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** VERSION 6.30 **

Release notes for Astrolog version 6.30 (October 2017):

Happy start of Scorpio everyone! :) This file describes the freeware astrology software program Astrolog version 6.30 and the additions and fixes made to it, over the previous version 6.20 which was released seven months ago in March 2017. The main things in this update are 3D chart spheres (instead of just 2D chart wheels), graphical transit charts, and object customization.

NEW FEATURES

Here are new additions to version 6.30 that weren't in previous versions:

1. Chart spheres: Astrolog now supports chart spheres, which are like standard chart wheels but in 3D. Chart spheres make it easy to see the ecliptic latitude of planets in addition to their zodiac longitude. They are most similar to Astrolog’s graphic local horizon charts, except instead of being a flat rectangular map, the celestial sphere is rendered like a globe. Create chart spheres with the new -XX command switch, or in the Windows version with the “Graphics / Show Chart Sphere” menu command.

In a chart sphere, its equator marks the plane of the local horizon. Lines are drawn from the center in the four directions, which are labeled around the horizon. Between the zenith point straight up, and the nadir point straight down, can be seen the prime vertical running through the east and west points on the horizon, and the meridian running through the north and south points on the horizon. The 3D boundaries of the 12 houses can be seen, in which houses 1-6 are below the horizon and houses 7-12 are above, and in which houses 1-3 and 10-12 are east of the meridian and houses 4-9 are west of the meridian. Display of the houses can be toggled with the 3D houses flag (-c3 switch, or the Setting / House Settings / 3D Houses command, or with the “a” key). In addition, the ecliptic and the 12 zodiac sign wedges are displayed. Display of signs can be toggled with the Vedic format flag (-J switch, or the Setting / House Settings / Vedic Wheel Display command, or with the “z” key).

Planets will be plotted on the surface of the sphere based on their zodiac position and latitude locations. Most planets will be on or near the ecliptic, except for asteroids and especially fixed stars. Aspect lines will be drawn through the middle of the sphere. If aspect lines make the display too cluttered, the orbs can be reduced or aspects turned off altogether.

The sphere overlaps its “near” and “far” sides, with the far side solid, and the near side semitransparent in which planets and such are rendered in gray. This simulates the viewer being inside the sphere, focusing upon what is in distance, such as a person looking south toward the ecliptic assuming a northern hemisphere chart location. If the -XX switch is invoked as -XX0 instead, the transparency will be reversed and the near side will be solid and the far side semitransparent, as if one were outside the sphere looking upon its surface. In the Windows version, the “Globe Halves Focus On Southern Hemisphere” flag in the Graphics Settings dialog controls this, and can be toggled with the Graphics / Modify Chart command. If you don’t want any overlap at all, turn on the modify display flag (with the -Xi switch, or the Graphics / Modify Display menu command) and only the solid half of the sphere will be drawn.

Similar to Astrolog’s existing globe display, the chart sphere can be rotated and tilted. Two optional parameters to the -XX switch indicate how much the sphere should be rotated around its axis, and how much it should be tilted toward or away from the viewer. While a window is up, the sphere can be rotated left and right with the “{“ and “}” keys (or the Graphics / Globe Tilt / Rotate West and Rotate East menu commands), and can be tilted with the “[“ and “]” keys (the Graphics / Globe Tilt / Tilt North and Tilt South commands). Rotating and tilting is a good way to better visualize the sphere and its contents.

2. Transit graphs: Astrolog has a graphical transit chart, which consists of a table of transit aspects, each aspect of which has its strength mapped over a period of time. The result makes it easy to see when an aspect enters orb, is exact, and leaves orb. These graphs also allow seeing cases when an aspect comes close to but never becomes exact, which is a situation missed by charts that only display times when aspects are exact. The transit graph comes in two forms: transit to transit, and transit to natal. Both forms can be displayed to show aspects within a single day, a single month, a single year, or a range of five years. Counting text mode and graphics mode versions of these charts, there are 2x4x2 = 16 different transit graph chart types total! The transit to transit graph is accessed via the new -B command switch, which is identical in syntax to the existing -d transit to transit times search, including all subswitches. The transit to natal graph is accessed via the new -V command switch, which is identical in syntax to the existing -T transit influence list, including all subswitches. In the Windows version there are new “Transit To Transit Graph” and “Transit To Natal Graph” options in the Transits dialog.

