v18.9 [Aug 26, 2016]
Daylight Saving Time (DST)
Added a new menu item (Dates > DST Dates). For countries using DST in the current year, this menu item will generate a list of the countries and the DST begin and end dates for each country.
Updated the DST information for Azerbaijan, Belarus, Chile, Egypt, Greenland, Haiti, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Morocco, Palestine Authority, Paraguay, Syria, Turkey and Uruguay.
Worldwide Locations Database
Eight Russian regions (oblasts) have changed their time zones in 2016. The regions are Astrakhan, Ulyanovsk, Altai Krai, Altai Republic, Tomsk, Zabaykalsky Krai, Sakhalin and Magadan. On May 1, Venezuela also changed its time zone from UTC - 4.5 to UTC - 4.
Calendar Magic's world wide locations database has been updated to reflect these changes.
Big Numbers Calculator
A new Mersenne prime number has recently been discovered, the 49th such number, and the Big Numbers Calculator now supports its evaluation. The new prime has the form 2274207281 - 1 and contains over 22 million digits (22338618 to be precise). Expect its evaluation to take days rather than hours. Also forget any thoughts about calculating the corresponding perfect number!
Made some changes to the underlying program code to speed up the calculation of the square roots of very large numbers.
Expression Calculator
Copying and pasting data into the Expression Calculator has been improved.
At the request of a user, added an Expression Calculator saved history file to convert from kilograms to stones, pounds and ounces. UK citizens of mature years still tend to think of weights in terms of these older imperial units. An equivalent file has also been provided for converting in the other direction.
Hindu Religious Festivals
The 2016 to 2018 dates for the Hindu religious festival Maha Shivaratri were out by one day. All three have been corrected.
v18.8 [Dec 19, 2015]
Enlarged Views Following a suggestion from a user, the method for displaying enlarged views of text output has been totally redesigned. Now an enlarged view will occupy as much screen "vertical real estate" as possible. For example, on modern screens with diagonal lengths greater than 15.6 inches, a full year calendar should now be completely visible. The F11 function key continues to be used for toggling between enlarged and normal views. Reminders When Calendar Magic is started up, different short sounds are now used to indicate if there is a reminder set for the current date and, if not, if there is one occurring within the next 7 days. For the former, a short sound is played twice; for the latter, the short sound is played once only. This feature has been added primarily for the benefit of blind and visually impaired users. Special Calendars Added an option “Swedish and Finnish Calendars for 1700 to 1712” to display the calendars used in Sweden (Finland was part of Sweden at that time) during this period. Remarkably the calendar for 1712 contains 30 days in February. Factor Calculator Any unacceptably long factorisation may now be terminated by the Ctrl T keyboard key combination rather than having to use the Task Manager to end the process yafu.exe. Time Zones Updated the time zone information for North Korea. On August 15, 2015 it changed from UTC 9 hours to UTC 8.5 hours. Winter Olympics Added data for the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. World-wide Locations Database At the request of a user, added Gassa Chare, Ethiopia to Calendar Magic’s database of world-wide locations. Observed Days Added Black Friday (4th Friday in November) to the list of Observed Days under “various”. Translations Translated versions of the list of Calendar Magic’s main features are now available in Belarussian, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Thai.
v18.6 [Feb 4, 2015]
Enhancements and improvements in V18.6 are listed below.
New Baha'i Calendar
The traditional Baha'i calendar is being replaced by a new astronomical calendar with effect from sunset on March 20, 2015. Tabulated data for the new calendar has also been released for Baha'i years 172 to 221 (roughly 2015 to 2064 in Gregorian years). These changes have been incorporated seamlessly into Calendar Magic by continuing to use the traditional Baha'i calendar for Baha'i years before 172 and after 221. When further tabulated data is available for Baha'i years beyond 221, a further adjustment will be made.
When listing Baha'i religious festivals, the situation is similar except that the upper cut-off point is now Gregorian year 2064 rather than 3000. This also applies to any Baha'i contribution to "On This Day".
Equation Solver
Added an Equation Solver to the list of Mathematical Utilities. This new utility will currently find all the roots of any quadratic, cubic or quartic equation with real coefficients. Other types of equation may be added later, depending on user feedback.
