####################  ASTROLOG 5.40 UPDATE FILE  #####################

Happy Winter Solstice everyone! This file describes the freeware
astrology software program Astrolog version 5.40 and the additions
and fixes made to it, over the previous version 5.30 which was
released over two years ago. I have not worked on the program as
often as before, so apologies for the delay. This update contains
Hindu or Vedic format wheel charts, and the standard assortment of
small bug fixes.

This release consists of the following files. If you are reading this
document as posted in the newsgroup alt.astrology, the first two of
these files may be found posted as separate articles:

1. "Update.540" - A text file describing new additions to Astrolog
   5.40 made over the previous version (what you're reading now).
2. "Readme.540" - A text file describing Astrolog in general and what
   the program offers and can do, for those interested in a summary.
3. "ast54win.zip" - A zip archive containing a Windows executable
   ready to run on any Windows system, a configuration file, four icon
   files, two URL files, three ephemeris files, a Readme, small summary
   file, a comprehensive Helpfile manual, and this Update file.
4. "ast54dos.zip" - A zip archive containing a DOS executable ready
   to run on PC's, config file, icon files, URL files, three ephemeris
   files, a Readme, small summary file, Helpfile, and this Update file.
5. "ast54mac.hqx" - A BinHex 4.0'ed self extracting archive program
   of the Macintosh executable, config file, three ephemeris files,
   Readme, summary, Helpfile, a resource file, and this Update file.
6. "ast54src.zip" - A zip archive containing the source code and
   makefiles (not necessary unless you want to compile the program
   yourself).
7. "History.540" - A text file describing additions in all previous
   releases (only useful if upgrading from more than one version ago).

The "Helpfile" consists of a large comprehensive documentation file
of all of Astrolog's features. The "config file" is a default
settings file called astrolog.dat (not necessary to have to run but
useful). The "icon files" are Microsoft Windows icons from the
Windows executable. The "URL files" are small Microsoft Windows text
files containing Web shortcuts to the Astrolog homepage. The "summary
file" is a file_id.diz like that included in many zip distributions,
briefly describing the program in whole. The "Update file" is again
this document. The "ephemeris files" are three binary files used for
more accurate calculations of planetary positions (again optional but
nice to have). The "source code" consists of 28 files (23 "C" program
files, four header #include files, and a resource script file). The
"makefiles" are six files: a generic makefile for Unix systems with
their "make" command, a project makefile for Microsoft Windows
compilers, a nmakefile for Microsoft DOS compilers, a makefile for
Borland PC compilers (with a second subfile to go with it), and a
command script for compiling on VMS systems.

All the files described above are available at the Astrolog 5.40
homepage at http://www.magitech.com/~cruiser1/astrolog.htm. This Web
page is mirrored at http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog.htm. (If one
site is down, the other should work.) All Astrolog files are also at
the alt.astrology anonymous FTP site at ftp.magitech.com in the
Astrolog directory /pub/astrology/astrolog. All of the ephemeris
files are already in the subdirectory /pub/astrology/Astrolog/ephem.


#####################  ASTROLOG 5.40 NEW FEATURES  #####################

Here are new additions to version 5.40 that weren't in 5.30 and before:

1. -J switch: Astrolog 5.40 can now display wheel charts in Hindu or
   Vedic format. This will affect both the text -w wheels and the
   graphic wheels. A Vedic format wheel is identical to a standard
   Western wheel except: (1) The signs and houses increase as you go
   clockwise instead of counterclockwise, so the entire wheel is flipped
   over. (2) The chart is rotated so the left edge is always the start
   of Aquarius instead of the Ascendant, putting Pisces in the upper
   left corner, meaning the Ascendant is placed wherever in the wheel is
   appropriate. For Vedic astrology one will probably prefer to combine
   this with the -w house focused wheel chart switch so all the houses
   are the same size, or even display that chart in text mode so the
   wheel will be a square.

   'z' key: Pressing the 'z' key while a graphics screen is displayed
   will toggle whether wheel charts are displayed in the new Vedic
   format.