The total number of different aspects that are active within the period may be high, especially when considering fast moving objects like the Moon and especially house cusps. Note that for graphic charts, if there are too many transits to fit within the screen height, then later aspects will be skipped. By default transit graphs don’t include aspects involving certain fast moving bodies. Graphs involving a single day will skip house cusp objects, graphs involving a month will skip the Moon as well, and graphs involving year(s) will skip the Sun through Mars as well. If the -B and -V switches are invoked as -B0 and -V0, then this automatic restriction won’t happen. In the Windows version, this can be toggled with the “Graphics / Modify Chart” command.

In text mode transit graphs, each aspect has its own row, and each character within a row represents a time period. If the aspect is within orb at that time, then a digit from 0-9 is placed there, in which “0” means the orb is 0-10% exact on up to “9” which means the orb is 90-100% exact. Peaks in influence (which usually but not always indicate when the aspect is exact or 100% within orb) are colored white to make them stand out better. Every row will have at least one high point marked, even if it’s on one of the edges where an orb is increasing at the boundary. In addition, for the transit to transit graphs, the column corresponding to the time of the chart will be marked with vertical bar characters. Transit graphs also come in a graphics version (unlike the existing transit time and transit influence charts which only have text versions). In the graphics mode transit graphs, each aspect has its own row, in which each row is a mini-graph plotting the aspect’s strength over time. Peaks and high points will be marked in white, and for the transit to transit case, the column corresponding to the time of the chart will be marked in dark green (unless the -Xi switch modify display setting is active).

3. 3D aspects: Aspect calculations can take the latitude of the planet into account. In other words, the angle between two planets is based on the 3D great circle distance between them on the celestial sphere, and not just the 2D difference between their zodiac position longitudes. Turn on 3D aspects with the new -A3 switch, or the Windows version with the new “3D Aspects” checkbox in the Calculation Settings dialog.

For example, during a New Moon the Sun and Moon may be as much as 5 degrees different in latitude, which means that even when a New Moon is exact, the 3D aspect orb between them may be up to 5 degrees. (If the Sun and Moon are conjunct in both zodiac position and latitude, then a solar eclipse is taking place.) For bodies with latitudes that can be widely different from the ecliptic, such as Pluto, asteroids, and especially fixed stars, the difference is more pronounced. For example, a body at 0Leo and -30 latitude will be Square a body at 0Leo and +60 latitude, even though they’re both at the same longitude and would be considered Conjunct normally.

4. Custom asteroids: Astrolog can access custom bodies whose positions are in external Swiss Ephemeris format ephemeris files (such as Eris and Sedna) with the new -Yeb switch. This is similar to the -Ye switch which allows accessing the orbital elements of fictitious bodies in the seorbel.txt file. Simply download the desired ephemeris file from ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/ and place it in the same directory as the other ephemeris files. Pass the number of the ephemeris file to the -Yeb switch, and the Uranian object in question will be replaced with the positions of the new object. For example, to show the position of Eris, download ftp://ftp.astro.com/pub/swisseph/ephe/ast136/s136199.se1 and then do “-Yeb Cup 136199” to replace the position of Cupido with Eris. See http://www.astro.com/swisseph/astlist.htm for an index of which asteroids map to which numbers. You may also want to change the object’s name and graphic glyph to complete the customization.

