Note: You can download the text only version of the shareware release notes which is more printer friendly.
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Delphic Oracle v 4 - (32 bit) RELEASE NOTES
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This file contains important information. I recommend that
you read this file in its entirety.
This program calculates birth charts, and various methods
useful to those studying the "System of Hermes" as
reconstructed by Robert Schmidt. Schmidt's works are
published by Project Hindsight / The Golden Hind Press.
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CONTENTS
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-- WHAT'S NEW IN THIS VERSION
-- INSTALLATION
-- DELPHIC ORACLE KNOWN ISSUES
-- ONLINE HELP
-- ZOIDIASOFT ON THE WEB
-- TECH SUPPORT
-- CREDITS
-- ORDERING
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WHAT'S NEW IN THIS VERSION
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** Version 4.1.0.0 - Fixed bug where transits are shown
for a location that is hard coded in the component as a
default. Now transits will use the location specified
in the fields of your Default Location editor (F6). I
also initialized the chart display colors to use a light
background and dark foreground. This should make the
chart display less confusing to first time users, though
you can customize these colors using the Chartwheel
Designer (F2). Once you do this, this initialization
is overwritten anyway.
** Version 4.0.9.28 - Fixed bug in circumambulations where
sidereal zodiac is used where it was giving tropical
boundaries. Actually more thought needs to be done here
since precession is not taken into account in this method
as the planets circumambulate, but only at birth. The 2
zodiacs will continue to diverge, so if using sidereal,
keep in mind that the timing listed is increasingly
innacurate as time moves foreward.
** Version 4.0.9.27 - Clarified code internally between
chart types in solar returns. The hellenistic solar
return routine was calculated when it didn't need to be
for modern return types, often resulting in incorrect
angle positions. This version corrects that issue.
** Version 4.0.9.26 - Fixed a bug in return charts that
causes the ayanamsa value to applied twice in the case of
sidereal returns.
** Version 4.0.9.24 - Added Ellen Black's convention for
the handling of time lord sequences after the loosing of
the bond in the zodiacal releasing method (F5 - on the
Zodiacal Releasing tab there is a new checkbox. When
unchecked, it reverts to the old convention of outdenting
time lord.
** Version 4.0.9.23 - Added glyph separation for the
graphic timeline. This setting is found in the Time Lord
Options (F5) on the Graph tab. The glyph separation here
is in pixels, not degrees as was the case in the graphic
ephemeris and chart displays. This setting is saved as
part of the time lord themes along with the pixels per
year property because some time lord displays require a
different resolution / scale, such as annual divisions.
** Version 4.0.9.22 - Finished the time lord themes. On
the Themes tab (F5), there are two new buttons for saving
and restoring default time lord settings. Double clicking
on a time lord theme (lower right) only loads those
settings. If you want them to stay permanent, click the
save button located between the 2 main listboxes on the
Themes tab.
** Version 4.0.9.21 - Added the ability to do user defined
decennials. This option is found on the Decennials Tab
under the Time Lords System settings (F5). More work has
been done on the time lord graphic timeline, but it is not
quite finished yet. You will need to remember to select
your time lord systems on the Themes tab. First press
the clear button near top / center and the left lisbox is
populated. Drag the systems you want to look at over to
the right listbox and then drag them into the order that
you want them listed. Don't bother typing a theme name
yet as these settings are not saved yet. Then go to the
time lords tab and click the Time Graph button at far
left. Then select a time span and date to start. I
recommend that you start with the birth date and
calculate for at least a period of 20 years. If you go
for short periods, then the major period may be skipped
in the listing entirely (not drawing a time line if the
period of listing is too short). I have not initialized
every variable from the clear button, so I recommend you
close and reopen the window to do fresh listings. In the
near future all of these issues will be settled. For now
you can also click on the graph and get transits for the
date as listed in the hints or in the open area of the
graph depending upon where you place the mouse. The
mouse will zero in on the hint julian dates as preferred
since Schmidt says that transits for the onset of the
period have relevance for the entire period if within 3
degrees of either the transiting or natal lord of the
times.
** Version 4.0.9.18 - There have been several updates here
that I have not had time to explain. The beginnings of
the Time Lord Graphic Time Line are in place, but so far
it will only do Decennials. You must have Decennials
in the list of selected methods (F5 - Themes tab, press
the clear button and drag over the Decennials item). If
you forget to do this, you will get an error. I also
corrected a bug in the aspectarian where oppositions were
not recorded properly (Douglas Noblehorse pointed this
out). A new splash screen has been designed which was
conceived by Ellen Black (Apollo playing the lyre) and
Meredith Garstin matched a better font for the program
name.
** Version 4.0.9.12 - The annual divisions time lord
method has been completed through 5 variants. There are
no new options in the Time Lords Options (F5), but the
different approaches are controlled through the "starting
point" combo box below the time lord method box (which
normally has the planets / points or signs listed). The
Standard variant uses the natal planets in order from the
lord of the current year (ascendant). The Hephastio
variant uses the orders of the transiting planets in that
year. The Maternus variant is the same as the standard
variant, except that the lord of the year is done from
the sect light (not the ascendant). The 2 variants of
Valens put the order of the 5 planets with the Moon, then
the Sun in last, the first of which gives the same number
of days to the planets as they have greater years, with
the Sun and Moon taking up the epagomenal days (5 days
to the Moon and 6 hours to the Sun). The Valens X4
variant multiplys the minor periods of the 5 planet by 4
with the Moon taking the last 25 days and the Sun, the
last 6 hours. The last variant (Domiciles) goes in the
same order as the domicile lords giving days equal to the
minor years of the planets which adds up to 184, so the
procedure is repeated twice (from the ascendant) chopping
off the last 3 days of the last time period.
