June, 1 2000
Welcome to MG-log's pageTime is
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June, 1 2000 |
Welcome to MG-log's page |
Time is |
Your answer has been so impressive that I have come back to due place. Thanks a lot. Now, please, feel free to vote or not acording just to your taste and satisfaction (or not!) of Metagraf.
Someones think that Metagraf is not worth its place on IceWalkers qualification list and have given a couple of 1-point votes. The result of that is that MG has disapeared from the "best considered programs" and appears only in the "most voted" in sixth or seventh position. It is surprising that after a whole year being considered between the best, now, when the "big jump" is going to be a reality, this "strange" votes make me feel unhappy. It is a curious way of giving thanks...
If some others really support me, please give me your votes, althougt a couple of 1's are very difficult to recover. Thanks for it :-)
Anyway, the last and all-new-features-version of MG is almost finished, and I will launch it, most probably, on the next week, as I have to make some modifications also to the Help-Manual.
Metagraf is changing the way of selecting objects!!.
One of the more controversial points of MG has always been the way of selecting objects related with the "shading" of small objects "inside" big ones. I have been working on that and now, it is practically finished the "new way". There will be no more "shading" effect and the ease of working has been improved enormously. Some objects have been redesigned, as the simple line or the spiral-circle, the rectangle and the oval, and a new way to solve any problems related with the matter above, has been made possible trough a very simple although powerful method. In very few days, a new distribution will be available including all the new Variational Geometry already present in the last distribution plus the last minute changes in this new and really exciting feature.
The problems related with the last distribution of SuSE Linux-8.1 are finish: I have changed to the all-new Gentoo-Linux, miles away from any other distribution, and I will be able to make the installers in due form. I will communicate the availability of the new distribution on Ice Walkers and on the Metagraf's mailing list.
A new release of Metagraf is available for downloading
I am having some troubles with the last release of SuSE-Linux, and I am not able to install conveniently the downloader. If you want to download this last release, download the tarball for Metagraf12 (1280x1024 screen) clicking here or the one for 1024x768 screens, clicking here. Then copy the file downloaded to your "metagraf" directory and untar/unzip it. The new executable and icons and Manual, will be installed.
This new version has a new revision much more complet and perfect of the "object-attachement" item, or, as I call it now, "Variational Geometry". It includes a new chapter in the form of a small tutorial for this kind of capability in the Manual (HELP button). Easy to use and extremly strong. Try it.
(November, 12 2002)
After almost six months of doing very little on MG, I've just come back and very soon I will launch a new release with -I think- very interesting improvements on dynamically linked objects. There will be quite a lot more possibilities on "drawing-just-clicking" and creating new series of attached objects. Moreover, I have modified a little bit the routines just to make tangents real and perfect ones and the points absolutelly precise.
I have also some ideas on giving the possibility of creating automate movements letting any point in movement to draw his path. This could be extremely interesting for some applications in Mechanics. I would be happy if you give me some ideas or, at least, opinions on that.
There is a mailing list where everybody can interchange ideas, problems, etc., or ask questions in relation with MG. Here it is:
A new version, 1.2.1, totally compatible with 1.2, has been included in the download pages. There are a few minor changes as corrections of some bugs (the bezier_circle didn't took the right colors in 1.2), but, the most important point is that this version is fully compatible with the last Java-1.4. The sources have been modified. If installed from the web, it is possible to install at the same time the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), althought it is needed a quite quick conection. This version has been compiled with Java-1.4.1. I recommend strongly to try it if using Linux as this last Java is notoriously improved in this O.S. Now, it is practically the same as the one for Windows. (June, 3 - 2002)
Dear friend, Dr. Idris S Hamid, has prepared a PDF version of the User's Manual. Much more convenient for reading than the HTML version included in MG, it can be downloaded clicking here. with your right mouse button and choosing "save target" or whatever says your browser. SOME DETAILS ON JAVA THAT MUST BE KNOWN.- If someone experiments difficulties when downloading & installing, now it is possible to download the whole tarball as a *.tar.gz file. Once done, it must be uncompressed and will create a directory with the name "../metagraf" where the executable: metagraf.jar is placed. The JVM must be installed and included in the path and MG can be launched from inside the directory "metagraf" writing: " java -jar metagraf.jar ". The first stable version -1.2- is finished. Now, at last, with the complete English Manual up to date, including the explanations needed for using the all new "geometrically-attached-objects" capabilities. Something new in this kind of application and with an unlimited future perspective. Without losing any of the previous advantages, MG has finally reached the level needed to use it as a systhematic, straightforward tool for creating all kind of drawings, images and special titles for use with TeX/LaTeX and/or Postscript and PDF files.