5. Nodes and helions: Astrolog can access the nodes and helion points of planets, by defining them as custom bodies. The -Ye command switch can be invoked in four different ways to select these points: -Yen for the north or ascending node, -Yes for the south or descending node, -Yep for the perihelion point or point on its orbit nearest the Sun, and -Yea for the aphelion point or point farthest from the Sun. These four points exist in space, and the planet in question will pass through them along its orbit. As with the Moon’s nodes, Astrolog’s true node vs. mean node setting (-Yn switch) will influence these positions. The -Ye switch is invoked in one of three ways to indicate the type of object in question: -Ye by itself for fictitious bodies in seorbel.txt, -Yeb for asteroids in custom ephemeris files, and -YeO for an existing planet in Astrolog’s standard list. For example, “-Yen Cup 9” redefines Cupido’s slot to be the north node of Transpluto or seorbel.txt object #9, “-Yebs Cup 9” redefines Cupido to be the south node of the asteroid Metis assuming se00009s.se1 has been downloaded, and “-YeOa Cup 9” redefines Cupido to be the aphelion point of Neptune or Astrolog object #9.

6. Swiss Ephemeris stars: The Swiss Ephemeris is now used for computing the positions of fixed stars. Star positions are taken from the new file sefstars.txt that comes with Astrolog’s installation. This may cause star positions and brightness to change slightly from what Astrolog did before. Stars can still be computed in the old manner with the new -bU command switch. There’s little reason to not use Swiss Ephemeris, although fixed stars are computed slightly faster in the old way.

7. Star renaming: Astrolog’s list of stars can now be customized. The new -YU command switch takes two parameters: The existing object index or star name to replace, and a string for a star name from the file sefstars.txt in the Astrolog install directory to compute instead. This star name can be the traditional or common name in the first column of the file, or the scientific nomenclature name in the second column of the file if the name starts with a comma. For example, “-YU Acheron Deneb” or “-YU 43 ,alCyg” will both replace the star Acheron (object #43) with the star Deneb or Alpha Cygni. You may also want to change the object’s name to complete the customization. If a star is renamed to “” or the empty string, then that will turn off customization for that slot, and return to Astrolog’s internal default. This feature requires Swiss Ephemeris to be the active method of star computation in order to work.

8. Object renaming: Astrolog can change the name of objects, or what string is used to display them in charts. The new -YD command switch takes two parameters: The object index to rename, and the string to use when displaying it. Object names must be at least three characters long, and anything shorter will make the object revert back to its default name. Note that renaming objects only changes how they’re displayed in charts, which means command switches and such still need to refer to the object by its default name.

9. Glyph redefinition: Astrolog can change the glyphs used to display objects in graphics charts. The new -YXD command switch takes three parameters: The object index to rename, and two strings which contain the small and large definitions to use for the object’s glyph. The small definition measures 9x9 units (and is used when drawing in the small 100% character scale), and the large definition measures 17x17 (and is used when drawing in the medium 200% character scale). If the large definition is the empty string then a double scale version of the small glyph will be used for it, and if the small definition is the empty string then the default glyph for that object will be used. Glyphs are drawn in vector format by moving a pen (similar to the “draw” command in the BASIC programming language) and drawing starts from the middle unit coordinate. Strings consist of a sequence of actions, each of which starts with a character indicating how to move the pen, following by a number indicating how many units to move in that direction (no number defaults to one unit).

The action characters “U”, “D”, “L”, and “R” move up, down, left, and right. Similarly, “E”, “F”, “G”, and “H” move 45 degrees up and to the right, down and to the right, down and left, and up and left. The action prefix “B” before one of the directions means “blank”, and moves the pen without drawing a line while moving. The prefix “N” before one of the directions means “no update”, and doesn’t move the pen after drawing a line. For example, the default small glyph for Jupiter is: “BH3RFDGDGDR5NDNR2U6E”. Special case: If a definition consists of “T” then don’t do any pen drawing at all, but instead use the three letter abbreviation of the object name for display, like is done with fixed stars.

10. Moshier Ephemeris: When ephemeris files are unavailable, the Swiss Ephemeris automatically falls back to using a slightly less accurate internal ephemeris and formulas by Steve Moshier. The Moshier ephemeris is based on the JPL DE404 ephemeris, which covers 6000 years (-3000 BC to 3000 AD), and computes planets to within 0.1 arc seconds, and the Moon within 3 arc seconds. The new -bs switch will force Astrolog to use the Moshier ephemeris, even if the more accurate ephemeris files are available. In the Windows version, in the Calculation Settings dialog, the “Calculation Method” dropdown contains a new “Moshier Ephemeris” entry (assuming Swiss Ephemeris itself has been compiled into the program, of course).