2. -9 switch: This command switch will display the chart in the
   Navamsa format used in Vedic astrology. The Navamsa or marriage chart
   is formed by applying a formula to each planet position to get a
   resulting new location. This is similar in operation to the -3 decan
   feature, however this divides each sign into ninths. Specifically, to
   convert a position, see which ninth of a sign a planet falls in, e.g.
   a planet from 0 degrees 0' to 3 degrees 20' of a sign is in the first
   ninth, a planet from 3 degrees 20' to 6 degrees 40' is in the second
   ninth, and so on. Take that number, and count one less than that many
   signs ahead in the zodiac to get the resulting sign. The starting
   sign should be Aries if the original sign was Fire, Capricorn if the
   original sign was Earth, Libra if the original sign was Air, and
   Cancer if the original sign was Water. A formal Navamsa chart only
   considers signs, hence only the sign of each planet will be changed;
   the degree within each sign will be unaffected.

   'y' key: Pressing the 'y' key while a graphics screen is displayed
   will toggle whether charts are displayed in Navamsa format or not.

3. -c extension: The -c house selection switch has been extended to
   allow a Vedic system of houses, or more specifically the modern India
   style of equal houses. This is house system number 13, and can be
   activated on the command line by including "-c 13" (or "-c ved").
   Note that this moves the index number for the Null house system up
   one. In this system, each house covers 30 degrees, and the Ascendant
   is always in the middle of the first house, i.e. the 1st cusp is
   always 15 degrees before the Ascendant. (For contrast, the ancient or
   traditional India style of equal houses are already supported in
   Astrolog by the Whole house system, where the first house cusp is
   always the start of the sign the Ascendant is in.)

4. Dialog extension: The ayanamsa or zodiac degree offset field in
   the Calculation Settings dialog in the Windows version has been
   fitted with a dropdown to allow quick selection of several common
   systems of sidereal astrology. The values in it are 0.0 for Fagan
   Bradley, 0.883333 (or 0 degrees 53') for N.C. Lahiri, 0.983333 (or 0
   degrees 59') for Krishnamurti, and 2.333333 (or 2 degrees 20') for
   B.V. Raman.

5. -zm switch: This simple switch will set the month and only the month
   of the current chart in memory to the given value. For example, to
   display an ephemeris chart for July of this year, do "-n -zm July -E".

6. -zy switch: This is just like the -zm switch above expect it will
   set the year and only the year of the current chart in memory to the
   given value. For example, to display a chart for your birthday next
   year, do "-i yourchart -zy 1999".

7. Improved glyphs: Astrolog now has higher resolution graphic glyphs
   for sign symbols and house numbers. Before, some glyphs drawn at the
   default 200% or medium scale and up would look slightly blocky. Now,
   with a alternate "internal font" of double sized glyphs, the medium
   ones are smooth to the nearest pixel like the small glyphs are. The
   glyph for the Quintile aspect has also been improved. The better
   glyphs are also used at the 400% or huge scale, and when printing.

8. Windows addition: The Documentation submenu of the Help menu in
   the Windows version has a new "Open Homepage" command to
   automatically visit the Astrolog homepage. This command will start
   Internet Explorer or whatever Web browser your system has set to
   interpret .URL extension files, and will have that browser open the
   file astrolog.url in your astrolog directory.

--

Here's a summary of the four new command switches in Astrolog 5.40
that weren't in previous versions:

-zm <month>: Set only the month of current chart.
-zy <year>: Set only the year of current chart.
-J: Display wheel charts in Vedic format.
-9: Display objects in their zodiac navamsa positions.

Here's a summary of the four new menu commands in the Windows
version of Astrolog 5.40 that weren't in previous versions:

Setting - House System - Vedic
Setting - House Settings - Vedic Wheel Display
Setting - House Settings - Show Navamsas
Help - Documentation - Open Homepage


#####################  ASTROLOG 5.40 BUG FIXES  #####################

Here are problems with version 5.30, all of which have been corrected
in this release:

1. -EY bug: The multiple year ephemeris switch wouldn't update the
   "next switch indicator" past the number of years parameter, so the
   number of years to do the ephemeris for would also get treated as a
   command switch, resulting in either unexpected looking charts or an
   unexpected "unknown switch" error.

