Monster Media 1994 #1/monster.zip/monster/PERSONAL/AST41.ZIP/UPDATE.410

Text File | 1994-03-21 | 40KB | 707 lines

#####################  ASTROLOG 4.10 UPDATE FILE  #####################

     Happy Vernal Equinox everyone! Today the Sun enters Aries, and
Spring and a new astrological year begins. In appropriate coordination
with this event (and my Mars return that just happened) allow the next
version of the Astrolog astrology program to be presented: version 4.10

     This file describes the new features, improvements, and fixes
made to Astrolog 4.10, over the previous version, 4.00, posted 2.5
months ago (when Mars transited my Ascendant :). Version 4.10 is
mostly a stabilization release over the previous version. It doesn't
have any major new modules, but some existing features have been
expanded (e.g. we now have multiple year transit scans). It has a
bunch of bug fixes, some of which address issues going back many
versions (e.g. Julian calendar switchover problems), and some
annoyances have been addressed (e.g. no more dependencies on compile
time directories), while this version is also more easily compilable
on the various systems which may have had trouble with the previous
release. If you are running version 4.00 and haven't had any problems
with it, then no need to upgrade, but if you've encountered a problem
or two, or would like to take advantage of any of 4.10's
improvements, or have been putting off compiling until the next
release after 4.00 (this means you Karen! ;) then for maximum
functionality and solidness, version 4.10 is the one to use!

     The sources to Astrolog 4.10 have just been posted to
comp.sources.misc. The various binaries are being released to this
newsgroup. The posting here consists of the following files, each
posted as a separate article or group of articles:

1. A text Update file describing new features and changes to Astrolog
   4.10 made over the previous version (what you're reading now).
2. A uuencoded, zip archive containing a DOS executable ready to run on
   PC's, config file, icon file, two ephemeris files, and Update file.
3. A uuencoded, zip archive containing the source code, and makefiles
   (not necessary to have unless you want to play with programming).
4. A text Help file giving a comprehensive list and documentation of
   all the features and functionality of version 4.10.

     The "source code" consists of 16 files (14 "C" program files and
two header #include files). The "config file" is the astrolog.dat
default parameter file (not necessary to have to run but useful). The
"makefile" is a nmakefile for Microsoft compilers. The "icon file" is
a Microsoft Windows icon to use if invoking Astrolog from MS Windows.
The "ephemeris files" are used for more accurate calculations of the
planetary positions (not necessary to have but useful).

     Some of these files are posted in more than one part in multiple
articles, due to newsreader size restrictions. For these files,
extract each part in turn to a separate file, go into a text editor
and strip off the header and trailing text, and concatenate them
together. If you are using the Unix "rn" newsreader, one can have the
program automatically extract multiple articles, and even remove
their headers and uudecode the final result, using the "e" command.
For example, one can do "1000-1003:e" to extract the four articles
starting with article #1000. Commas in addition to a dash may be used
to specify discontiguous ranges or for when the parts don't arrive
and aren't listed in order.

     A Unix shell archive of the source code, config file, Unix
makefile, and Helpfile, has been posted on comp.sources.misc. A new
version History file describing the changes made to each version of
the program since its beginning may be found at the ftp site below,
which is not necessary to have unless you are upgrading from several
versions ago, and want to see what has been done in the past few
releases.

     All the files described above have been uploaded to Michael
Bulmer's alt.astrology anon ftp site at hilbert.maths.utas.edu.au in
the directory /incoming/astrolog. They should be moved to the
standard /pub/astrology/Astrolog directory there soon. All of the
ephemeris files are already in the /pub/astrology/Astrolog/ephem
subdirectory, as they haven't changed any since 4.00. Fellow employees
at Microsoft connected to its network can get a copy of this version
out of my public share in the directory \\<myemailname>\public\astrolog.