11. Semitransparent globe: The graphic globe display (as selected with the -XG switch, or the “Graphics / Globe” menu command) can be displayed semitransparently, with the continents or constellations on the back side of the globe drawn in a dotted fashion. Select this option with the new -XG0 subswitch, or by turning on “Globe Halves Focus On Southern Hemisphere” in Graphics Settings. In the Windows version, this can be toggled with the “Graphics / Modify Chart” command.

12. Reverse restriction: A “reverse restriction” is a required object that must be present in charts involving aspects between planets. For example, if you want to see only aspects or transits involving Mars (such as Mars Trine Venus, and Mars Trine Jupiter, but not Venus Trine Jupiter) then Mars is considered required. Indicate the required planet by passing it to the new -RO command switch, or entering it in the new “Required Object For Aspects” field in the Display Settings dialog. Set it to -1, “None”, or the empty string to turn this option off and not have a required object.

13. Relationship midpoint grid: The new -gm switch will make the relationship aspect grid between two sets of chart data show midpoints instead of aspects. In the Windows version, there’s a new “Relationship Aspect Grid Shows Midpoints Instead” checkbox in the Chart Settings dialog to access this setting. Also in the Windows version, the “Graphics / Modify Chart” command will toggle this setting and switch between aspects and midpoints. Note that accessing the relationship midpoint grid no longer reuses the -g0 show aspect configurations switch, as it did in previous versions.

14. Progress to time: The new -pt switch is just like -p, except in addition to month/day/year parameters for the date to progress to, it also takes a fourth parameter for the time within the date. Progressed charts usually move so slowly that one doesn’t care about time, but time can be specified for extra precision. (This was a rare example of something supported in the Windows version that couldn’t be done with the command line.)

15. Transit influence time: The new -Tt switch is just like -T, except in addition to month/day/year parameters for the transit influence chart date, it also takes a fourth parameter for the time within the date.

16. Keep graphics square: The new -XQ switch will force all graphics charts to be square, assuming they can be resized arbitrarily and look better when square. In the Windows version, there’s a new “Ensure Square Charts Remain Square” checkbox in the Graphics Settings dialog. This option is similar to running the “Graphics / Square Screen” command after every window resize (except it won’t automatically resize the window to fit the final chart size, but rather will draw within the largest square area within the window). This option is on by default, and will prevent the old behavior of resizing the initial wheel chart resulting in a distorted elliptical wheel.

17. Wheel decoration: The new -YXv switch specifies how to decorate the corners of wheel charts. Parameter #1 is 0 for no decoration, 1 for a spider web pattern, or 2 for a Moiré pattern. Parameter #2 is optional, and indicates how far along the edge of the wheel chart the decoration extends, as a percentage from 1 to 100. For example, if this is 50 then the patterns in each corner will just touch those in adjacent corners. Note that values too high will impede display because they’ll start overlapping the wheel itself. Parameter #3 is also optional, and indicates how many lines are used to compose the spider web pattern. In the Windows version, the Graphics Settings dialog has a new “Wheel Corners” group with a radio button allowing one to select None, Spider Web, or Moiré Pattern, and a control for the coverage percentage.

18. Animation subject setting: The new -XN switch controls whether animating a map display (such as a globe, map, or chart sphere) will animate the orientation of the map itself or the time of the chart within the map. By default map displays animate the map orientation, however this option allows one to animate the chart within the map. In the Windows version, the Graphics Settings dialog has a new “Animate Map Instead Of Time” checkbox to toggle this setting.

19. Map rotation stepping: In the Windows version, there are new Rotate West and Rotate East menu commands (with the “{“ and “}” key shortcuts) on the Graphics / Globe Tilt submenu. They allow one to rotate map displays, even when animation (and therefore the Step Forward and Step Backward commands accessed via the “+” and “-“ key shortcuts) is set to affect the time of the chart. The number of degrees that these commands rotate the map by is determined by the Animation Jump Factor setting.