** Version 4.0.9.11 - Includes the ability to change what
shows in the center of the wheel when printing (press F7),
which includes the ability to show the chart details or
the ascensional times. Width of house lines for printing
can also be changed and has 2 styles (solid and dash-dot).
I fixed a bug in the transit toolbar which showed the
current date when the date of the onset of a time lord
should be showing (when generating transits from the time
lord listings).
** Version 4.0.9.10 - The circular period circumambulation
technique from Valens book 9 is included. This method
takes each degree as representing the circular period of
the planet in either days, months or years; such that if
Venus is at 15 Vi 45 and Saturn is at 15 Li 15, the times
come to 29.5 * 8 = 236 in either days months or years.
Schmidt says that there is a passage about what to do
with the remainder if the degrees of the handing out
exceed the degrees of the planet, which is to start from
the planet releasing the times again and pass out the
remaining times until they run out to see if there is a
ray of some planet in these degrees. This amounts to
looking to see if there is a planet casting it's rays in
front of the significator within 12 degrees at most (if
the remainder is almost 1 degree - which reminded me about
the aspect doctrine of the Moon to see if any rays are
encountered "within a day and a night"). Double clicking
on a period from the main time lords window will show if
there are rays, if there is no remainder, or no ray found
that adds to the testimony of the general times. This
procedure is said to be a topical one.
** Version 4.0.9.9 - Includes the 9 years of the Moon from
Valens book 9 in the time lords window.
** Version 4.0.9.8 - The aspectarian for the hellenistic
aspect doctrine now has printing and Acrobat capability.
I have added a click feature to the grid that shows the
planets in the configuration by themselves for study and
a revert button to restore the display of the planets in
the Chart Viewer. The help file has been updated too.
** Version 4.0.9.7 - Astronomical definitions for the
hellenistic aspect doctrine are in the new aspectarian
found on the topics tab. Hover over the grid to see the
hints on the Aspectarian tab. New options for display of
the aspectarian can be found in the Main Program Options
(F3).
** Version 4.0.9.6 - Eliminated the flicker in bi-wheel
chart info labels. There is a new checkbox for the type
of hint to be displayed on the Main Options (F3) General
Tab at the bottom (to use glyphs or just text). This
will be useful to international users who have trouble
getting the hints to display glyphs.
** Version 4.0.9.5 - This version contains GUI changes
that allow for faster animation without flickering. A new
hint collection component has taken the place of the
label descendants that housed the glyph information. To
access delineation for signs, single click, but to get
house information, double click. At present there is no
context menu to access delineations, so this is the only
access that exists for the time being.
** Version 4.0.9.4 - This version contains a modified date
time routine that allows '-' to be used as the separator
for the date to accommodate some regional settings that use
this. It also allows you to use BC in upper or lower case
for dates in BCE. Alternatively, you can use the - symbol
for BC dates but programmatically this interprets as if
there was a zero year so if you want to do a chart for
Oct 7th, 322 BC, in European format it would appear as:
7.10.322 BC or 7.10.-321. Alternatively you could type:
7-10-322 BC or 7-10--321. The latter looks odd but will
be interpreted by the program as being 322 BC.
** Version 4.0.9.3 - This version can be run from the
AstroDataBank 4.0 software and allows single charts to be
shown directly from that database. Users will note that
the main window has changed its appearance (taking a hint
from Michael Erlewine about how a program is supposed to
look "slick"). Be sure to see the Known Issues section
as I've found a few bugs; fortunately none that can't be
overcome easily on your end.
** Version 4.0.8 - I set the defaults for screen colors in
the windows registry so that the display is good the first
time you see it. (Before this, the user had to select a
color theme before the display would look right). You may
still want to play with the display settings to optimize
the glyph and font sizes for your screen (press F2).
There is no point for already established users to get
this update if you have already gotten past this issue.
** Version 4.0.7 - I forgot to let the printing and PDF
routines know where fortune was for showing fortune based
houses. Thanks to Doug Noblehorse for pointing this out.
** Version 4.0.6 - I finished the updated version of the
help files for version 4.0. Pressing F1 when viewing a
chart will bring up the help on the "System of Hermes",
while clicking on a lifesaver on one of the 4 tabs will
bring up a subheading of that help.
I also added a refinement to the General tab of the
ChartWheel Designer (F2). You can now independently
change the size of the font associated with the house
numbers, the chart info, etc.
** Version 4.0.5 - Added coordinate system, zodiac type,
house system and node type notes to the printouts of single
wheels.
** Version 4.0.4 - Centered the degrees of the dynamical
house cusps for the printing and Pdf generation more
exactly.
** Version 4.0.3 - Added some GUI improvements so that
the display of buttons were always visible on computers
that use the large font sizes.
** Version 4.0.2 - I reused the RvProject, RvRndPdf and
RvSystem components in the MetaCanvas unit because the
duplication of these components for the printing of the
hellenistic lots seemed to cause the application to hang
upon shut down. Initially I duplicated these to save some
time during writing, but ultimately it is better to have
all of the printing and PDF code in one place.
** Version 4.0.1.2 - Added a full listing of the hermetic
lots from the hellenistic era to the topical approach tab.
This includes the ability to print, create Acrobat files
and an update button to update the lot positions when the
chart rectification toolbar is in use.
** Version 4.0.1.1 - Fixed a bug in the selection of chart
points to display when viewing transits (had inner wheel
checked when outer wheel needed to be checked). Before
this fix, it drew outer wheel chart points only if they
were displayed in the inside wheel.
** Version 4.0.1 - Alot has changed since the last
official update...