#####################  ASTROLOG 4.10 NEW FEATURES  #####################

Here are the main new features and additions made to version 4.10:

1. Environment variables: Astrolog 4.10 has several environment
   variables which may be set to indicate directories where to find the
   various files it may look for. Before the only place the program
   would look for chart files and the astrolog.dat defaults file was in
   the current directory and a default directory set at compile time.
   Now the program will look where any or all of these environment
   variables point, if they are defined. The three environment variables
   are named "ASTROLOG", "ASTR4.10", and "ASTR". On a PC you can set an
   environment variable from the DOS prompt with a command such as "set
   ASTROLOG=C:\PROGRAMS\ASTRO410\CHARTS". This command can be put in
   your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to remain persistent. On a Unix system you can
   set an environment variable from the shell with a command such as
   "setenv ASTROLOG /username/programs/astro410/charts". This line can
   be put in your .cshrc file to remain persistent. Note that the
   ASTR4.10 environment variable is version specific, i.e. future
   versions will ignore this variable and look in one such as ASTR4.20.
   This allows one to have a directory for version specific files such
   as the astrolog.dat file, and have multiple versions of Astrolog on
   the system at once without them conflicting with each other. I
   personally point ASTROLOG to my chart files directory, ASTR4.10 to my
   astrolog.dat directory, and ASTR to my ephemeris directory, although
   any file may be found with any of the variables. Specifically, when
   Astrolog searches for a file, it will look in the following
   directories, in order: The current directory, the ASTR4.10
   environment variable directory, the ASTROLOG environment directory,
   the ASTR dir, and finally the compile time default directory.

2. Placalc improvement: Related to the above, the ephemeris files as
   used by the -b extended formulas, may now be in the current
   directory, as well as in any of the directories in the new
   environment variables. Before these files always had to be in a
   particular directory set at compile time in order to be found, making
   it so one couldn't, say, access the ephemeris files directly off of a
   floppy, network drive, or so on.

3. -tY switch: The -t transit search switch has been extended to allow
   scanning an arbitrary number of years at once. Before one could only
   scan one year at a time with -ty. One uses -tY like the existing -ty
   <year> switch, except that -tY takes an extra parameter for how many
   years to search. For example, -tY 1994 10 will search the ten years
   from 1994 through 2003 for whatever transits. With a negative value
   for the years to scan, it will start that many years before the given
   year, e.g. -tY 1993 -10000 will scan the previous 100 centuries for
   transits, starting with 8005 B.C.! Note that this switch may also be
   invoked as "-tYn <years>", in which case it will start from the
   current year and be an equivalent shorthand to "-tY 1994 <years>" for
   this year at least.

4. -dy switch: The -d exact aspect time search switch has been extended
   to allow scanning an entire year at once. Before one could only scan
   one day at a time with -d, or one month at a time with -dm, which
   wasn't efficient if one wants to scan large periods for some event.

5. -Z0 switch: The -Z0 switch will do a text chart just like the -Z
   local horizon switch except that it will print the location of each
   planet in prime vertical coordinates, instead of altitude and
   azimuth. Prime vertical coordinates are measured with its "azimuth"
   around the 360 degree circle, with 0 degrees due east on the local
   horizon, going down with 90 degrees straight down, 180 degrees due
   west and so on; declination "altitudes" are measured with positive
   values toward the north and negative toward the south. Note that -Z0
   existed in previous versions, but would only affect the -Z -X
   graphical horizon chart, displaying its coordinates axes in the
   alternate manner. (See Darren, -Z0 isn't just a graphics switch. ;)

6. -rc0, -rm0 switches: The -rc composite and -rm time-space midpoint
   relationship charts may now be weighted to give more influence to one
   of the charts. When the switches are invoked as -rc0 or -rm0 they
   accept two additional parameters which are the ratio weights to give
   to the two chart files in question. For example, the sequence "-rm
   person1 person2 2 1" will still do a time space midpoint chart, but
   the time and location that the chart is cast for will be biased at a
   2:1 ratio toward person1, i.e. will be 2/3 of the way from person2's
   chart info closer to person1's info.

   Note that the -rc0 switch can be used to generate multiple composite
   charts between more than two people! A composite chart between two
   people can already be done and saved to a file with "-rc person1
   person2 -o0 composite12". A third person can now be merged in by
   doing a composite between it and the composite of the first two, but
   giving the first result a 2:1 ratio because two charts have already
   gone into it, by "-rc0 composite12 person3 2 1 -o0 composite123". A
   fourth person can then be merged in at a higher ratio with "-rc0
   composite123 person4 3 1 -o0 composite1234" and so on. Actually this
   method won't always generate a 100% correct multiple composite chart
   in cases where the objects are spread out over 180 degrees and the
   initial composites put the current midpoint in the wrong half, e.g.
   if the Suns of person1 through person3 are 1Can, 29Sag, and 0Ari,
   then the true composite Sun is at 0Ari, but composite12 is at 0Lib
   and hence the final composite is at 0Leo or 0Sag, in the wrong
   "quadrant" biased toward the earlier results. Still the results are
   useful and the method can be used with -rm0 to get the correct
   average between multiple chart locations.