20. Sign and house highlighting: The new -YXk switch will cause graphics charts to highlight zodiac sign boundaries in extra color. For example, wheel charts, solar system orbit charts, and the graphic ephemeris will have sign boundaries drawn in the color of each sign instead of always in grayscale. This also influences the display of chart spheres, and local horizon charts when 3D houses are on. If the switch is invoked as -YXk0 instead, then the 12 houses will be highlighted in extra color as well. Some may find the extra coloring makes charts stand out more, while others may find it to be too much and actually make charts harder to read.

21. Windows Autosave bitmaps: In the Windows version, the new -Wo0 switch causes the program to automatically save a bitmap of the current graphics screen to a continually increasing sequence of bitmap files whenever the screen is updated, to “ast00000.bmp”, “ast00001.bmp”, and so on. Each time the -Wo0 switch is invoked, the counter will be reset to zero. This specialized feature allows external programs to see a list of Astrolog screenshots, which can be used for scenarios such as creating animated GIF’s: http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog/screen/globe.gif

22. Chart appending: The new -Yq command switch allows appending multiple text charts within a single display. It takes between 0-9 parameters, depending on whether it’s invoked as -Yq0, -Yq1, and so on. If there’s no digit character after -Yq, then it’s assumed to have zero parameters, and will turn off this feature. Astrolog will treat each parameter as a command line, and then display the resulting chart after each command line is processed. This is basically equivalent to having a batch script invoke Astrolog several times in a row and appending the results together. For example, “-Yq2 ‘-n _e =dm -R0 Sun Moo -A 0 -RA Opp -YR0 1 1’ ‘-i set _e _d _YR Mer Eas 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0’” will print a chart for the time of the Full Moon this month.

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Here's a summary of the 29 new command switches in Astrolog 6.30 that weren't in previous versions:

-gm: For comparison charts, show midpoints instead of aspects.

-B: Like -d but graph all aspects occurring in a day.

-B[m,y,Y]: Like -B but for entire month, year, or five years.

-B0: Like -B but don't restrict fast moving objects from graph.

-Tt <month> <day> <year> <time>: Like -T but specify time too.

-V[...]: Like -t but graph all transits occurring during period.

-V0[...]: Like _V but don't restrict fast moving objects from graph.

-RO <obj>: Require object to be present in aspects.

-A3: Aspect orbs consider latitude as well as zodiac position.

-bs: Use less accurate Moshier ephemeris instead of Swiss Ephemeris.

-bU: Use inaccurate Matrix formulas for fixed stars only.

-p[0]t <month> <day> <year> <time>: Like -p but specify time too.

-XQ: Ensure square charts remain so regardless of bitmap size.

-XX[0] [<degrees> [<degrees>]]: Display chart sphere instead of wheel.

-XN: Map animates chart time instead of rotating map itself.

-Wo0: Continually autosave graphics screen to numbered files.

-Yq[0-9] <strings>: Define command lines to run and show in sequence.

-Yeb <obj> <index>: Change orbit of Uranian to external ephemeris.

-YeO <obj1> <obj2>: Change orbit of Uranian to internal planet.

-Ye[bO]n <obj> <index>: Change Uranian to North Node of object.

-Ye[bO]s <obj> <index>: Change Uranian to South Node of object.

-Ye[bO]a <obj> <index>: Change Uranian to apihelion of object.

-Ye[bO]p <obj> <index>: Change Uranian to perihelion of object.

-YU <obj> <name>: Change position of star to sefstars.txt entry.

-YD <obj> <name>: Customize display name of object.

-YXD <obj> <string1> <string2>: Customize glyphs for planet.

-YXv <type> [<size> [<lines>]]: Set wheel chart decoration.

-YXk: Use more color for sign boundaries in graphics charts.

-YXk0: Use more color for house boundaries in graphics charts too.

