News items before 2005

Click here for current news items

30 November 2004

• PolySymm exploring the symmetries of polyhedra updated to version 1.02
• GNU PGPlot recompiled unoptimised - now works much better.

03 November 2004

• PolySymm exploring the symmetries of polyhedra released
• New version of the GNU Fortran compiler. It is supposed to be 32-bit architecture compatible but still has serious flaws making it unusable for large programs.

09 April 2004

• Updates to !CallChnge and to demo of !Methods now available.
  These fix a problem in RISCOS “Select” when the “Close window” icon is moved.

22 February 2004

• PGPlot is now available for use with the GNU Fortran compiler.

09 February 2004

• Updates to !CallChnge and to demo of !Methods now available.
  These attempt to fix a problem in the colours of the display text seen on "Virtual RISCPC"

11 September 2003

• more polyhedral models to construct; these ones are boxes made to the shape of the seven crystal classes.
• a short bibliography of books on polyhedra.

06 September 2003

• more polyhedral models to construct; these ones to help compose Bell ringing touches.

03 May 2003

• Updates for all our programs to run on Iyonix now available
  • LazyPrint
  • Updates to Polyhedra programs including the program which does the updating
  • Bell ringing programs
• new version of !Methods which allows saving and replay of a called touch
• Iyonix compatible fortran library for the Acornsoft compiler

01 Dec 2002

• At the Midlands show we were able to try out a couple of simple Fortran programs on Iyonix (courtesy of Castle).
  They both executed with no problem showing that the code generated by the commercial Fortran compiler and the Fortran library are consistent with the 32-bit addressing architecture.
  This is good news.
  It remains to seen whether the compiler will run on Iyonix and whether the linker can cope with the rather dated Fortran library format.

22 Nov 2002

• Updates to PolyDraw and PolyNet programs

06 Sep 2002

• Dodecahedral calendar for 2003 now available here

22 May 2002

• New versions of all the Polyhedra programs. These are mainly to make the demos work on VirtualAcorn but there are a few minor bug fixes.
  Updates can be obtained here.

4 May 2002

• Demo version of !Methods now available. This shows an animated set of bellringers able to ring 'touches' of all the common change ringing methods. Drawfiles can be made of the 'Diagrams' of plain courses. This also runs on PCs using the Virtual Acorn.

6 March 2002

• We have implemented a copy of 'Virtual Acorn' on a PC and tested our polyhedra programs and !CallChange. Please let us know of any problems running any of our programs on the 'Virtual Acorn'.

21 February 2002

• New version of our Call Changes program for bell ringing.
• More Links to bell ringing sites

9 February 2002

• GNU Fortran Release 4 to download
  

25 January 2002

• PolyDraw updated to version 3.25
  click here for ugrade.

8 December 2001

• A new application !CallChnge is available on our Hobbies page.

24 November 2001

• Close-packed Rhombic dodecahedra model kit available as on display at the RISCOS 2001 show, and an explanation of space filling polyhedra.

10 October 2001

• Model kits now available in PDF format as well as in Draw

10 July 2001

• Corrections to four of the solids on 'Extra Data' disc 1
  click here to download (4.1K).

11 June 2001

• PolyDraw updated to version 3.24
  click here for ugrade.

3 June 2001

• Polyhedron models to make from paper and glue
• Stellations explained
• RISC-OS 4.03/Kinetic StrongARM RAM disc problem (reported on 22 Oct 2000) is cured by RISC-OS 4.04.

11 March 2001

• Polyhedra program demos updated and new method for upgrades of registered versions

09 March 2001

• More trouble for RISCPCs using RISC-OS 4.
  The Floating Point Emulator version 4.09 sometimes cannot correctly multiply two double length (64bit) numbers. This can affect any 'Fortran', 'C', or 'BASIC VI' programs. Some !Stellate models fail when run with this FPEmulator, although they run correctly on earlier versions.
  
  These problems appear to be fixed in the version 4.14. Click here for instructions on installing this.
  
  This module replacement is probably not needed on computers with hardware floating point (such as A7000+, RiscStation etc.) which use the ARM 7500FE chip.

04 February 2001

• Polyhedra programs updated

10 December 2000

• Bell ringing pages have been rearranged and a picture added to celebrate the return of the bells to All Saints' Chilton

04 December 2000

• !Stellate 2.13 released

26 November 2000

• Fourth disc of extra data for PolyNet and Poly Draw, all the non-convex uniform polyhedra and their duals
• !PolyDraw 3.21 released
• !PolyNet 1.15 released

22 October 2000

• Another serious bug in the beta test version of GNU F77
• RISC-OS 4.03/Kinetic problem with Fortran front end
• !LazyPrint restored to previous version because fix (below) caused worse problems with page throws.
  Download old Shareware version 2.40S
  

8 October 2000

• !LazyPrint updated to stop occasional computer hangup when the printer hangs up.
  This version has been discontinued.

29 August 2000

• More examples and descriptions from our polyhedra programs
• PGPlot download correcting Y2K problem in printout

29 June 2000

• upgrade to !Stellate (v 2.12) which can make duals of all uniform polyhedra

15 June 2000

• added a directory for software to teach Atomic Packing and Crystal Structure

2 May 2000

• added page for latest beta test version of GNU Fortran

28 March 2000

• added page for Anne Parmenter's Bells and Bellringing downloadable program

18 March 2000

• added a page of links to our other interests including:
  • links to information about Chilton, Oxon
  • links to info on Church Bells , bell ringing and related RISCOS programs
• added more STRUPLO example plots

15 Feb 2000

• More library routines added to FF1, Keyinput, from P.Borcherds
• version 1.0.3 of Ortep III is now available for RISCOS
• New for the SW Show a RISCOS Version of STRUPLO which plots molecules as outline polyhedra and spheres.
• The academic PD site HENSA has moved to a new address:
  http://www.mirror.ac.uk/collections/hensa-micros/local/riscos/

28 Nov 1999

• GNUf77 is developing well, with just a few 'bugs' still to kill before we can recommend it, We have a utility/graphics/spriteOp library with the same calling sequences as those used with Acornsoft's Release 2. Please email us here if you are interested in these and would like a 'Front end Development' system for use with GNUf77.
• Updates to polyhedra programs on 17 Nov 1999