7. -Aa switch: The new -Aa <aspect> <angle> switch is used to change the
   actual angle of a particular aspect. This is useful if one wants to
   search for some unusual angle not already available in Astrolog's
   aspects or accessible through the -x harmonic charts. For example, if
   I want to know when any planet enters a 2.5 degree orb of any planet
   in my natal chart, I would do a transit search along with "-Aa 1
   2.5", where "1" is the index of the conjunction aspect, and "2.5"
   means the "conjunction" is now exact when any two objects are 2
   degrees and 30 minutes apart.

8. -dpn switch: The -dp <month> <year> switch which searches the
   specified month for aspects and events among progressed planets, of
   the given chart progressed to that month, can now be invoked as -dpn
   to search the current month, or -dpyn to search the entire current
   year. For example, if I want to search for the exact times of all
   aspects in my natal chart, progressed to any time this month, I
   simply do "-i mychartfile -dpn".

9. -s extension: The -s zodiac type selection switch now accepts an
   optional parameter of an offset for the start of the zodiac. This
   value, when non-zero, will be added to all zodiac positions, and
   effectively allows one to choose any starting point for the sidereal
   (or tropical) zodiac, which is useful for Hindu or other systems
   whose sidereal zodiacs have zero Aries at a different location than
   the standard Western sidereal zodiac. This value is initialized to a
   new zodiac offset value setting in the astrolog.dat file, which is by
   default zero.

10. -s improvement: There is a new setting in the astrolog.dat file for
   you sidereal astrologers out there which sets the value of the -s
   sidereal zodiac switch. Before, one always had to include -s on the
   command line, in order to do charts in the sidereal zodiac. Now, if
   this value is non-zero, the sidereal zodiac will be on by default and
   one will have to include -s to return to the default tropical zodiac.


#####################  ASTROLOG 4.10 MINOR NEW FEATURES  #####################

Here are more improvements made to version 4.10, which although not
as visible or significant as above, are still useful and are listed here:

1. PostScript orientation: One may now choose the paper orientation of
   full PostScript graphics charts as generated with the -Xp0 switch.
   There is a new setting in the astrolog.dat file to specify this. If
   this PS paper orientation value is positive, then the chart will be
   printed in portrait mode, while if the value is negative, then it
   will be printed in landscape mode. If the orientation value is set to
   zero (the default), then the program will decide based on the size of
   the current chart, with charts with larger horizontal sizes (e.g.
   astro-graph charts and wheel charts with sidebars) being in
   landscape, and charts with horizontal sizes less than or equal to the
   vertical (e.g. aspect grids and wheel charts without sidebars) being
   in portrait. Before the program would force one orientation or
   another based only on the chart type, with results such as wheel
   charts with sidebars always having to be in portrait and possibly
   getting clipped to the page when printed.

2. PostScript page size: One may also now choose the paper size of full
   -Xp0 PostScript graphics charts. There are two new settings which
   specify the horizontal and vertical size in inches of the paper to be
   printed upon. By default this is 8.5" x 11", which was a hardcoded
   restriction before. Now if you have say 8.5" x 14" legal size or A4
   paper in your printer it can be used just as easily. (Note: It's
   been mentioned that at least some systems or drivers may clip all
   graphics beyond 8.5" x 11", but excluding any external restrictions
   Astrolog's PostScript should allow one to go beyond these limits.)

3. -c extension: There are two new house systems in Astrolog 4.10 which
   can be accessed with the -c switch. House index 10 is the Midheaven
   based Equal house system. This is just like the more common standard
   Equal house system except that we start with the 10th cusp being the
   same as the MC and disassociate the 1st cusp from the Ascendant,
   instead of starting with the 1st cusp being the same as the Ascendant
   and disassociating the 10th cusp from the MC. House index 11 is the
   Neo-Porphyry system of house division. This is a new system similar
   to Porphyry houses except that it's "smooth" around the zodiac with
   the MC/Asc difference being spread in a continuous sinusoidal manner
   from expanded to compressed quadrants.

