Delphic Oracle Software Release Notes
Note: You can download the text only version of the shareware release notes which is more printer friendly.
=========================================================== Delphic Oracle v 5 - (32 bit) RELEASE NOTES =========================================================== 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. ----------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS ----------------------------------------------------------- -- WHAT'S NEW IN THIS VERSION -- INSTALLATION -- DELPHIC ORACLE KNOWN ISSUES -- ONLINE HELP -- ZOIDIASOFT ON THE WEB -- TECH SUPPORT -- CREDITS -- ORDERING ----------------------------------------------------------- WHAT'S NEW IN THIS VERSION ----------------------------------------------------------- ** Version 5.1.0.7 – Finished the print and Acrobat routines for the square chart view. Discovered the problem that some people are having with printing and this has to do with the Rave print engine. There is a fix for this. See the FAQ on my site for more information on how to fix your printer errors. ** Version 5.1.0.6 - Fixed bug in the HTML report that caused broken images in the Lot List. ** Version 5.1.0.5 - Added China Coast time to user defined time zones and added an Autolookup checkbox for the ACS Atlas in the Locations window (F4). ** Version 5.1.0.4 - Made changes to the window docking routines to make better use of space. ** Version 5.1.0.3 - Made minor modification to the print routines to make sure that only print.rav in the root directory is used (not the Acrobat directory). ** Version 5.1.0.2 - I accidentally included the full path to the help file but should have used the relative path. Context sensitive help has been fixed in this version. IMPORTANT! ---------- Petri Laakso points out that the chart database files were overwritten with the new install. I will have to include a backup routine for updates to Delphic Oracle. For now, if you have any charts saved to .zcf files, make sure you go to that directory (using windows explorer) and copy the *.zcf files (such as natal.zcf) to an alternate location before you re-install. After re-install, copy those files back overwriting the new files. I have now checked "never overwrite" and "permanent" in the InstallShield properties for the database files, but just in case you should back these up until I write a routine that will do this. ** Version 5.1.0.1 - This version has a complete help file in html help format, a complete index, is searchable and has a table of contents. This file has about 400 topics and is organized in 2 sections: how to and reference. The reference section starts with a broad overview and then each function on the main menu is explained in the section listed under the sub menu which makes knowing where to look much easier. Of course the help file is context sensitive and linked to each window of the application. Just press F1 and the focus will tell where to open the help file to. It is also Vista compatible. ** Version 5.0.2.5 - Updated the components in the Default Location window to include button edit fields (buttons attached to edit fields). It also now returns the Place name after doing an ACS Atlas lookup. I am currently writing help files in HTML format which are also context sensitive. Main Group Bar now also retains styles between sessions. ** Version 5.0.2.4 - Fixed bug in main statusbar which sets the font to make astrological characters unrecognizable. The miscellaneous reports have also been updated with correct character recognition for the dignities, eminence sections, etc. Toolbars still need work to prevent resize problems - I recommend opening this section with the docked tab area maximized for best effect for now. ** Version 5.0.2.3 - Added a popup menu for delineations of chart positions to the main chart viewer tab. You can right click the chart to get delineations of planet positions. Added a few new color themes and settings. Fixed bug in the lunar monomoiria and 9 years of the Moon procedures that showed no glyph for Capricorn (9 years method) and did not correctly initialize the lunar monomoiria method. I also initialized the print preview function so that it will show a Gif image upon showing the window. It will also automatically size the window to be large enough to be able to show the main chart image in WYSIWYG format (What You See Is What You Get). If the image is too large and you want it to be smaller so that the extra space isn't added to the graphic, then drag the window to be the same size as the chart and if it is too small, it will automatically correct to include all graphic memory. ** Version 5.0.2.2 - Fixed bug that prevented transfer of decimal coordinates for latitude and longitude from the Locations window and the Derivative charts window. Also fixed icon alignment so that image indexes make proper sense for the procedure it initiates. Calendar window and Reports window are 2 examples. Reset default size of aspectarian so that it is smaller for first time users. I also fixed the preview of the ascendant and midheaven degrees in the new chart setup window so that the glyph for Capricorn will show up (according to date style) such that European format will show the medieval cap glyph and American