The font includes new glyphs for the lots, Asc and MC that
are based upon concepts that Robert Schmidt has explained
in the "System of Hermes". Because the sphere of activity
for the lots is here on earth, I suggested to Bill that
the lots based upon the 7 visible planets might be best
concatenated to the earth glyph. They liked the idea so it
stuck. Therefore the lot of fortune is now the Moon glyph
inside the earth glyph. Along with this reasoning, I heard
Bob call the ascendant "the helm" many times as part of the
nautical metaphor and wondered what shape I could use as
the steering wheel and the Sun easily came to mind. Also,
Bob has referred to the MC as the "mast", so I thought
about sticking up a pole with a small triangular flag
at the top, but it looked bare as the mast is nothing w/o
a sail... but the Moon makes an excellent wind catcher.
It's odd how easily this fell into place and symbolizes
what is happening on multiple levels. Schmidt gave a talk
on "The Same and the Other" in 1996 in which he likened the
Sun to Nous and the Moon to Hule. Well, the ascendant is
Samelike because the rising degree and the 1st house are
always the same, but the MC is Otherlike because it can be
in the 9th whole sign house, 11th, etc, so the dyadic
wind sways the mast, while the helm endeavors to stay
on course.
The new font is a combination of Ken Hirst's Astro font
and the Bitstream Vera Sans font which is an arial type of
font design. It is integrated more fully into this
application as a whole, which means that the time lords
listings and the hints on planets will have astrological
glyphs showing (unless you specify otherwise).
The PNA (Preliminary Natal Analysis) is available in both
report and wizard form and both can be run side by side.
This gives an indepth accounting of the planets strengths
and weaknesses and the meanings behind the dignities,
sect status, phasis conditions (heliacal phenomena), lunar
application, house status (topical, dynamical and fortune),
and various joy conditions such as the winds relative to
the exaltation degree, etc... all from 3 points of view:
local horizon, planetary and zodiacal. The wizard is there
to explain the report in detail and is very long for a
wizard. Both formats require you to select a planet to
investigate.
The Universal Hermetics Report gives an outline of the
life as a whole and includes 3 wizards. The Nautical
Metaphor wizard, the Kurios wizard and the Predomination
wizard. The Predomination wizard aids in finding the
predominator according to hellenistic astrological methods
which is either the Sun, Moon or Ascendant. There are
options (F3) on the Predomination Tab for finding the
domicile master (oikodespotes) according to Antiochus /
Porphyry or Rhetorius. In medieval astrology, these are
known as the hyleg and alchochoden.
The Kurios wizard aids in finding the "top nautical
officer". While the predominator defines the "Political
Officer" (Oikodespotes), the Kurios wizard walks through
the officers list to find the "Captain". The relationships
that these planets have define the general course of the
native's life. The Wizard shows each of the planets claims
to the kurios position and directs you through the rules
of selection. Schmidt says that Porphyry describes this
as the most difficult thing of all. I hope this wizard
helps you to more thoroughly objectify the choices.
The Nautical Metaphor wizard walks you through the ideas
in the universal hermetics to give you an overall view of
the journey the native is likely to take through life.
Both the PNA and Universal Hermetics reports can be
printed out or made into *.pdf (Acrobat) files.
At the time of this writing, the topics only contains an
exhaustive hellenistic lot list (163) and shows the topic,
author, formula and description of the lot (what it was
used for). There is a grey out off topic items checkbox
that is not active which will in the future grey out off
topic items so that you can focus on the relevant areas
of the chart. In the future, this is probably where the
delineations will show up as well.
The Wheel Setup dialog has replaced the biwheel setup
dialog and includes several chart orientations that are
unique to the hellenistic way of studying a chart. There
are six different chart orientations along with fortune,
dynamical or topical house division numbering which gives
18 combinations of chart orientation / display.
The Chart Designer has been given enhanced control over
chart displays allowing the setting of foreground and
background colors and colors for the various rings and
are saved with the themes. Many new default themes have
been added such as "night vision", "matrix", "halloween",
"survivorman", etc. The color combinations are limited
only by your imagination or your graphics display card,
whichever comes first.
The return charts feature now includes the hellenistic
solar return that Robert Schmidt has been speaking of. I
also solved the skipping problem for finding returns for
planets that go retrograde and it will return up to 3
return charts within the specified time range of the
previous or next cycle if the planet went retro over the
return position.
The ACS Atlas lookup now behaves differently. Upon lookup,
the Atlas will either display the results if found, or
give a message as to the result just to the right of the
checkbox "ACS Atlas Auto Lookup". If nothing shows and
new data is found, it is listed in the edit fields, but
if the Atlas requires further input, it will either say
"Not Found" or "Duplicates". In the first case, the Atlas
did not find what you were looking for. In the 2nd, it
found multiple results. In either case, you must open the
Atlas window by clicking the globe speed button next to
the Zone button.
A right click on an empty area of the chart viewer will
show many functions that are not strictly part of the
"System of Hermes" such as rectification, reports for
Valens lot eminence indicators (some of this was moved to
the Universal Hermetics Tab), printing, and the generation
of Acrobat *.pdf and html files of charts and data.
The application as a whole has several updated icons on
the speed buttons that reflect the nautical metaphor in
many cases.
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Previous Version History:
** Version 3.0.12 - Fixed bug in the current time lords
zodiacal aphesis procedure where the start of major periods
did not update the sub periods accordingly.
** Version 3.0.11 - Synchronized current time lord window
with the transits (if synchronization is checked - F5) so
that the time lords are updated whenever the transits are
updated. A checkbox for automatic node expansion in the
tree view of the current time lords was also added.
** Version 3.0.10 - Fixed a minor bug in circumambulations
technique where the first ray prior to birth was listed
incorrectly for points that do not cast "aspects", like
the lot of fortune, etc.