Here's a summary of the 3 new menu commands in the Windows version of Astrolog 6.30 that weren't in previous versions:

Graphics / Chart Sphere

Graphics / Globe Tilt / Rotate West

Graphics / Globe Tilt / Rotate East

EXTENDED AND IMPROVED FEATURES

A list of improvements to existing features in Astrolog 6.30, such as new things you can now do with old features that you couldn’t do before, or ways existing features work better than before:

1. Text comparison listing: The standard text chart listing now has a relationship comparison mode. This is the text mode version of a bi, tri, or quad wheel chart, and is displayed with the -v -r0 switch combination, or in the Windows version by turning on “Info / Comparison Chart” and turning off “View / Show Graphics”. The two to four charts covered will each have of their planet positions (both zodiac position and latitude) listed side by side. Also included is a delta, listing the distance between each pair of planets, or the maximum distance between any two planets in the case of tri and quad charts. This delta distance is the difference between zodiac positions (unless the 3D Aspects setting is active, in which case it will be the great circle distance taking latitude into account too).

2. Sidebar multiple charts: The sidebar next to graphic chart wheels which lists the chart information and positions, has been extended to better support relationship charts involving two or more charts. Before only one set of chart information would ever be shown. Now both sets (or all three or four sets in the case of tri and quad wheels) will be shown. Each set of chart information will be properly labeled, such as synastry chart sidebars will indicate which set of chart information is determining the houses and which the planets.

3. Graphics grid autosize: The graphic aspect and midpoint grid can autosize itself to cover the number of unrestricted objects present in it. If the grid size setting is set to zero (by “-YXg 0” on the command line, or by setting the “Number Of Cells In Graphics Aspect Grid” to 0 in the Graphics Settings dialog) then the size to use will be autodetermined. Before, the graphic aspect grid always had a fixed number of rows, which could truncate objects or have blank rows/columns depending on the number of objects present.

4. Esoteric element colors: Setting the color of an object to “Element” (which gets the color of the element of the sign that it rules) now has the option to use esoteric or Hierarchical rulers, in addition to the default standard rulers. The alternate rulership sets will be used based on the rulership restrictions (as set with the -YR7 switch, or “Rulership Restrictions” in the Display Settings dialog).

5. Object colors interface: In the Windows version, the colors for planets and other objects may be selected in the Object Settings and More Object Settings dialogs. These dropdowns also allow selecting “Element” or “Ray” to become the colors of the element of the sign that the planet rules, or the Ray associated with the sign. This allows the Windows interface to access the functionality of the -YkO command switch.

6. Ray colors interface: In the Windows version, the colors of the esoteric seven Rays may be changed in the Set Colors dialog. This allows the Windows interface to access the functionality of the -Yk7 command switch.

7. Biorhythm size interface: In the Windows version, the number of days covered by biorhythm charts has been added to the Chart Settings dialog. This “Number Of Days Biorhythm Chart Covers” field allows the Windows interface to access the functionality of the -Yb command switch.

8. 3D Houses interface: In the Windows version, there’s a new “3D Houses” checkbox in the Calculation Settings dialog. That’s another way to access the functionality of the -c3 command switch, in addition to the “3D Houses” menu command.

9. World map planet zeniths: The world map display (-XW switch) and the polar globe display (-XP switch) will overlay the map with the zenith locations of each object in the alternate display mode (-Xi switch). Before, only the globe display (-XG switch) supported this planet overlay.

10. Globe tilt stepping: In the Windows version, the commands on the Globe Tilt submenu will adjust the map by the animation jump factor, instead of always by just one unit.

11. Alt+click relocation: In the Windows version, when an astro-graph or world map is being shown, holding down the Alt key and clicking will change the longitude and latitude of the current chart to the location clicked upon. This does the same as right mouse clicking on the window.

12. Windows file save improvement: In the Windows file save dialogs, saving a file without the extension delimiter "." in the name will automatically append the default extension ".as". If for some reason one really does want to save a file without any extension, they should just append a “.” to the filename to give it a zero length extension.

13. Setup improvement: In the Windows version, the Register File Extensions command no longer requires Administrator privileges on most versions of Windows. Before, this command and the program’s initial install would often result in the error: “Failed to register Astrolog file extensions. You may need to run Astrolog as Administrator for registering to succeed.”