date style will show modern Capricorn glyph. ** Version 5.0.2.1 - Fixed bug that prevented charts from being retained for the next user session. The file was saved to the wrong directory because of a missing "\". ** Version 5.0.2.0 - Aspect and Testimony lines are now drawn for the asHellenistic AspectStyle property of the AspectWheel. The asShowAll shows platic (sign based only) aspects and the sign ascensions in the middle of the wheel. The asPlatic style shows sign based aspects (or testimony) and also shows separating (divergent) configurations. The asShowAscensions shows only the ascensional times without aspect lines. At this time, the asHellenistic style does not show "outside the sign" aspects if any exist and does not restrict the Moon's orb to a "day and a night". I also updated the Chart Designer Apply button to show a message dialog to let you know when default settings have been set. Fixed bug in Circumambulations time lord procedure that set the first bound lord incorrectly in the time lord listings, time lord graph and current time lord listing. ** Version 5.0.1.8 - Fixed bug in the PNA that caused planets that were in their own places or places of a sect mate to be in alien places. Also rescaled the printing so that glyphs in the planet wheel and house wheel have better collision avoidance. ** Version 5.0.1.7 - Added version 2.0 of the Swiss Eph Dll and moved the whole sign houses selection over to the main options (F3). The Krusinski-Pisa dynamical divisions were added as a result of this. Also, there was no longer a need for the whole sign checkbox in the window where wheel setups are done. To enable the house numbering drop down list in the wheel setup, you will have to select the whole sign house system under the dynamical divisions on the general tab of the main options (F3). ** Version 5.0.1.6 - Routed the direct printing from the main window to the output printer so that printing works without having to generate a PDF file to print. Print preview however still needs work. ** Version 5.0.1.5 - Compiled a new version of the windows installer for users of Vista, Xp and Win 2000 using the old InstallShield application. This installation is a solid one and will work on all 3 OS's. A system restart is required. Ignore the check for updates (uncheck this box) on the last page of the installation. You might want to uninstall the InstallAware version to save space if you already downloaded version 5+, but that is not required. I added the ability to seek current paths that are needed after installation to update the chart database directories, Html / Printing directories and the root and retained charts directory. These buttons can be found on the Paths Tab of the General Options (F3). One should be careful not to use the Rewrite Chart Database button (there is a dialog to prevent accidental clicks) unless one is sure they want to redo the database. If you use this, it will wipe out the links to databases you created. Chart files that you saved to existing databases will be the only ones spared. This button is for users who are having difficulty setting up the correct paths. If this is the first time installing version 5 then directory setting is handled automatically if you accept the default installation location. If not, you will want to use the Seek Current Paths feature. ** Version 5.0.1.2 - Fixed bug in Nautical Metaphor Wizard where wrong font was used. Linked rectification tool to the lot listings so rectified values will show up in the printout and Acrobat reports. ** Version 5.0.1.1 - Finished Acrobat output for the Lot Listings. Set EmbedFont property in the Rave reporting engine to true. Updated Chr() defaults in CMChartData to the current font. Now saves the columns[0].width property in the ListView component for the lots when closed and restores the width when open to whatever width you set the columns so that the setting is persistent. ** Version 5.0.0.8 - Added sorting to the Lot Listings using the ListView component. Click on the columns to do an alphasort for that column. The Ecliptic Longitude gives real values for the positions of the lots and will sort in true numeric fashion. I still have to modify the Acrobat output and printing to reflect the new sorting. I've also been hunting for vestiges of AztroZoidsoft.ttf settings in components which may not be on your machine because I changed this to AstroZT.ttf. If you find any more odd looking glyphs in any areas of the program, let me know. ** Version 5.0.0.7 - Fixed bug that didn't allow an override of the ACS Atlas when the zone button is pressed. ** Version 5.0.0.6 - Fixed bug in the registration routine that would not allow users to upgrade which would cause program to seize after 30 days. ** Version 5.0.0.5 - Fixed bug in the main status bar that prevented display of the astrological font. Color coordinated all 3 display types for the Group Bar and added a new Chart group to the group bar which matches the Chart menu function. Finished linking reports sub menu in the main menu. Printing works for circular charts, but not for square charts (not programmed yet). ** Version 5.0.0.1 - This is nearly a complete overhaul of the previous version at the deepest levels. Written in D2009, it is Unicode compliant which means