** Version 3.0.9 - I have added the ability to link to
Kepler 7.0. This means that birth charts created in
Delphic Oracle can be exported to Cosmic Patters' Kepler
program. Charts created in Kepler can also be imported
into Delphic Oracle, using the import menu. Both the
export and import features are available from the main
menu. To export charts to Kepler, select the charts in
the main listbox, then click Export, then go to the Kepler
program and use Kepler's import menu. If you own Kepler,
you can also export charts from the Kepler database into
Delphic Oracle in a similar manner. If you do, then
after the export from Kepler, the import feature in
Delphic Oracle will be enabled. Click it, and the charts
from Kepler that you exported will be added to the list.
You can then work with those charts just as if you have
set them up in Delphic Oracle.
** Version 3.0.8 - Circumambulations through the limits
and rays are now combined into a single sorted list.
** Version 3.0.7 - Moved ascensional times of the signs to
the main chart view and removed it from the time lords
window. This too is printed in uniwheel and square chart
views. Hover your mouse over the sign glyph and it is
there too.
** Version 3.0.6 - Added hermetic lots and prenatal
lunation to pdf files and printed output for single wheel
and square charts. If you want this printed, toggle the
setting "include hermetic lots" on the print preview (F7).
** Version 3.0.5 - Redid the quarters method to fit Valens
procedure and added a 4th level subdivision to the method.
Option to view the defining cycles has been removed from
the time lords options (F5).
** Version 3.0.4 - Added the ability to customize colors in
the chart wheel rings (under the General Tab - F2 key).
The themes will save these colors along with the planet and
sign colors.
** Version 3.0.3 - Added an option to draw whole sign house
lines. Press <F3>, then under dynamic divisions, check the
"use whole sign divisions" checkbox. Angle lines will not
be drawn when this is selected.
** Version 3.0.2 - I added a tree view to the current time
lords window. Right clicking on a period when selected
causes the symbol to blink in the chart viewer. Right
clicking when it is unselected (using <CTRL> key) will
stop the blinking. Alternatively, there is a new menu
item that allows you to reset the active time lords to
non-blinking status. The purpose of this feature is to
make it easier to concentrate on the relevant areas of the
chart.
** Version 3.0.1 - A new hi resolution printing standard
has been set up. The options for printing are in the same
place as the options for Html and gif files (F7 key).
There is also a section for the consulting astrologer's
address, phone number, email, etc, to be included in the
reports. The new Printing tab allows you to set the DPI
(dots per inch) quality of your print reports and Adobe
Acrobat files. Automatic generation of *.pdf files can be
found from the main chart viewer and clicking on print
preview. On the main toolbar towards the right is a tool
button for creating PDF files. The new printing standard
uses the Rave printing engine:
http://www.nevrona.com
Print scaling has been changed in the graphic ephemeris
print routine as well and includes chart info with the
graph.
** Version 2.8.5 - All current time lord systems are now
available when clicking on the graphic ephemeris graph.
There is also a new date input control in the main chart
viewer for the same purpose. A new Reporting tab shows in
the time lord options (F5) that allows you to select which
time lord methods and planetary parameters to show.
** Version 2.8.4 - Added updated help files.
** Version 2.8.3 - Added a new tab to the chart designer
called "General". This allows for intermediate dynamical
division lines to be drawn in the chart wheel and the
width of angle lines can be altered as well.
** Version 2.8.2 - Solved the slow drawing of square chart
problem, so that now drawing is lightning fast with no
"hang time". I added planetary station data to the reports
heliacal phenomena section. In addition, any phasis that
occurs with 7 days of birth is marked in the report with
"***" asterisks after it.. Also, when clicking on "Apply"
or "Save" in the Chart Designer window, the chart drawing
is updated.
** Version 2.8.1 - Added heliacal phase info (dates) to
the reports section and linked the save feature to the
rectified chart data when the chart is rectified.
** Version 2.8.0 - I simplified the transits toolbar by
removing the (+, -) radio group and using an up-down button
in its place. A new green button for transit animation
indicates which direction you wish animation to go (future
or past).
** Version 2.7.9 - This adds chart rectification and the
ability to save charts from the chart viewer window. The
data is changed internally for the chart when it is
rectified so that time lords and the graphic ephemeris will
update its data. To undo changes click on the chart button
which is in the toolbar with all of the chart combo boxes.
I realized that since I moved from a listbox to a combo
box, that I no longer needed 3 of them in the toolbar, so I
got rid of one of them. When a bi-wheel is selected, the
second combo box becomes enabled. Along with this is the
ability to redraw the chart. That same chart button is
used to either update the drawing or draw a bi-wheel. The
left most combobox is either a uni-wheel/square chart, or
the inside chart in a bi-wheel depending upon what the
chart type combobox says (far left). (I still have to
interlink the save feature with the rectified data in the
chart viewer.) It is also possible to rectify the chart
in a bi-wheel arrangement, but only the inside wheel can
be rectified. Transits, or another natal chart should be
in the outer wheel and the rectified chart in the inside
wheel. The Auto checkbox in the chart rectification
toolbar indicates that clicking on the up-down buttons
updates the chart (without having to click on the clock
button). Hints are enabled on all controls to explain
their use.
** Version 2.7.8 - Finished heliacal phenomena in the
graphic ephemeris by adding hints to the graph when the
mouse is over a dot that indicates a "phasis point".
** Version 2.7.6 - Added heliacal phenomena to the graphic
ephemeris. In the ephemeris options, check the checkbox
below the glyph separation field on the Main tab. When
the planet is either under the beams or in curtailed
passage, there is no line drawn. The start or end of a
line indicate helical rising or setting, or the beginning
or ending of curtailed passage.
