translation, problem in defining axes after translation fixed (this only occured if the output area was bigger than the defined data area) (V10.126).

• Change to BSL file format output, so now the byte ordering is indicated (V10.127).

• BSL file format input supports both byte ordering and 2-byte integer data types (V10.128).

• Option of user defined series of D-spacings for "CALIBRANT" option (V10.129).

• Backslashes ('$\backslash$') should now appear properly in PostScript output. (Previously they disappeared, or could lead to newlines, tabs, and similar erroneous effects) (V10.131).

• Make double backslash escape work properly on Windows systems (V10.135).

• Fix a number of "CANCEL" buttons problems (V11.000).

• Allow sample to detector distances of up to 100 metres (V11.001).

• Correct bug when 0 rotation and 0 translation transform applied to data (V11.002).

• Input correctly BSL files with file extensions only made up of digits (V11.002).

• Change Mar input code owing to problem inputting re-written Mar files i.e. files written by 'automar'. (The Mar file headers were incorrect. It's coded for uncompressed data, whereas the data is clearly compressed. All Mar345 files are compressed, so treat as compressed regardless of the file format) (V11.006).

• Mac OSX user test version. Correct powder ring out-lier rejection code, which was not rejecting the right positions (V11.007).

• Correct problem with cake not correctly re-binning negative angle azimuth ranges (V11.009).

• Correct azimuthal range calculation for ``CAKE'' command. Remember angles between program invocations (V11.010).

• Fixed problem inputting from directory with thousands of files (7046) Increase limit to 200000 and check fail message (V11.011).

• Explicit support of Windows-XP systems (V11.014).

• Option of re-directing input to command for pipe sub-process control (V11.017).

• New keyboard input routines and file name completion (V12.001).

• Option to use shared memory segment for main program array space (V12.002).

• Correct problem in input of coordinates for 2-D fit model (V12.005).

• Change default so markers are not drawn initially on X-Y graphs (V12.007).

NEW FEATURES Before Version 10.97: The following changes and new features have been added since Version 10.3 but before version 10.97 (as well as many minor ones):

• Output equivalent D-spacing when user clicks on a 1-D 2-theta scan with the experimental geometry set (V10.7).

• "INPUT (1-D)" command added to "FILE SERIES" interface to allow the input of a series of 1-D data-sets to form a 2-D "image" e.g. for viewing the output of the "FILE SERIES" "INTEGRATE" command (V10.16).

• Add "SCALED SUB" option to "MATHS" menu to allow interactive scaled subtraction of the memory data from the current data (V10.17).

• Add "VECTORS" array to FIT2D. Allow "MFIT" to save the results of fits to the vectors array, and add "VECTORS" viewing command (V10.18).

• MFIT fitting now automatically fits in both directions from a choosen initialisation row. The fit model parameters can be allowed to evolve or not (V10.19).

• Add new colour table (Black-Purple-Magenta-Red-Orange-Yellow-White) (V10.24).

• "TRANSFORM" command added to "IMAGE PROCESSING" interface to allow easy rotation and translation of images, using most appropriate algorithm automatically (V10.25).

• Reduce graphics output by filtering out attribute commands which are already set (should be noticably faster on slow X-terminals) (V10.26).

• Add "REFLECT" command to GUI "IMAGE PROCESSING" menu (V10.27).

• Add "PowderCIF" output format (V10.28).

• Add code so that the Fuji BAS input routine can cope with single byte per pixel data (V10.37).

• Add choice of Alumina (Al2O3) to calibrant list (V10.63).

• Add "RE-BIN" option to "IMAGE PROCESSING" "GEOMETRIC" menu (V10.65).

• Add ``2-D FITTING'' interface (V10.66).

• "SPHERICAL MOD" command added to SAXS/GISAXS interface (V10.67).

• ``EDF/KLORA'' files, now recognised and input automatically in GUI (V10.73).

• Software key protection removed (V10.95).

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT: FIT2D is presently under development and many new features are likely to be added in the future. If users have particular requirements which fit within the general frame-work that FIT2D provides, I will be happy to try to include new features to fulfil their needs.