that foreign language versions of this program can be made available in the future. The ACS Atlas lookups now use the wide character format instead of the old ASCII format. The ChartWheel Designer allows the modification of wheels, visibility, colors and glyphs and draws up to 4 wheels at a time. You can specify how far out from the center you want the wheels to be with the InnerRingRadius and OuterRingRadius properties and you can also determine whether these are visible at all. You can generate many types of chart displays just by using some wheel types (making them visible) and hiding the ones you don't want visible. For example to get a modern wheel I hid the sign, tick and bound wheels and in the HouseWheel, set ShowSignGlyphs to true (and Whole sign houses to false in the wheel setup dialog - CTRL + W). Once all the properties are set for a given wheel type (uni-wheel, bi-wheel, etc) you should go to the Wheels Tab and specify a wheel theme, making sure to select the correct wheel type for your intended theme. That way, you can get these settings back just by double clicking on a saved wheel theme and clicking apply. The next time you draw the wheel it will be done with the settings for that wheel type. The Visibility Tab gets rid of the checkboxes using two listboxes one with the selected planets and points and one with unselected planets and points, just drag between or select and press the left or right arrow buttons. The Glyphs Tab allows you to select the glyphs (or pictures) you want to use for your planets, signs, etc. On the Wheels Tab of the ChartWheel Designer at the top, select the wheel type you want to work on. This will take several seconds to load the properties and you will see a label to the right of the categorize checkbox indicating what wheel type has been loaded. Toggle the categorize checkbox to see the effects. This checkbox will retain its state through sessions and it is not necessary to click the save or apply button as it is saved automatically when you close the window. There are 3 categories that pertain to font sizes which can be modified according to your taste. HouseGlyFontSize property in the Font Sizes - House Wheel category will only show a change if ShowSignGlyphs in the HouseWheel section is set to true and the HouseWheel is itself visible. Each of the wheels of each type (PlanetWheel, TickWheel, etc...) all have an inner ring radius and an outer ring radius which define the contents of the wheel. The OuterRingRadius is supposed to be larger than the InnerRingRadius property as the radius is a real number which has to be within a range of 0.0 to 1.0. First decide which wheels you want visible and then set the desired radii for each wheel making sure that none of values for the visible wheels overlap. If they do, the drawing will probably look a bit strange. I usually match the radii of the InnerRingRadius and the next OuterRingRadius. For example the HouseWheel - InnerRingRadius property would usually match the PlanetWheel - OuterRingRadius property (0.67) for the LargeWheel (Uni-Wheel) type. Once you have settings set up, it is a good idea to click apply and then redraw the chart style that you are interested in to see if you are getting the desired result. Remember to show the same number of wheels as you are working on so if you are working on a bi-wheel style, then you to select 2 charts to display to see the effects, as displaying a uni-wheel by double clicking on a chart at top right will not show your modifications. Special properties on the Wheels Tab: DegreeAsPortion: When PlanetListType is set to plDegreeOnly this will always round up the degrees a planet has such that a planet at 11Ta01 will show a 12 when only listing degrees. When degrees are listed alone the retrograde color is used for the degree notation (See Colors Tab at bottom). AspectLineStyle / TestimonyLineStyle: This is in the AspectWheel section and draws aspect and testimony lines according to the Antiochus Definitions as translated by Robert Schmidt. As of the initial version, these have not been enabled to draw yet. ShowSignGlyphs: In the House and Number wheel you can toggle this to true or false. At this time the Number wheel version of this property has no effect because there is no drawing code for this in house numbering. This can be useful for the House Wheel though especially if you like to show a modern feel when the Tick, Sign and Bound wheels visible properties is set to false, then you can make the HouseGlyFontSize really large and pass this off as a sign wheel with Koch or Placidus dynamical divisions (be sure to uncheck use Whole Sign Houses - Ctrl + W). Once you have everything showing the way you want it, you will not want to lose these settings the next time you modify, so go to the Themes Tab and on the Wheels section type in a new theme name (making sure the correct wheel type is showing to the left of the edit field) and then click on the add button to the right. The next time you want to get back to this group of settings all you have to do is double click on the theme and click Apply at the bottom. The next time you draw a chart of that type, it will be done in that style. Visibility Tab: I did away with the checkboxes and replaced it with two listboxes indicating