** Version 2.7.5 - The last 3 versions involved heliacal
phenomena which still aren't fully implemented yet. This
update includes a streamlined GUI for the main chart viewer
and transit toolbar for more efficient use of screen space.
** Version 2.7.1 - Added the Graphic Ephemeris. Clicking
on the graph shows the transits for the date. Hovering
the mouse over the graph shows the position in degrees and
date in the statusbar. Natal planets are shown colored
according to Chart Designer settings (F2) and are listed
on right side of graph. Transits are listed on the left.
Ability to print and create a gif image of the graph is
present.
** Version 2.6.17 - Added the third and fourth levels of
the Balbillus time lord method.
** Version 2.6.16 - Added the first and second levels of
the Balbillus time lord method where the circular period
is reduced according to its distance from its exaltation
degree.
** Version 2.6.15 - Added another splitter between the
listbox and 3 edit fields in the Time Lords window and made
their positions persistent. Updated the demo in the same
way but left several of the reports out of the demo.
** Version 2.6.14 - Redesigned the Time Lords GUI so that
method inputs are in a separate panel and can be mostly
hidden using the vertical splitter.
** Version 2.6.13 - Added a date tool for converting
calendar dates into years, months and days from birth.
** Version 2.6.12 - Added lunar monomoiria to the time
lords window. Also added the monomoiria of each planet to
the Reports window.
** Version 2.6.11 - Added decans to the reports section and
finished some of the features such as save, save as, and
close.
** Version 2.6.10 - Corrected a bug in the old zodiacal
aphesis code that cannot interpret euro style dates
such as 2.27.2005. Now aphesis listings are in UT format
like the other time lord methods (the same has been done
with the demo version 2.6.8).
** Version 2.6.9 - Added planetary speed to the reports
section.
** Version 2.6.8 - I have added the ability to calculate
ascensions through Valens limits (bounds). I also noticed
a bug existed that drew Egyptian limits if another limit
type was selected. This has been fixed. You will see a
new setting for Valens when you hit the F5 key and scroll
down to Ascensional times. I have also updated the main
window to display the circumambulation settings.
** Version 2.6.7 - I solved the speed floodfill problem so
users now have access to displayed bounds (limits) in the
chart viewer window and print preview (see v 2.6.6 note).
Drawing speed has exceeded previous versions with the
exception of square chart drawing which takes up to 2
seconds. I also added transparency so that whiteout
effects caused by planet crowding are eliminated.
** Version 2.6.6 - Printing is enabled in the print preview
window. I discovered a bug in the Chart Designer that
prevents users from changing glyph colors after themes have
been saved to the registry. This has been fixed in this
release. You will also notice a new tab for the bounds
(limits), as the bounds are now drawn just inside the
zodiac ring and colored according to the settings you
specify on the Limits tab. This works really well for the
html reports and print preview, but in the main window the
floodfill function takes alot of time to complete (about 4
seconds on my 1.8 Gh pentium M 1GB ram), so clearly there
must be a better way of drawing this (other than using
TPaintbox). For this reason I have added a checkbox in the
Chart Designer under Limits tab to specify that you only
want to see the bounds for printing and html.
** Version 2.6.5 - In the time lords window, I have changed
ascensional times to circumambulations and below that
ascensional times now gives the ascensions for the 12
zodiac signs.
** Version 2.6.4 Adds the Decennials according to Valens
method for handling the 3rd and 4th level periods. The
method that was originally programmed is that used by
Hephastio of Thebes and involved proportional distribution
of the times. On the 1st and 2nd levels both methods are
the same where 129 months is given to the yearly times
for each planet in order and the sub period gets it's minor
period in months. Valens mirrors the 3rd and 4th level
in the same way as the 1st and 2nd level but gives 129 days
to each 3rd level lord and sub periods of these receive
their minor period in days. As is the case with 3rd and
4th level zodiacal aphesis, the last couple of periods (L4)
might go beyond the start of a new 2nd level period. Just
ignore these overlapping periods.
** Version 2.6 - Added the ascensional times of the planets
to the time lord systems. The oblique ascension is
calculated between a bound degree, ray or body of a planet,
then the difference between the circumambulated point and
the encounter of a ray, planet or boundary is given as the
date when the circumambulated point reaches the encounter.
The circumambulated point is often the predominator, but
not necessarily so. Depending upon the tradition you use
the bound lord will either define the major period and the
ray or encounter bodily of a planet will define the sub
lord (Dorotheus), or the reverse (Ptolemy).
** Version 2.5.2 - Adds the ability to do return charts.
It will calculate returns for the planets from the Sun, the
Moon, through Pluto. It too uses the ACS Atlas in case you
want to relocate the chart.
** Version 2.5.1 - I have changed the internal file format
in order make birth chart files (*.cht) independent of
runtime changes between European, American and Scientific
date formats. A new format has been implemented and in
order to use your existing chart files, you will need to
download and run the file conversion utility:
http://www.astrology-x-files.com/programs/fileconv.zip
** Version 2.5 adds the dll interface for the ACS Atlas.
You will be able to lookup location and zone info for more
than 250,000 distinct locations worldwide. Internally a
new chart file format has been implemented, but Delphic
Oracle can still read the old file format. You may pick up
your copy of the Atlas directly from Astro Communications
Services at a discount (see below in the Credits section).
There are also several new planets available for display:
Chiron, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, Cupido, Hades, Zeus,
Kronos, Apollon, Admetos, Vulcanus, Poseidon & Transpluto.
A new reports section now contains all reports for the
dignities, eminence indicators, etc. Direct printing,
editing and customizing of reports is now possible.
Albert Timashev (astrologer.ru) was helpful in testing this
release, re-mapping the font for international users, and
in form scaling. He also showed me some tricks that allow
the ocx version of the ACS Atlas control to be used in
this program.
