What's New -  December, 2013

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December 5, 2013:   Thanksgiving, 2013  is history, the 1st deer is in the freezer, and the front deck has a full load of firewood in preparation for the major ice storm heading our way this weekend.  I've filled the free time for the past couple of weeks educating myself about random number generators (RNGs) and how to test them.    Thankfully, the result is the Chi-Squared RNG Testing  program posted today. 

December 12, 2013:   A viewer recently asked if other click sound files could be used in our Metronome program.  Metronome Version 2.1 posted today allows users to select up to 5 sound files of their choice by right clicking on an existing file and browsing for a replacement.  Changes are remembered for future runs. 

For programmers: Metronome would not compile under Delphi XE5 because it uses the DFFUtils library unit which contains a number of utility routines. XE5 throws a "subrange violation" error in the LineNumberClicked function even though the parameter is valid.  A workaround version has been included in the DFFLibV14 library zip file and reposted today.

 December 13, 2013:  I had added a Delphi 7 - XE5 Differences page  last month to document considerations, but neglected to announce its availability.   I added items to the page today documenting the "Subrange Violation" error described yesterday and it's fix.  Also some information the size differences between executable files created by the two compilers.  XE5 files are several times larger than D7 files for no reason that I have been able to identify so far but I will be posting Delphi 7 executables whenever possible.

December 16, 2013:

 The small How Many Cubes program answers (or verifies your answer) to the question:

"How many cubical arrangements of the small cubes are embedded in this 4x4x4 cube?" 
December 18, 2013:
 I'm trying to resolve outstanding questions before taking a holiday break.  Today's involved generating large floating point numbers that someone wants to use as a source of random numbers.   I'm not convinced he's on the right track but the effort was worthwhile because my test program revealed a  problem introduced with the November update to our Big Integers unit.  Big Float uses the Integers unit but is not compatible with the "Operator Overload" operators implemented on November 17.   Changes were made to our BigFloatTest program and and a special Big Integers unit were posted today.    

December 24, 2013:  Here's wishing a

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all !!!