2. Computation fix: Charts cast at extreme latitudes (inside the
   Arctic or Antarctic circles) could cause bogus looking charts with
   overlapping houses. This would happen when the natural formulas for
   the MC and Asc at those locations would put the Asc in the 180
   degrees before instead of after the MC. Astrolog now preserves the
   Midheaven, and flips the Ascendant if need be to ensure the other
   house cusps will remain sane.

3. Edit - Copy Chart Text bug: In the Windows version, copying text
   table list charts to the clipboard would only actually copy about the
   first 90% of the text, clipping off the rest.

4. -YJ bug: The -YJ switch which allows changing what signs each
   planet rules, wouldn't also update a reverse table which given a sign
   indicates which planet rules it. This would cause -YJ to have
   seemingly no effect on the sign list table, the influence chart, the
   Arabic parts chart, and the dispositor graph.

5. -r0 limitation: The -r0 switch will now accept the virtual file
   "nul" as its first parameter, so command sequences like "-q -r0 nul
   now" will work and use the chart data from -q in the relationship
   chart. Before the first chart slot would get overwritten by the data
   for the second chart while internally processing the second chart.

6. Display glitch: The degree hatch marks on Windows graphic wheels
   wouldn't line up exactly on the lower right with the circles they go
   between.

7. File - Save Settings limitation: The astrolog.dat defaults file as
   generated by the Windows version would only save out aspect orbs and
   planet orb additions to the nearest degree, losing any fractional
   part. These values are now to the nearest tenth of a degree like they
   are in the Aspect Settings dialog.


#####################  ASTROLOG 5.40 PROGRAM CHANGES  #####################

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

1. -YP change: The -YP switch affecting whether Arabic parts have
   their formulas inverted for night time charts, now also affects the
   special Part of Fortune object in the main object list. Before, you
   could only either never invert the Part of Fortune (the default) or
   else always invert the Part of Fortune (even for day charts). The
   special Part of Fortune object is now affected by "-YP 0" which means
   the standard process of inverting just for night charts. As this is
   the default setting, this means Astrolog 5.40 will compute the Part
   of Fortune in the standard displays differently than previous
   versions, for night charts.

2. Defaults dialog addition: The -Yz correction factor for "now"
   charts switch has been added to the Default Chart Info dialog. This
   is to make that feature more discoverable, as people asking why their
   "now" charts are whatever number of hours off is the single most
   common subject of Astrolog related e-mail I receive.

3. astrolog.dat change: The -Yz correction factor for "now" charts
   has had its position in the default astrolog.dat settings file moved
   closer to the top, again to make it more discoverable. It's now right
   next to the line that turns on doing -n "now" charts themself.

4. Calculation improvement: Astrolog will no longer just display a
   error and terminate the program if one tries to cast a chart inside
   the Arctic or Antarctic circles using Placidus or Koch houses. (Those
   systems of houses are not defined near the poles.) In such a case the
   program will now change the latitude of the chart being computed to
   the closest legal latitude allowed (i.e. move it from the pole to the
   edge of the Arctic or Antarctic circle) during the computation of the
   chart.

5. -r0 -g -X improvement: The graphic relationship aspect grid has
   been improved so the outlines of the cells on the main diagonal are
   highlighted in a slightly brighter color.

6. -M -X tweak: The sidebar in the graphic Gauquelin sector wheel
   chart has been changed so that to the right of each planet position
   is the sector number the planet falls in. Before this was just the
   glyph for the object in question like it is for the other wheels.

7. Previous chart change: The initial contents of the "previous" chart
   as accessed with "-i set" has been changed from the astrological
   "chart" of version 5.30 of the program to the release of this version
   5.40. This chart is now set to the time of the Winter Solstice,
   specifically for 5:57pm PST (8 hours before GMT) on Monday, December
   21, 1998 for here in Seattle, WA (122W20, 47N36).

--

O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O
*       Walter D. "Cruiser1" Pullen :)       !       Astara@msn.com       *
O Astrolog 5.40 homepage:  http://www.magitech.com/~cruiser1/astrolog.htm O
* "Who am I, What am I?  As I am, I am not.  But as we are, I AM.  And to *
O you my creation, My Perfect Love is your Perfect Freedom. And I will be O
* with you forever and ever, until the End, and then forever more." - GOD *
O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O