The setting up of chartwheels has been streamlined. Date
fields have been combined into a single edit field, and the
latitude and longitude have their own edit fields as well.
Once you have set up the chart, the degrees of the ASC and
MC are shown before you finalize the chart for display.
Support for "themes" has been implemented in the chart
designer. This will allow you to group your settings for
visibility and colors under a theme name. For instance, if
you only want to work with asteroids, you could select only
the asteroids to be visible on the bi-wheel and uni-wheel
tabs, then type in the name "asteroids", then click the Add
button. Later, when you want to work with asteroids again,
you click the theme and then save, and you're back to
working with asteroids. Set as many themes as you like.
The same principle goes for colors as well.
The exe and dll files are now compressed (without loss of
computation speed) by UPX. See credits section for more
information.
-----------------------------------------------------------
** Version 2.03 uses the new InstallShield. This means
that the installation file will be smaller, with quicker
download times. Also, the font used by Delphic Oracle is
now automatically installed to the windows fonts folder.
** Version 2.02 extends the internal font used by the
glyphs. There is a new setting in the Chart Designer
where you can select the style of the glyph for Capricorn,
as either European or American. The font now has a unique
internal name so that it will not conflict with the "Astro"
font if you should already have one installed. The new
font name is AstroZoidsoft Semibold. You will notice
that this font scales much better at smaller sizes than
previously.
There is also a new option as to whether you use the north
node as the exaltation lord in Gemini in the main options.
** Version 2.01 automatically creates the ChtImg directory
under the Reports directory if you change your Reports
output directory (F7). This way if you forgot to do this
manually after changing the report directory, it does not
generate a "path does not exist" error when creating an
html report. (Html reports save the main chart as a gif
file in the ChtImg directory below your reports directory.)
** Version 2.0 adds improved chart drawing capabilities
for circular chartwheels, and bi-wheels. A new chart
designer allows user modification to chart drawings, glyph
colors, visibility and sizes. In the chart designer, the
visibility settings for the glyphs on the Uni-Wheel Tab,
refer to displayed glyphs in either the single wheel or
the inside wheel of a bi-wheel, whereas the visibility
settings on the Bi-Wheel Tab refer only to glyphs in the
outside wheel of a bi-wheel display.
The bi-wheel display allows for easier chart comparison.
Charts can be changed on the fly by hitting <Ctrl + B> or
by using the drop down combo boxes in the chart viewer. It
is not necessary to return to the main window (as in Solar
Fire for instance) to set up a bi-wheel.
The time lords interface has been streamlined to include
drag and dock toolbars so that the screen space can be
used more efficiently. It is also capable of displaying
transits in the outer wheel of the chart viewer for the
start of any period by either double clicking on the time
period you are interested in (in the sub-periods window),
or by right clicking and selecting "Transits". There is
a toolbutton in both the main Time Lords window and the
sub periods window that includes 3rd and 4th level
divisions of the main chronocrator systems. This is
useful in determining which periods are most intensified
because if the planetary period in question shows that
planet in an angle (pivotal) it shows an important period,
more intensified and important than might otherwise be
judged.
For instances in which a planetary period spans a long
period of time, a new transit animation window that
automatically pops up allows you to adjust when you want
to calculate a transit. It allows viewing of changing
transits in the outer wheel according to user defined
intervals between 1 minute and one month for each mouse
click, either foreward or backward in time. You can also
set the transit animation to be fully automatic, updating
at a timed interval between 1 second - 1000 seconds. The
advantage to this arrangement is that planets positions
at the time of the start of a planetary period/sub can be
known instantly and flexibly adjusted or rectified.
There are also 2 new time lord methods implemented in
this version:
The quarters of the Moon method has finally been finished
through 3 period levels with defaults set as Valens used
them 2000 years ago. You can modify the length of the year
and the major period length in the time lord settings
(<F5> key) should research reveal that a different calendar
should be used (for instance based on a 360 day year) as
some other time lord methods use.
Annual, monthly and daily profections are now part of the
time lords interface. Double clicking a monthly or daily
profection will bring up the current transits in the outer
wheel for the chart and profection you are interested in.
Annual profections also show transits, but through a button
on the toolbar, or by right clicking an annual period.
The profections cover every displayed point in the Chart
Viewer.
A new Tips screen at startup will help you more quickly
familiarize yourself with running Delphic Oracle. There is
also improved persistency of the settings in many areas
of the application - for instance - keeping font sizes,
colors and styles persistent after the user sets them.
The details are too lengthly to include all of them here.
Last but not least, there is a new Html export feature that
automatically creates an Html report of the current chart
dignities, chart gif graphic, eminence indicators and
hermetic lots in tabular format. The graphics are the same
used on my websites but any user is granted permission to
use them on their website as output from the report,
providing that the copyright information remains intact.
You do not need to register to upload the reports to your
website.
Astrologers who do case studies of nativities and post to
the web frequently will find this feature very handy as
all of the details of generating a base report are handled
in just 1 mouse click. Hitting the <F7> key will bring
you to the Html Report Options where you can set the chart
width for the gif file, the directory where the html
template is stored, the directories where the template and
reports are filed, the width of the Html tables, size of
the planet glyphs (which is independent from the settings
in the Chart Viewer Options - <F2>), etc...
To make the report fit the design of your web site, just
copy everything from <!-- Begin Delphic Oracle Report -->
to <!-- End Delphic Oracle Report --> to your html template
for your site, then set the name in the Html Reporting
Options using <F7>. If you upload it to your site, you
need to copy everything in the /graphics/ and /ChtImg/
folder to the same relative path from your Reports dir or
you will get missing graphics. I used relative paths to
make this integration easier for you.