planets that are selected for display and those that are not. There is a save and restore button sandwiched between these two list boxes that saves the visibility setting for a given planet wheel. There are up to 4 planet wheels that can be displayed depending upon the chart type. A Uni-Wheel will always use PlanetWheel(1) and will be inner most. Make sure to select which wheel to set visibility for in the top CombBox. You can drag multiple planets / points at a time here or click the arrow buttons. Once you have the visibility settings done, specify a visibility theme on the Themes tab in the same way that you did for the Wheels Tab above. If you are working on a bi-wheel, then just set wheels 1 and 2 and set a theme. Colors Tab: This has been changed from version 4 as well and now uses ColorEdit Dialogs for each planet / sign / point. Custom colors can be set up to the number of colors allowed by your display. Once you colors are set, go to the Themes Tab to set a color theme. Glyphs Tab: This is new in version 5. I decided not to hard-code the glyphs that you might decide to use and you can use virtually any glyph that is shown by the AstroZT font. In the future I may enable font selection as well so you can use different fonts. An artistic use for this is that for the signs, I have added pictures of the signs and not just the sign glyphs themselves. Once the Glyphs are set, you can set a Glyph Theme on the Themes Tab to save this group of settings. Auto-Generated Charts: In Version 4 I added the ability to draw transits on the outside wheel from a natal chart when double clicking on a sub period, clicking on the time lords graph or the graphic ephemeris. In version 5 you can specify what kinds of charts to automatically generate outside from the natal wheel and in which order, but because a quad-wheel is the largest number possible only 3 chart types can be selected at a time. To set this go to the Main Options (F3) and click on the Auto Generated Charts Tab. There is a save and sandwiched between the selected chart types and the un-selected chart types. Just drag over the charts that you want and then drag up and down in the list to specify the order. The top most on the selected list represents the innermost next to the natal chart and the bottom is the outer most. You can show secondary progression, tertiary progression, solar arc and transits at this time. The advantage to this display is that you can study time lords and these positions side-by-side and they will be synchronized with the onset of time lord periods that you have clicked on. There is no need to set these charts up manually outside of the display area as would be the case with Solar Fire's progression / transits calculator. The default location is used for all auto-generated charts (F4). Chart Database: The chart database has been redesigned so that several charts can be saved to the same file. Each file is a file group with several charts and each group can be searched individually or searched globally. These files have a .zcf ending, such as natal.zcf, event.zcf, etc. It is important to specify the correct path to these files in the save dialog if you have specified a different location during installation. You can specify your own new databases as well at the bottom of the file manager window (Save Dialog). On Vista, these need to be saved to your documents folder as they can't be saved inside Vista secure zones. You can import your old files from v 4 to version 5 under the chart menu and toolbar. Docking Style: Nearly all analysis windows will dock to the right of the chart display and the main window has several splitter controls with grabber arrows. Clicking on an arrow will shift the splitter all the way in the direction of the arrow. There are 3 states that the window can be docked in: minimized to the dock panel, tacked up to the top (maximized) or tacked sideways which will minimize the window that is not active. It is possible for windows to be behind other windows here, so it is a good idea to close out old windows when you are finished with them, but it can be useful to tab between several windows you are using during chart analysis. Printing: The printing routines are not completely finished in this version and will be updated shortly (Square chart style is not finished yet). Also for some reason the InstallAware sometimes forgets to install the font and it doesn't allow me to specify a system restart which is necessary. So don't bother to start the program after installation, you should check to see if the font AstroZT.ttf (AstroZT Semibold) is installed first (not AstroZoidsoft semibold which is for version 4 if you have it). If not present, just drag the font from your install directory to the windows font's directory and restart. -------------------------------------------------------- ** 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. ----------------------------------------------------------- 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 231505 Las Vegas, NV 89105 Phone: 315-200-2025 =========================================================== Copyright (c) 2003-2009 Zoidiasoft (tm) Technologies By Curtis Manwaring, All rights reserved. ===========================================================