4. -Xs extension: The -Xs graphics glyph scaling switch has been
   expanded to accept 400 as a valid percentage. Before the only valid
   percentages were 100, 200, and 300. This allows larger glyphs for
   those high resolution images, as well as larger astro-graph and world
   map charts.

5. -d extension: The -d aspect in day search switch has been expanded to
   accept an optional parameter for the searching divisions accuracy
   value. Before the only way to set this value was in the astrolog.dat
   file. This command line change of the divisions value can be done
   for other charts such as the -t transit search by using the switch
   toggle feature to turn -d off but still leave the divisions value
   set, e.g. "-d 100 -d -t" will set the value to 100 but not actually
   display the -d chart.

6. Alternate glyphs: Astrolog now has the ability to choose between
   different common glyphs for various astrological symbols. One may now
   optionally display charts with the "European" version of the
   Capricorn glyph, instead of the more twisty "American" type glyph.
   One may also display charts with the "astronomical" version of the
   Uranus glyph with a dotted circle with an ascending arrow, instead of
   the more astrological "Herschel" glyph with the crescent bounded
   cross over a circle. Finally one may display with the "astronomical"
   version of the Pluto glyph as the "PL" initials, instead of the more
   "astrological" version with the circle over crescent over cross.
   There is one glyph selection numerical field in the astrolog.dat
   file, which, if the ones place is "1" means use the alternate
   Capricorn glyph, if the tens place is "1" means to use the alternate
   Uranus glyph, and if the hundreds place is "1" means to use the
   alternate Pluto. The default value is "0", but many astrologers on
   the other side of the Atlantic may prefer "111".

7. -Z improvement: The graphics local horizon chart as accessed via -Z
   -X now labels the four directions in the boundaries of the chart with
   NSWE abbreviation letters. The -Z0 -X pole centered local horizon
   chart (which didn't even have a internal boundary border before) is
   labeled in a similar way. Without the labels these charts may be
   confusing as to what part of the graphic references which direction.

8. -m improvement: The -m midpoint and -r0 -m relationship midpoint list
   charts now display the difference on each line between the two
   objects forming the midpoint in question to the nearest minute of a
   degree. Before this was just to the nearest degree.

9. Sketching extensions: For PC's only, the ability to use the mouse to
   sketch and scribble on the charts has been extended. The right mouse
   button (on those non-world map charts where it doesn't already set
   the current location) will draw a straight line to the mouse pointer
   from the point where one last clicked the left button. Also, pressing
   ctrl-t will draw a rectangle from the point of the last click to the
   current mouse position. Finally, pressing ctrl-x will draw an ellipse
   inscribed within the bounds from the last click point to the current
   position. These are just more enhancements to make Astrolog a better
   graphics drawing program. :)

10. -S improvement: The -S solar system orbit chart has been expanded to
   allow the Moon to appear in its text and graphics versions, which
   before was always left out. The -b extended Placalc formulas are
   required to be in effect (as well as either the Sun or Earth being
   the central body) in order for the Moon to be able to appear. At the
   new 400% glyph scale, the -S -X graphical orbit chart will be
   magnified to cover only 1 AU of radius, i.e. just enough to cover the
   Earth's orbit. At this scale with the Moon included as well, one can
   actually get a feel for the relative distance of the Sun from the
   Earth and the Moon from the Earth, although the chart will have to be
   over 1000 pixels wide for the Moon to even appear one pixel away from
   the Earth at all!


#####################  ASTROLOG 4.10 COMPILING FIXES  #####################

Astrolog 4.00 had a few problems in getting it to compile on certain
systems. Here are some ways that this process has been improved in
the current version:

1. Placalc problem: Many older compilers wouldn't be able to compile the
   placalc.c file when the extended ephemeris formulas were compiled in,
   due to the file's Ansi prototypes causing errors. Now all functions
   in this source code have had these prototypes removed and have the
   same type of declaration as the rest of the Astrolog source files.