The tags that start with <#...> in the template are XML
replacement tags used by Delphic Oracle to be replaced by
information generated by the program. If you remove the
tags, no error will result. It simply assumes you do not
want that section of the report.
To print a chart simply generate a report and use your
web browser to print it. Alternatively, if you just want
to print the chart graphic, then click on the "Viewer"
button, select Draw from the menu, then save the Gif file.
Any graphics editor (such as Paint Shop Pro) can then print
the file. Hint: For really high quality, hit the <F7>
key and set the width of the Gif file to 1200 (max) and
enlarge the glyph font to 28 pts. Scaling of the image
in another program such as Paint Shop will allow you the
best image possible.
** Version 1.23 streamlines the GUI for the time lords
calculations, so that it looks like the main window with
drag and drop toolbars and menubar.
** Version 1.22 contains a fix for the leap year bug of
Feb 29, 2004 and other leap years. It also adds an export
function for the eminence indicators so they can be
printed, reformatted, etc in your documents.
** Version 1.21 adds some more features to the export
editor such as alignment options, underline, etc... It
also eliminates a bug causing the delineation files to not
be found after saving a file in the editor by setting the
associated environment variable ofNoChangeDirectory to
True.
** Version 1.2 adds an enabler to the print function for
the 129 year time lord system. It also adds a general
editor for the time lords output. Using the "Export"
command in the main or shortcut menu will export the time
lord information to the editor where you can change the
font family, size, and color and attributes such as bold
and italics along with copy, cut and paste. This can be
done with level 3/4 time lords as well using the same
Export command from the main menu. Shortly, I plan on
doing the same thing for the rest of the data such as
eminence indicators, lots and dignities output so that it
can be printed. The chart delineations also now use this
editor so that you can add your notes to the delineations
and save them to the file.
** Version 1.13 makes a correction in the sidereal zodiac
conversion for east hemisphere longitudes which caused the
ascendant calculation to be wildly off. An easy fix, but I
was not aware of it until Graham Fox pointed this bug out.
** Version 1.12 makes a small correction in date assignment
order similar to version 1.11, but in another unit, making
sure the year is assigned, then month then day, because
Feb 29 exists only in certain years. This should have been
part of the last update, but it slipped my mind.
** Version 1.11 gets rid of a couple of bugs and includes
two minor improvements. The first bug eliminated caused
birth charts to be off by 1 day whenever the chart for
a given location had a local date and GMT date that differ.
Improper initialization was the problem. The program now
makes sure that GMT date is calculated from the local date
first. The other bug was also initialization based, where
the message "this day does not exist in September" was
displayed when you do a chart for the 31st day of the month.
The component I wrote was initialized to month=September.
Now the month is set before the day which eliminates this
problem.
The two improvements in v 1.11 include getting rid of the
.cht string at the end of charts displayed in listboxes,
and adding a browse dialog for the path to the Swiss
Ephemeris so that you don't have to type the path in by
hand. If you have retained charts, you will need to delete
the "Charts.ret" file (can be done from within the program)
because the program does not check for the existence of
.cht at the end of strings in the retained charts file.
I have been asked to include copy and paste for the time
lord listings. I will make sure that this is included
by the time version 2 is released and hope to have many
more features as well by then.
-----
** Version 1.1 includes the Swiss Ephemeris! This is
probably the most accurate planetary calculation engine in
the world. It has a range of 10,800 years spanning the
dates Jan 2, 5401 BCE - Dec 31, 5399 CE. You will notice a
significant improvement in calculation speed, especially if
you use the Swiss Ephemeris. If you use the Moshier
ephemeris (the default when the Swiss Ephemeris is not
found), then the calculation speed is a little slower, but
still a significant improvement from the previous engine.
The Moshier ephemeris has a span of 6,000 years between
3,000 BCE and 3,000 CE.
I had to truncate the time span of chart calculation
offered by the Swiss Ephemeris by 690 yrs because the
CMDateTime component I wrote does not recognize dates prior
to 4713 BCE (-4712). I plan to rectify this in a future
version.
In order to use the Swiss Ephemeris, you will have to
install it and set the path in the main program options.
The path of the Swiss Ephemeris is set to c:\sweph\ephe\ by
default. I have included this option for those who might
already have the Swiss Ephemeris installed, so that you may
refer to the same ephemeris files without duplication. The
Demo version uses the Moshier ephemeris by default. It
makes no sense to install the Swiss Ephemeris for the demo
because it is limited to the calculation dates 1900 - 2010.
I have added the option for calculation of topocentric or
geocentric coordinates in the main program options. The
difference between the two is very slight, but is most
noticeable with the Moon. Geocentric coordinates are the
planets coordinates as they would appear from the earth's
core, which is not very likely since none of us would be
able to survive there. Topocentric coordinates calculate
planet positions as they appear to the observer in a given
location on the surface of the earth.
I have added the nodes (true or mean) to the chart display
and several new options for different sidereal zodiacs.
While you might notice I have added a setting for the
dynamical division of the houses in the main program
options, I have not actually implemented them yet. At
this point they are used only to calculate the ascendant
and midheaven, which do not vary between the house systems
presented in the main program options. I have extended
the geographic range for chart calculation to the poles,
since the ephemeris will look for unusual circumstances
in the meridians that take place only in the artic and
automatically correct for anomalies.
-----
** Version 1.0.4 adds the 4th level division of the 129 yr
system. The demo version now also has the 129 year system
calculated down to 4 period levels.
-----
** Version 1.0.3 makes a regional setting correction for
international users setting the timeseparator to ':' in
the CMStarDate and CMDateTime components. This is an
important upgrade for international users. I have added
the 3rd level sub periods to the 129 year timelord system.