Download it by clicking in due place, below.
If the User's Manual, visible clicking the "HELP" button doesn't open as it should, download it as a *.tar.gz file and decompress inside the directory with the name "manual" inside metagraf*.
This first stable version will remain unchanged at least during the next six months, apart for some bug-fixing if needed. Nevertheless there is an enormous amount of things TODO, but at some point I have to let you work with a certain continuity, although accepting the shortcuts still existent. Anyway, in its "actual" shape, MG is able to simplify a lot some work to be done, and it can be really useful and much more powerful than other tools of the same kind. MG has been evolving almost every month from his borning date --now, two years ago-- and it's time to let the "poor child" to become more "solid" and strong before continuing his growth.
Thank you for your patience and, please, do not forget that I feel very obliged if I see interest in my work, as, also, the opposite.May 2002.
Once more, MG will have shortly, new and very important utilities. I have designed a method to stablish relationships between objects that will be maintained through the life of these objects. It will be possible to draw a line, a point and, clicking a button, the perpendicular from the point to the line. Then, if the point and/or the line are moved, the perpendicular will maintain its perpendicularity. I have stablished already quite a lot of this relations: Tangent from a point to an ellipse, clock and counter-clockwise; the same for circles; intersection points between ellipses and/or circles and lines; intersection point between two lines, between a vertical line and a polyline or bezier curve....and so on.
The interesting point is that MG will continue to work as always. So after creation of this "attached" objects, the drawing can be seen as always through ghostview and the final drawing in metapost will contain this new objects (if they are not killed...). ...and this works as well on Linux as on Windows...
March 2002.
The last version of MG (1.1.2) is ready to download. This new release IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH VERSIONS 1.1.1, in the sense that it will not be able to read *.bmg files created before. Care must be taken to save all *.mp files created before installing this last release. Some bugs in the last distribution have been fixed and new implementations done. Althought yet in an alpha state, they can be used and if any bugs appear it will be apreciated to have them repported. The more substantial inovation is the new capability of METAGRAF to draw math curves just writing the formula. At the moment, only in 2-D and non parametric. The bad news is that in this first appearance, it will run only in UNIX systems, but very soon will be implemented also for Windows.It is possible to include only one variable --- and it must be always de letter "X" (a big x). The way to use it is interesting and I will add a few lines in the page "Introduction.html" to show how to do.
Perhaps the most interesting point of this capability is that the curve resizes itself, (scales itself) to the size of a rectangle previously drawn that can be eliminated once the curve is on the screen. The best thing, as always, is to try it...
Some modifications have been done to the distribution. From now on it will be posible to download three different sizes of the default screen of METAGRAF. One has been redesigned in some details and some unimportant elements have been removed due to small size. This is the version METAGRAF8-1.1.2, and it is prepared to be used on a screen of 800x600. Then, another one is the default release prepared for 1024x768. This one has no special name. Finally, there is METAGRAF12 for anything bigger then the standard.
To finalize this anouncement I remember you the fact that I will appreciate very much if you rate METAGRAF acording with your satisfaction with the program. Usually, very few people do it and it is discouraging....
If you find any difficulty installing the new METAGRAF, please send me an email telling me your problem
SANTIAGO MUELAS May 2002
smuelas@mecanica.upm.es