2. Placalc problems: Certain systems had problems or conflicts with
   various identifiers in the placalc.c and placalc.h files.
   Specifically, there were problems with the "HUGE" label, the "uint"
   label, the "M_PI" label, and the "sd" label. These have all been
   corrected so any compiler errors mentioning the above should no
   longer happen.

3. Placalc improvement: On certain Unix systems one would have to
   manually turn on the "#define MSDOS" misnomer in order to account for
   the byte order on their system when reading data from the ephemeris
   files. Doing this is no longer necessary in Astrolog 4.10 since the
   system will now autodetect what type of system you have at runtime
   and read from the file accordingly.

4. Borland problem: Some Borland compilers wouldn't like a certain line
   in the CharAltitude() routine in general.c where we read from a
   string we're in the process of modifying. The program no longer does
   this so this compiler shouldn't have any more problems.

5. Compiling bug: Attempting to compile Astrolog 4.00 with both
   PostScript and Windows metafile graphics formats off, i.e. #define PS
   and #define META commented out, would result in illegal C code when
   trying to compile xgeneral.c in the DrawColor() routine. This has
   been corrected so one may compile with both these options disabled
   without error.


#####################  ASTROLOG 4.10 BUG FIXES  #####################

Here are some significant bugs in version 4.00 that have been fixed
in this version, "significant" meaning important things like crashes,
inaccuracies, or loss of stated functionality:

1. X Windows bug: A major bug in Astrolog's X window graphics routines
   would cause distortions in various version 4.00 charts. Specifically
   improper coordinates were given whenever we wanted to draw a filled
   rectangle on a chart, causing major blemishes. The problem was hardly
   noticeable on the -v wheel charts, was rather noticeable around the
   edges of the -g, -Z, -S, and -E charts, and badly garbled the bottom
   half of the -L astro-graph charts. (This was due to another one of my
   last minute "improvements" that I felt couldn't cause any problem!)

2. -I crash: Interpretations of transit charts, specifically the -d, -D,
   -t, and -T switch charts, would frequently crash due to another stack
   string buffer overflow. Trust now that all interpretation charts have
   enough room to print their strings without any problems.

3. -e bug: The -e display all text charts switch would display incorrect
   results when it got to the -D transiting aspect influence chart. The
   -D chart is fine by itself; the problem is that the -d aspect search
   casts multiple charts and hence changes the original chart data,
   affecting how the -D chart which is printed after it is shown. A
   similar problem existed in the -Zd rising and setting search switch
   which would affect any charts displayed after it in a multiple chart
   command line. These two charts now clean up after themselves and
   restore the original information they were given.

4. -j0 bug: The sign powers as displayed in the -j0 influence chart
   would be distorted if the North Node were included. We tried to take
   into account the location of the South Node and give it as much
   influence as the North Node, but this was incorrectly done and as a
   result the sign and the sign corresponding to the house the South
   Node was in would get more influence than it should have.

5. PostScript bugs: PostScript graphics charts with many aspects or
   objects in effect, and actual system fonts on (as opposed to having
   Astrolog simulate the glyphs with line strokes), could cause the
   printer to give an error when printing the file. Specifically, any
   chart that tried to print a Semisquare or Sesquiquadrature glyph in
   the Astro font would cause an error due to the Ascii codes of the
   glyphs' characters. A similar problem could happen when printing any
   chart with the Astro font on that had minor cusps, uranians, or stars
   in it, since we'd read off the end of an array when trying to find
   the object's representation in the Astro font. We now can print all
   Astro font glyphs without problem and are assured of simulating them
   if the symbols (e.g. for the uranians) aren't available in this font.

6. Sidebar bug: The time of the chart as displayed in graphic wheel
   chart sidebars would sometimes be one minute too low. This was due to
   roundoff error when the sidebar printed the minute. The actual chart
   positions weren't affected in any way, and the time when displayed at
   the bottom of charts instead would still always be correct. Now the
   sidebars are always correct as well.

7. -os bug: The -os switch to internally redirect all text chart output
   to a file would still print some text to the screen instead for
   certain charts. Specifically, the -E ephemeris switch would print
   one part of the header on the screen regardless, while the -m
   midpoint and -r0 -m relationship midpoint charts would always send a
   few characters on each midpoint line to the screen. Trust now that
   all charts send all their text to the file when the -os feature is
   being used.