This improvement has not been added to the demo version
yet, but in the demo version I have made the correction
for the time separator symbol.
-----
** Version 1.0.2 adds the 129 Year System general and sub
periods. It also makes the changes made in the default
location immediately available without restarting Delphic
Oracle. These changes are not available yet in the demo
version.
-----
** Version 1.0.1 makes a small correction in the toolbar
settings so that users can remove buttons they don't use.
-----------------------------------------------------------
INSTALLATION
-----------------------------------------------------------
Minimum system requirements:
* Intel Pentium or higher
* Microsoft Windows XP/Me/00/NT4/98/95
* Memory: 64MB of RAM
* 50MB hard disk space
* VGA or higher resolution monitor
* Mouse or other pointing device
Directions:
1.) Extract the files inside delphicoracle.zip to a
temporary directory.
2.) Browse to the directory where you extracted the files.
3.) Double click on Setup.exe and follow the onscreen
instructions.
***** Don't forget to make backup copies!
-----------------------------------------------------------
DELPHIC ORACLE KNOWN ISSUES
-----------------------------------------------------------
-- If you are a first time user, an error will appear
upon startup and the retained charts list will be blank
on the left. Don't worry, just restart and it will begin
normally. This error only shows up once for the entire
life of your operating system. It is probably an
initialization error, which I have yet to track down. It
won't appear again even if you uninstall and reinstall,
but it will probably appear again if you did an FDisk and
reinstalled windows, then installed Delphic Oracle again.
-- In some cases the data that is shown for the Universal
Hermetics, lots and PNA are for the outside wheel when a
bi-wheel is shown. The fix for this is simple... if you
want to be sure that the data is for that chart, then only
show a single wheel (or square chart) when doing this part
of the analysis. I could have greyed out those functions
when a bi-wheel is shown, but I think that a better
solution is to isolate the component params better.
-- There is no point in saving the hellenistic style of
solar returns as the calculation is always done from the
Derivative Chart window. The modern returns are not
affected in this way and can be saved.
-- The previous issue where resizing the chart viewer
caused extensive flickering has been substantially reduced
in this version. I estimate that over 95% of the processor
waste has been eliminated. However, you may still see
flickering if your sign glyphs are larger than your screen
can support. If this is a problem (where the paintbox
constantly tries to redraw the screen because a sign glyph
falls outside the bounds of the painting area, then hit F2
and downsize the size of the sign font, or if you can, make
the window larger and it will stop flickering.
-----------------------------------------------------------
DOWNLOADING UPDATED HELP FILES
-----------------------------------------------------------
The online Help files that accompany this release may be
updated from time to time to provide corrections,
clarification, additional examples and other new
information. Updates will be available for download from
the Lost Horoscope X-Files Web site at:
http://www.astrology-x-files.com/help-download.html
-----------------------------------------------------------
ZOIDIASOFT ON THE WEB
-----------------------------------------------------------
Zoidiasoft Technologies home page:
http://www.astrology-x-files.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
For More Information On The Ancient methods:
http://www.projecthindsight.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
TECH SUPPORT
-----------------------------------------------------------
The author, Curt Manwaring may be reached for tech support:
phone: 315-200-2025
-----------------------------------------------------------
CREDITS
-----------------------------------------------------------
Robert Schmidt's work in the translation of hellenistic
astrological texts is the sole basis for this program.
Without his help in understanding the philosophy and
practice of astrology from that era, this program could
not exist, nor would have ever had a reason to be written.
Bill Johnston (a student of Schmidt's) laid out the
algorithms for many of the time lord procedures that I
followed, along with suggestions for reports, and other
features too numerous to mention.
The Swiss Ephemeris, of course, needs no explanation.
The ACS Atlas was developed by Astro Communications
Services and can be found at: http://www.astrocom.com.
Contact Bill Purchase for special pricing discounts.
Kenneth Hirst developed the "Astro" font back in 1993 and
with a few modifications, it is now also licensed to Curtis
Manwaring. This font was originally used in the program
"Astrology World". As for the modifications, Ken
"fontified" the drawings of the glyphs that I made for the
lots of fortune, spirit, exaltation and basis.
Astro font is Copyright 1993, Cosmorama Enterprises, P.O.
Box 5362, Irvine, California 92716. All rights reserved.
This font is proprietary.
Albert Timashev was very helpful in design suggestions
and testing. He helped in debugging font and form display
issues that affect international users and showed me how to
import the ocx control for the ACS Atlas. He is a Delphi
programmer and runs the site: www.astrologer.ru
The TGifImage unit used for creating gif files from drawing
code in Delphic Oracle is the work of Anders Melander and
is offered as freeware. He is reachable at:
Finsensvej 79, 2tv.
DK-2000 Frederiksberg
Denmark
Delphic Oracle's exe and dll files use UPX to keep file
sizes small. It was developed by Markus Oberhumer and
Laszlo Molnar:
web: http://upx.sourceforge.net
-----------------------------------------------------------
ORDERING
-----------------------------------------------------------
Name_______________________________________________________
Phone(_____)__________________ Email ______________________
Address____________________________________________________
City_________________ State/Country___________ Zip_________
____ Delphic Oracle: $299.00
____ I want a copy on CD (add postage).
____ Add $5 for Postage, for copy on CD - Not applicable
if you would rather download. CD includes the full Swiss
Ephemeris install files with Delphic Oracle (36 MB).
$________Total
Write check (US dollars) to Zoidiasoft Technologies and
send to:
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC
P. O. Box 42551
Las Vegas, NV 89116-2551
Phone: 315-200-2025
===========================================================
Copyright (c) 2003-08 Zoidiasoft (tm) Technologies
By Curtis Manwaring, All rights reserved.
===========================================================