14. Windows command line build: In the source code, there’s a new WCLI #define. When uncommented, it will compile a command line version of Astrolog on the Windows platform that has the ability to bring up a generic window with the -X switch. This new build is different from the standard Windows version (which is a full windowed program and not a command line program). The WCLI window won’t have a menu bar, but it will still accept keypresses. It’s basically a Windows version of the X11 and Mac graphics versions, just compiled for Windows instead of those alternate platforms. The WCLI version is more limited, but useful for testing the generic window source code of the program without having to go to different platforms.

15. Windows 64 bit build: Astrolog’s source code can now compile 64 bit instances of the Windows version. The Windows About dialog and the -Hc switch display will indicate whether a 32 or 64 bit version of the program is running. Internally, the sources look for the compiler set #define _WIN64 to indicate 64 bit specific content.

PROGRAM CHANGES

A few changes that aren't new feature additions or bug fixes have been made to Astrolog 6.30, which means certain old assumptions are no longer valid. Most can be considered improvements, but they still change existing behavior. A list of these follows (which aren't useful to be aware of unless you have used previous versions of the program):

1. Relationship midpoint grid interface: The relationship midpoint grid between two sets of chart data is now accessed via the new -gm command switch, and no longer via -g0. Similarly, in the Windows version there’s a new “Relationship Aspect Grid Shows Midpoints Instead” checkbox in the Chart Settings dialog to access this setting. In the Windows version, the “Graphics / Modify Chart” command will toggle the -gm setting and switch between aspects and midpoints. Before, accessing the relationship aspect grid used the -g0 show aspect configurations switch. Since the -g0 setting is on by default, the old behavior would make the -g grid chart show a relationship midpoint grid by default instead of an aspect grid, which was unintuitive.

2. Aspect colors moved: In the Windows version, colors for aspects have been moved from the generic Set Colors dialog to the Aspect settings dialog. This change allows aspect colors to be viewed and changed along with everything else related to each aspect.

3. Polar globe expanded. The polar globe display (accessed via the -XP switch, or the “Show Polar Globe” command in the Windows version) has been changed to show the entire world instead of just the top or bottom hemisphere. In other words, instead of the equator at the outer edge, the opposite pole is now at the edge. If one wants the old behavior, they can get it in the standard globe display by changing the tilt to +/- 90 degrees.

4. Polar globe hemisphere interface: The hemisphere focused upon by the polar globe chart (accessed via -XP, or the “Show Polar Globe” command) is now controlled by the new “Globe Halves Focus On South Hemisphere” checkbox in the Graphics Settings dialog (and also by the -XP0 switch). Before this would be toggled by the Modify Display command setting (-Xi switch).

5. Ley lines interface: Display of ley lines on the world map display is now controlled by the 3D Houses setting (-c3 switch), when before it would be toggled by the Modify Display command setting (-Xi switch).

6. Show border extended: The Show Border command setting will now affect globe displays, which used to always have their circular borders displayed. The elliptical border around the Mollewide projection of the world map is now also controlled by the show border setting, when before it would be toggled by the Modify Display command setting (-Xi switch).

7. Wheel decoration moved: The spider web and moiré patterns drawn in the corners of wheel charts are no longer unintuitively accessed by having interpretations active (-I switch). The wheel chart decoration to display is now accessed with the new -YXv command switch, and in the Windows version in the new “Wheel Corners” groupbox in the Graphics Settings dialog.

8. -b0 behavior: The -b0 switch which toggles whether displays are to the nearest second, used to also affect the -b switch for ephemeris files. This second effect no longer happens, which means -b0 and -b should be considered completely separate switches. The old behavior could cause confusion, because -b is on my default and -b0 is off by default, which meant one attempting to turn on nearest seconds by doing “-b0” would unintentionally turn ephemeris files off at the same time, and would result in all positions becoming 0Aries.

9. -B renamed: The -B switch which sounds a system beep has been replaced with -YB, since it’s an obscure feature. The -B switch now accesses the new transit graph chart.

10. Globe Tilt commands renamed: In the Windows version, the Globe Tilt submenu “Increase” and “Decrease” commands have been renamed to “Tilt North” and “Tilt South”. That makes it clearer what each tilt command actually does, and also aligns better with the new “Rotate West” and “Rotate East” commands on the same menu.