8. -qj bug: The -qj switch to cast a chart given a Julian Day index
   would produce incorrect results for dates in the Julian Calendar,
   i.e. before October, 1582, due to a bug in the original BASIC Matrix
   Software Julian Day routines! This could be seen by casting a chart
   with -qj specifying a day less than 2299161.5, in which case the
   Julian Day displayed for the date of the chart cast would be ten days
   greater than what was passed to it! This bug was only in the reverse
   Julian Day routine and version 4.00 would still produce correct
   results for pre-1582 charts specified by month, day, and year. Note:
   as the fix was to use the alternate Julian Day routines provided by
   the Placalc formulas, the Placalc formulas have to be compiled into
   the program in order for this bug to disappear.

9. -w bug: The -w text wheel chart switch (as well as any other chart
   which prints a day of the week) would display bogus results for dates
   with negative Julian Days, i.e. charts for before January 1, 4713
   B.C. Specifically a garbage string would be printed for the day of
   the week which could even cause a crash. Trust now that the days of
   the week are correct for all Julian dates. In a similar problem, the
   -w wheel chart would skew one line of the chart to the left due to
   bad padding for Julian dates with values less than 7 digits, i.e.
   dates before 1975 B.C.

10. Calendar bugs: Astrolog wasn't consistent and didn't properly handle
   the switchover from the Julian to the present Gregorian calendar
   systems in certain cases. The calendar system changed (at least in
   Europe) from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1582 when
   October 4th was followed the next day by October 15th. Throughout the
   program Astrolog now uses the Julian Calendar for date and leap year
   specification for dates before 10/4/1582 and the Gregorian after.
   Various places in version 4.00 and before wouldn't properly handle
   the jump, for example -K calendar charts, -E ephemeris charts, -dm
   aspect search charts and graphics animations wouldn't skip the days
   in October 1582 and as a result months wouldn't line up or planet
   positions would suddenly jump. Astrolog is now consistent and will
   automatically change calendar systems in all of the above cases.

11. -rc bug: The -rc relationship composite chart feature could sometimes
   place the composite Ascendant 180 degrees across from where it should
   be, i.e. conjunct the 7th house cusp instead of the 1st. This only
   happened when the two charts had cusps nearly 180 degrees across,
   where adjustment is needed to prevent the midpoints between the
   charts' house cusps making them out of order in the composite chart.
   Now we take the Ascendant object into account too when ensuring a
   proper chart so it won't ever be 180 degrees off either.


#####################  ASTROLOG 4.10 MINOR BUG FIXES  #####################

Here are some more minor bugs in version 4.00 that have also been
fixed in this version, "minor" meaning less visible things like
display blemishes, typos, and things that don't affect functionality:

1. -Xp blemish: PostScript wheel charts would have the various circles
   making the wheel drawn with a dashed instead of a solid line. These
   circles are now in the better looking solid lines and are consistent
   with how they are shown in the other graphics formats. (This bug was
   my fault, not Brian's, just so the record's straight. :)

2. -Q bugs: In the -Q loop mode, getting an error due to an invalid
   parameter given to a command switch, could leave the setting in
   question in the bogus value, affecting future charts. For example,
   entering "-A 100" would have the program properly complain because
   the user was trying to use more aspects than there are available;
   however, doing an aspect grid right afterward would actually try to
   use 100 aspects, resulting in bogus results and a likely program
   crash. Such problems have been corrected with the -A aspect numbers
   value, the -c house system value, the -w text rows in wheel charts
   value, the -L0 astro-graph step rate value, the -I interpretation
   field width value, the -h central planet value, the -x harmonic chart
   value, the -V text rows value, and the -1 and -2 object values.

3. 'Q' key glitch: The 'Q' key, which when a graphics chart is up
   resizes the chart to be square, wouldn't take wheel chart info
   sidebars into account, meaning the entire chart would be resized to a
   square distorting the wheel. Now, the 'Q' key does the more
   intuitive operation of changing just the actual chart excluding any
   sidebar to be square.

