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Release 0.31, 7.1.1995 by Thomas Engel (tomi@shinto.nbg.sub.org) 3 Release Notes and History This chapter contains the release notes to all the BeakerBoy versions. It documents new features, the development steps taken, major bugs that have been fixed and bugs that are known. Version 0.31 Released on 7.1.1995 to get a Multi-FAT application. This version has been tested on NeXTSTEP for HP, Sparc, Intel and NeXT Computers. New Features Nothing really new. Basically only dropped MOStrings and made some small additions to have something to demonstrate at the OOCNS'94 conference. · Better 3D Mouse Support. We now are able to connect to servers on other hosts¼not only the localhost. Just specify the right portname in the Preferences. · PDB File Filter. This release includes a very simple PDB file filter. Still it lacks most of the very interesting features and information stored inside PDB. Stay tuned for and improved version. Known Problems · I had some problems previewing a printed view. Preview.app never started. But the images where rendered and laying around in /tmp. · Currently you can only change the rotation style. I am still trying to find a nice way of applying render settings to the different shapes. Maybe I will try to do this more automatically. Or by using a drag&drop approach. Lets see. · With the SpaceMouse it can happen that when rapidly switching between two views the render styles get messed up. This is because the BBRotator does not take care of target switches while still in rotation-mode. Call it a feature because it prevents large molecules from dropping back into the slow high-quality render mode. · Loading MacMolecule data produces strange molecules. Well the fileformat is not really useful. It does not contain absolute sizes or positions. I will have to add some smart recalculation stuff. · Not everything shown in the interface will work. Especially the ToolBoy is a fake ! · Browser does not update, inspectors may not work¼etc. pp. Right now please don't care about those 'bugs'. I will fix a lot of them anytime soon. There might be some memory leaks and some strange code sections which I will try to remove once the design has reached a useful level. Anyway¼the app should never crash. If it does I want to hear of it. Thanx! Development Nov. 94: More 3D mouse support and a very simple PDB filter. (4 days of coding) Oct 94: After almost doing nothing for the last 5 month I have started to make BeakerBoy HP friendly by removing MOKit dependance. (1 day of coding) Version 0.3 Released on 31.05.94 and not really breathtaking too. Most work focused on getting the features working and writing some docs. New Features Some simple features have been added that make the app more useful compared to v0.2. Graphics representations are very flexible now. · 3D Mouse Support. BeakerBoy now supports the 3DDeviceServer. With this DO based service it does allow controlling the molecules using a 3D control device like the SpaceMouse. It feels pretty cool and is a lot more comfortable than the build in sliders. · File Filters. You may load molecules in Look3D, Alchemy, MacMolecule and MVT format. Right now there is no way to add privat bundles to extend the way BeakerBoy handles file conversion. Anyway. Basic filter objects and a general API are in there now so you might add a filter and recompile. An easier solution will be available in the future. To support other filetypes you might also choose to write a NeXT filter service. · Drag & Drop. Well this is not a real feature but including the IconKit (by Scott Roy) makes it more openminded and did repidly speed up development. · Grouping. You are now able to group atoms or bonds and thereby create Regions of the molecule. These regions may have their private render settings and may be displayed seperatly too. Regions give you the possibility to represent logical or functional sections of a molecule. · Preferences System. The apps preferences system is now running. It is far from complete but if does serve some defaults right now (background color, 3D mouse setting) · Graphic Settings. Many different quality and style settings are possible now. There is a different render style while the molecule is rotating. · Printing. Well, sorry you still can not save what you have done. But printing/rendering should work just fine now. The "background bug" is still around. It's NeXTs bug. My current fix is very stupid and slows down the rendering. So only use printable backgrounds when you really want to print and are using a color different to black. Bugs Fixed in Release 0.3 Because v0.2 had so many limitations there were no real bugs to fix. It just needed a lot of work and redesign. Development May 94: Did rewirte everything to fit the "BB¼" naming. Some preferences work and I am using Scotts IconKit now. Some basic actions work too (printing). Shape generation more extensible for later versions. (9 days of coding) Apr. 94: Included 3D mouse support. Spend most of the time on my 3DDeviceServer project. (7 days of coding) Mar. 94: Started to switch to "BBAnyClass" naming and introduced the region concept (pervious groups). Focused on the drag & drop stuff and to get some inspectors working. The graphics parts have been redesigned to allow customization and more flexible settings. (8 days of coding) Version 0.2 Uploaded to ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de on 25.02.94. It is the first public release. New Features Everything is new because this is the first real version anyway. Here are the currently working features. · Loading. In this release you can only load molecules in the Look3D fileformat. · Multiple cameras. You can have as many cameras for a single molecule as you like. Anyway, changes made to the molecule or it's graphical settings are not applied to any existing window. There is no automatic updateing right now. · Rotator. The Rotator allows you to zoom and rotate a single molecule. Right now it's more a quick hack. But it works. Future versions will use nicer sliders and support 3D devices like the SpaceMouse. · Molecule Shapes. Four shape types are supported in the current release: Hollow Sticks, Round Sticks, Balls & Sticks and Spacefilling (CPK). · Inspector. There are only few working inspectors in this version. They cover objects like molecules and atoms. It is possible to make some small changes to the molecules drawing style and color. Atoms may be color or sized individually. Basically this is all of what is useful in the current version. There are other settings that can be made but they can not be saved and have no affect on anything. · App.info. The app comes with a useful BeakerBoy.info file (similar to .info files of the Installer.app). My NewAppInspector bundle for the Workspace will like this little extra description. Once I'll have the time to polish and finish it I will release this project too. Bugs Fixed in Release 0.2 There were a lot of bugs in v0.1. It was not complete at all. Development Feb. 94: Release delayed ± had to go for a long snowboarding trip. Also did rewrite the swap&Inspector stuff. Maybe they might find their way into Don's MiscKit now. (7 days of coding) Jan. 94: This will be the first released version. Spend a lot of time with the inspectors and fine tuning the graphics. Included the MOStrings and ObjectWell and made the objects configurable and nicer. (16 days of coding) Dec. 93: Wrote the browser-stuff and imporved almost every object in the project (especially the graphic-shapes). A lot of icons have been painted. Wrote the Look3D parser and arranged all the demo molecules. SwapViewControllers passed a major rewriting. (12 days of coding) Nov. 93: SwapView and InspectorManager were the objects under construction. Not perfect..but they work now. (5 days of coding) Oct. 93: The NIBs have been change to work with the first objects. Hardcoded benzole and made the first steps with Objective-C and AppKit programming. (7 days of coding) Version 0.1 Just a stupid private release number. It never saw another computer. Development Jul. 93: Created some NIBs and played with MolViewer.
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.