BUG FIXES

Here are bugs or other issues with version 6.20, all of which have been corrected in this release:

1. Daylight Autodetect bug: The "Autodetect" Daylight Time setting (as set with the -z0 command switch) is only implemented in the Windows version. That's documented behavior and not a bug. However, what was a problem is that if "Autodetect" was specified on any non-Windows system, then instead of just defaulting to Daylight time being off, it would instead produce an inaccurate "now" chart one day ahead.

2. Whole houses bug: The Whole system of houses would produce malformed results when the sidereal zodiac is active. The sidereal offset would be applied after the house cusps were computed in the default tropical zodiac, which would move them away from sign boundaries. The correct behavior is to apply the sidereal offset first, and only then snap house cusps to the previous sign boundary.

3. Transit influence bug: In the Windows version, the “Transit To Natal Influence” chart ignored the transit time setting in the Transits dialog, and used the time of natal chart. That could be seen by doing a transit to natal influence chart with both the natal and transiting times set to the same date, and noticing that all planets are doing an exact return with a 0 degree orb, regardless of the transit time.

4. Composite transit bug: Transit times to a chart with no time or space (such as a composite chart) would clobber the chart positions of the chart being transited to. As a result, the next chart refresh (such as redrawing the screen in the Windows version) would replace the expected chart with different positions.

5. Synastry interpretation glitch: Interpretation of synastry charts would incorrectly label the North Node object as “North North Node”.

6. Rulership restriction limitation: Standard rulerships would always influence the power numbers in the -j switch influence chart (and the -7 switch Ray chart that uses the same influences), even if standard rulerships were restricted. Restricting standard rulerships will now prevent them from contributing to power numbers in any way, similar to how restricting esoteric and Hierarchical rulerships behave.

7. Globe display glitch: Creating a bitmap showing the globe and with the 3D houses setting on would have a bunch of extraneous green dots on the left edge of the bitmap.

8. Dispositor display glitch: The graphic dispositor chart (-j -X switch combination) would draw the center boundary walls one extra pixel off the bottom and right edges.

LICENSE

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Astrolog and all chart display routines and anything not enumerated below used in this program are Copyright (C) 1991-2017 by Walter D. Pullen (Astara@msn.com, http://www.astrolog.org/astrolog.htm). Permission is granted to freely use, modify, and distribute these routines provided these credits and notices remain unmodified with any altered or distributed versions of the program.

The main ephemeris databases and calculation routines are from the library SWISS EPHEMERIS and are programmed and copyright 1997-2008 by Astrodienst AG. The use of that source code is subject to the license for the Swiss Ephemeris Free Edition, available at http://www.astro.com/swisseph. This copyright notice must not be changed or removed by any user of this program.

Additional ephemeris databases and formulas are from the calculation routines in the program PLACALC and are programmed and Copyright (C) 1989,1991,1993 by Astrodienst AG and Alois Treindl (alois@astro.ch). The use of that source code is subject to regulations made by Astrodienst Zurich, and the code is not in the public domain. This copyright notice must not be changed or removed by any user of this program.

The original planetary calculation routines used in this program have been copyrighted and the initial core of this program was mostly a conversion to C of the routines created by James Neely as listed in 'Manual of Computer Programming for Astrologers', by Michael Erlewine, available from Matrix Software.

The PostScript code within the core graphics routines are programmed and Copyright (C) 1992-1993 by Brian D. Willoughby (brianw@sounds.wa.com).

More formally: This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful and inspiring, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, a copy of which is in the LICENSE.HTM file included with Astrolog, and at http://www.gnu.org

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* Walter D. "Cruiser1" Pullen :) ! Astara@msn.com *

O Astrolog 6.30 homepage: http://www.magitech.com/astrolog/astrolog.htm O

* "Who am I, What am I? As I am, I am not. But as we are, I AM. And to *

O you my creation, My Perfect Love is your Perfect Freedom. And I will be O

* with you forever and ever, until the End, and then forever more." - GOD *

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