4. -Xn glitch: The -Xn switch which automatically brings up a graphics
   chart in animation mode, wouldn't account for wheel chart sidebars,
   meaning "-v -Xn" would bring up a square chart with the wheel
   distorted. Now, we'll resize to take sidebars into account like the
   'Q' key above does now.

5. -XT glitch: Bringing up a graphics wheel chart with the -XT setting
   active to turn off the sidebar would resize the chart as if one were
   present anyway, result in a distorted chart. Now, we check this
   setting before automatically increasing the chart size to give room
   for the sidebar.

6. Restriction bug: In graphics modes, the corresponding object
   restrictions wouldn't be appropriately set when one disables the
   minor cusps, uranians, or stars with the 'C', 'u', or 'U' keys. The
   restrictions would only be toggled, meaning that one could press the
   key to turn them off, but any items that were originally restricted
   would appear! These items could appear in incorrect locations as the
   program may not compute their positions since they shouldn't have to
   be calculated at all. Now, pressing a key to turn off a class of
   objects will properly restrict them from appearing in charts as well.

7. -c bug: Casting a chart above the Arctic Circle in the Koch system of
   houses "-c 1" would frequently result in a floating point exception
   since this system isn't defined or will produce bogus results at such
   locations. Now, attempting to cast a Koch system chart inside the
   Arctic circles, will print an appropriate error message and exit,
   like is already done with the Placidus system which also isn't
   defined at extreme latitudes.

8. Sidebar glitches: A few display inconsistencies in the wheel chart
   sidebars have been improved. Stars, like how they are in the text
   charts, will now be listed in the current sort order as specified by
   the -U switch, instead of always being in the default ordering
   regardless. Also, the minor cusp objects, like how they are in the
   text charts, won't ever be listed as their positions are already
   indicated in the house cusp list, instead of being shown when the -C
   setting is active. Finally, object declinations, like how they are in
   the text charts, won't be printed for items that aren't actual
   objects in space.

9. -S glitch: The x axis location of each object in -S text charts was
   only printed to the nearest 100th of an AU, unlike the y and z axis
   coordinates which were to the nearest 1000th of an AU. The x axis is
   now displayed to the additional precision and is consistent with the
   other axes.

10. -g glitch: Aspects in text grid charts with orbs more than 10 degrees
   wouldn't have the sign of the orb or applying/separating status
   indicated even though there was room to show it. Now we indicate this
   for all aspects out to 100 degree orbs, when we really do run out of
   room to show the sign.

11. -o bug: This bug was actually fixed in version 4.00, but wasn't
   mentioned, so it's described here for completeness. The -o output to
   file switch allows one to give extra strings after the filename which
   will be appended to the file as comments; however, this would always
   go to the end of the command line, sending even additional switches
   to the file! Now, only strings only up until the next argument
   starting with the "-" or "/" switch indicator will be sent to the file.


#####################  ASTROLOG 4.10 PROGRAM CHANGES  #####################

As with every version, a few changes that aren't new features or bug
fixes, were made to the program, in that certain old assumptions are
no longer valid. A list of these (which aren't useful unless you have
used previous versions of the program) follows:

1. New file: Astrolog 4.10 contains a new source file that wasn't in
   version 4.00. The "placalc.c" source file has been split into the
   two files "placalc.c" and "placalc2.c". The old placalc.c file was
   large and splitting it keeps each file under 64K in size. Note that
   placalc2.c is #included into placalc.c instead of being compiled
   separately, so old makefiles aren't invalid.

2. -a renamed: The -a switch which accepted all seven info parameters
   and automatically generated a chart has been renamed to be -qa. This
   puts the operation in the family of the various -q switch which do
   similar things.

3. -j0 changed: The -j0 chart influence switch has been changed and
   improved as to how the influence of each sign in a chart is
   determined. It now looks at the true powers of planets computed
   earlier instead of just the default power of each planet. In other
   words, for example, now a highly aspected planet will result in more
   influence being given to the planet's sign than if the planet has
   fewer aspects. Note also that the total of all the sign influences
   will now logically add up to the sum of all the planet influences.

4. -c changed: House system index number 9 is no longer the "Null"
   system of houses, since a couple of new house systems were added to
   this version. Null houses are now the eleventh system and are
   accessed via -c 11.