Prime Calculator
When assessing whether or not a given number is prime, the Baillie-PSW Primality Test is now used via YAFU.
Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) Calculator
The BAC limit in Scotland has changed from 80 to 50 mg per 100 ml of blood. The rest of the United Kingdom remains unchanged.
As a result, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are now treated separately in the BAC Calculator. A side effect is that any BAC Calculator "sticky" country value may need to be respecified.
Global Distances
Distances between locations are now calculated more accurately using formulae which assume that the shape of the Earth is an ellipsoid of revolution rather than a sphere.
World-wide Locations Database
At the request of a user, added Mukilteo in Washington State, USA to the Calendar Magic locations database. Also added Makkum in the Netherlands.
v18.2 [Jan 7, 2013]
ABSI Calculator
Added "A Body Shape Index (ABSI) Calculator" based on research done by Krakauer & Krakauer
World-wide Locations Database
Updated time zone for Libya (now GMT + 1 hour). Based on user input, added various locations in Australia.
DST Information
Updated DST information for Armenia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Falkland Islands, Haiti, Libya, Morocco and Nagorno Karabakh.
Fuel Consumption Utility
Responding to a user request, added international nautical miles to the list of distance units.
Tip of the Day Bug
If "Show tip of the day at startup" was checked (Help > Tip of the Day) and an opening screen other than the main screen also selected (Options > General > Opening Screen), the alternative opening screen was not being displayed. This bug has been fixed by ignoring the "Show tip of the day at startup" request whenever an opening screen other than the main screen is specified.
v18.0 [Dec 9, 2011]
Calendar Collector
Implemented a new routine (Calendars > Calendar Collector) for answering the question "Starting in
any specified year, for how many years do I need to collect calendars to have a copy of all fourteen
possible Gregorian year calendars?"
You may find the results surprising, especially when the collection period spans a century year, such
as 1900 or 2100, which is not a leap year. For example a collection started in 1873 would not have
been complete until 1912 – a period of 40 years.
French Revolutionary Time
At the suggestion of a user, implemented a routine (Time > Revolutionary Time) for converting
between normal and French Revolutionary time. The latter divides each day into 10 decimal hours,
each decimal hour consisting of 100 decimal minutes and each decimal minute consisting of 100
decimal seconds.
Interval Arithmetic Calculator
Implemented a simple Interval Arithmetic Calculator (Maths Utilities > Interval Arithmetic Calculator)
for performing arithmetic on approximate values which lie within specified ranges (intervals). For
example, a measured length of 1.8 metres, correct to 1 decimal place, could lie anywhere in the
interval 1.75 to 1.85 metres inclusive. Such an interval is written [1.75,1.85].
Interval arithmetic can be useful when working with approximate data and can provide an indication of
how many digits to trust in computed results.
For a worked example, see the section "Interval Arithmetic Calculator" later in this document.
Visual Indicators for Imminent Reminders
A user pointed out that, when Calendar Magic's main screen (form) is minimised, there is no longer
any visual indicator for imminent reminders. This has been rectified by changing the Calendar Magic
task bar icon to a red or orange diamond shape whenever the main screen is minimised, provided that
the visual indicator on the main screen has not already been hidden.
Russian Time Zones and Use of DST
Russian cities and towns are now on "permanent DST", i.e. clocks are no longer turned back one hour
in late October. A few regions have also changed time zones. My thanks to Andrey Pivovarov for this
information.
World-wide Locations Database
Improved the coverage of Russian cities and towns by adding 160 additional Russian locations. Also
added the Alaskan locations Barrow, Bethel, Kodiak and Kotzebue at the request of a user.
The database now contains over 18500 locations.
Observed Days
Based on input from a Serbian user, the observed day information for Serbia has been significantly
revised. My thanks to Aleksandar Kolović.
Updated information for Software Freedom Day (third Saturday in September since 2006).
Added World Porridge Day (Oct. 10 from 2010 onwards) under the category "various". See, for
example:
http://www.goldenspurtle.com/world-porridge-day/
Javanese Pawukon/Pasaran Calendar
Following additional information from Kaboel Karso in Yogyakarta, adjusted the code for calculating
Windu values.