5. Previous chart change: The initial contents of the "previous" chart
   as accessed with "-i set" has been changed from the astrological
   "chart" of version 4.00 of the program to the release of this version
   4.10. This chart is now set to the exact time of the Vernal Equinox,
   specifically for 12:28pm PST (8 hours before GMT) on Sunday, March
   20, 1994 for here in Seattle, WA (122W20, 47N36).

6. Default file changes: As almost always with a new version,
   astrolog.dat files for versions 4.00 and before won't work with
   version 4.10, because there are additional definable parameters in
   the file read in for this version. Attempting to read in such an old
   file into version 4.10 will result in an error message saying one
   should upgrade the old file or delete it. You should either delete
   the old file and modify the one included with this release, or else
   manually merge in the new fields in the new file with your old one.


#####################  4.10 COMPILING INSTRUCTIONS  #####################

     Compiling Astrolog version 4.10 is virtually identical to
compiling previous versions: First edit the top of the file
astrolog.h, commenting out any of the #define's which set various
features that aren't valid on your system or you don't want, and
changing default values and directories to your preference. (Just
look at the self-explanatory section comments in this file.) Then in
the same manner, also edit these default parameter values in the
astrolog.dat file to your liking, at least the location and time zone
values. Then, for Unix systems, just run the command 'make' in the
directory containing the included Makefile. (You can also always
compile by hand: "cc -O -c *.c; cc -o astrolog *.o -lm -lX11" will do
it; just make sure to compile each source file and link them together
at the end with the math library, and if applicable the X11 library.)

     Compiling Astrolog on a PC is easy too. One can usually do it by
simply compiling each file in turn and then linking them all
together. You won't have to worry about explicitly mentioning things
like the math library if your environments are set up properly. (I
used the Microsoft C7 compiler to generate the ready to run PC
executable, but I linked with the improved graphics.lib included with
Microsoft Visual C 1.00 (C8) for the DOS graphics features.) If you
have the nmake utility, the makefile included in the zip archive will
nicely compile and link astrolog 4.10 on a PC, with properly set
options and all. I compiled under the Large memory model, with 16K
bytes of stack space. The default directory for chart info files, the
astrolog.dat file, and the ephemeris files in this ready to run PC
executable are all set to C:\ASTROLOG, although this location will be
overridden with several environment variables if set. The time and
location defaults are set to my own area, but you can easily override
them with your own values using the astrolog.dat file.

     It is possible to easily compile Astrolog on a VMS system, even
with its X windows functionality. Here's an example of a simple VMS
.COM file by Max Calvani which can automatically compile and link
Astrolog for VMS. This should work for version 4.10, although you
might need to include "/noopt" after the CC's since some compilers
with optimization may cause the program to pass parameters incorrectly.

---- BEGIN INCLUDED FILE COMPILE.COM CUT HERE ----
$ set ver
$ define X11 decw$include
$ define lnk$library sys$library:vaxcrtl
$ CC CHARTS
$ CC DATA
$ CC DRIVER
$ CC FORMULAS
$ CC GENERAL
$ CC INTRPRET
$ CC OPTIONS
$ CC PLACALC
$ CC XCHARTS
$ CC XDATA
$ CC XDRIVER
$ CC XGENERAL
$ CC XOPTIONS
$ link/exe=astrolog.exe -
    CHARTS.obj, -
    DATA.obj, -
    DRIVER.obj, -
    FORMULAS.obj, -
    GENERAL.obj, -
    INTRPRET.obj, -
    OPTIONS.obj, -
    PLACALC.obj, -
    XCHARTS.obj, -
    XDATA.obj, -
    XDRIVER.obj, -
    XGENERAL.obj, -
    XOPTIONS.obj, -
    sys$input/opt
sys$share:decw$xlibshr/share
$ set nover
$ exit
---- END INCLUDED FILE COMPILE.COM CUT HERE ----

:)
--

#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#
+     Walter D. "Cruiser1" Pullen    |    [e-mail]     +
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+   "Who am I, What am I?  As I am, I am not.  But as we are, I AM.  And to   +
#   you my creation, My Perfect Love is your Perfect Freedom. And I will be   #
+   with you forever and ever, until the End, and then forever more." - GOD   +
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