Release Notes: Version 2.0b5 ============= * StarfishX now comes as two separate downloads. One for G4 and higher machines, and one for G3 machines. It appears that the gcc 3.3 compiler added some G4 instructions to routines which call Altivec code, even if these such routines don't have any Altivec code in them themselves. This sucks, because it causes StafishX to crash on any G3-based machine. But I'm unwilling to give up the 15% speed improvement this new compiler gives us just for this, so there are now two vesions. The G3 version will warn you if you run it on a machine with Altivec, and the G4+ version will refuse to run on a G3. * Fixed a crash when dragging to rearrange palettes and/or colors. * Removed a beep when you edited--but didn't change the name of--a palette. Version 2.0b4 ============= * StarfishX is now compiled with the new gcc 3.3 compiler. Why do you care? Because it generates faster code. In some limited testing, patter generation with Altivec is approximately 15% faster. * Added yet another new palette by Shane R.: Atlantis. Thanks, again, Shane! Version 2.0b3 ============= * You can now start continuous pattern generation by holding the option key while pressing the New Pattern button. You can also skip the current pattern and immediately start generating a new pattern by holding down the option key and pressing the Stop button. Note that this feature works for single and continuous pattern generation. The title of the New Pattern/Stop button will change appropriately when you press the option key. * Because of the above change, the shortcut key for the "Create Until Recent Cache Full" has been changed from Command-Shift-N to Command-Option-N. This item will now become "Skip Current Pattern" (with shortcut key of Command-Option-.) when a pattern is being generated and has the same effect as clicking the Stop button while holding the option key. * We will once again always re-open the main SFX window when you click on the SFX icon in the Dock. Cocoa was doing something weird which would cause us to not show the window if it had been closed while either of the drawers were open. * When you choose to edit palettes, SFX will now automatically select the same palette as last shown in the palettes popup (provided it wasn't one of the special items, like "random" or "full spectrum"). * SFX will now append a sequential number to the name of any pattern whose name conflicts with an existing file in the ~/Library/Desktop Pictures folder. * If the quit confirmation sheet is being displayed when a pattern is completed (or cancelled), SFX will now automatically quit. Version 2.0b2 ============= * Added drag & drop reordering to the Edit Palettes lists. * Changed the altivec generators to use the built-in trig functions instead of the ones I wrote to workaround the bugs in the OS 9 Altivec trig functions. This results in a slight speedup when using Altivec, and is just generally the better way to go. * Worked around a bug that could cause a crash when closing either of the drawers. The real bug is in AppKit (i.e., Cocoa), but it looks like I can pretty much work around it. At worst, SFX *might* crash when closing a drawer such that the main window will change its size or position. I can't make it crash in this case, however, so we're probably good. The real bug in AppKit is fixed in Panther (10.3), although you (probably) can't have that yet. :-) * Speaking of Panther, if you are lucky enough to get the WWDC release of Panther (build 7A179), you won't be able to use StarfishX in Altivec mode. This is because of a bug in vpowf() which causes it to crash when given an input 'x' value of 0. This is *NOT* a bug in StarfishX, but a bug in Panther. The only workarounds are to 1) go back to using Jaguar, or 2) not use Altivec in StarfishX when running Panther. Apple is aware of this problem and no doubt will fix it before shipping the final version of Panther. * Fixed manual version check to display alert sheet which offers to take you to the website. * Fixed status text to not show after cancelling a "Create Until Recent Cache Full" (when timed creation was not used). * Added another new palette by Shane R.: Storm. Thanks, again, Shane! Version 2.0b1 ============= * Fixed a bug where some settings might not get restored correctly when those settings contained a once-valid but now-invalid value. This was probably most likely to happen if your display configuration changed (like attaching an external monitor to a PowerBook). * This version now has a complete French localization. If you speak any French, please check it out. Thanks for Bwass for his translation! * Fixed bug were StarfishX could add a palette with the same name as an existing palette. This would really confuse us later. * You can't create two palettes with the same name now. * The recent pattern information (including the thumbnails) are now stored in a file at "~/Library/Caches/StarfishX Recent Patterns Cache". If you delete this file, you will cause StarfishX to forget about all recent patterns. * Changed the online version checking code to use a thread when checking to see if it can reach the website w/o user interaction. * Changed the code which looks for missing recent patterns to be "safer." However, this change makes StarfishX require Mac OS X 10.2 or later. Sorry Puma users. Version 2.0a7 ============= * The main window will now move/resize when you open a drawer near the edge of the screen. I try to be semi-intelligent about remembering the size/position of the window before so if you then close the drawer the window will return to where it was. However, it is possible to confuse it in some situations if you open and close both drawers. But overall, it's not too bad. :-) * Changed how I generate the full-spectrum palette such that you can now generate the same pattern in full-spectrum as you can in other palettes. However, once again this change will cause any given seed value to generate a completely different pattern than in either of the two previosu versions. I hope this will be the last time I break random seed like this, but I figured it's better to do it now than later. * Preferences are now stored in the org.mscott.starfishx.plist file in ~/Library/Preferences. Old preferences should be automatically migrated from ~/Library/Preferences/StarfishX.plist. Please let me know if you lose all your recent pictures when you begin using this version. * You should now see the proper version strings in column view and when you Get Info on the StarfishX application in Finder. * Changed the version checking code to make it easier to maintain and to check separately for new development versions of StarfishX (if you're using a development version). Version 2.0a6 ============= * I now get the current seed value before generating a new pattern. In 2.0a5, if you entered a seed value but did not "leave" the text field (by pressing Tab or Return or clicking in something else which would take the focus), the value of the seed used would be the value displayed in the seed text field before you changed it. * If you change the seed while generating a pattern, the info for the pattern being generated would show the seed value you entered, not the actual seed value used. This has been fixed. * When using the "Use random seed values" option, SFX will no longer generate the same sequence of seeds given the same initial seed value. * This version of SFX now throws away the first random number generated after seeding the random number generator. This seems to fix (or at least greatly reduce) the "duplicated palette" problem when using sequential seed values. Unfortunately, this also means that the same seed value will now generate a completely different pattern than before, so you will not be able to re-generate any patterns you generated before this version. I hope to have a better solution (one that's not nearly so fragile) for re-generating patterns in an upcoming version. * You can now drag (some) plain text values into the random seed text field. (Apps like Terminal don't work for some reason.) * Command-Delete now works again to move the selected recent picture to the Trash. * When zooming the main window, the size of the window now adjusts for any open drawers. Version 2.0a5 ============= * Brand new pattern generating engine! Many, many thanks to Mars Saxman for writing and sharing this amazing new engine. The Starfish 2.0 engine has about four times the number of individual generators as the Starfish 1.x generator, so it will generate some very different (and *VERY* cool) patterns. This new generator is also Altivec-ready, so it's screamin' fast on a G4 machine. * New interface on the main window. You can make the window much smaller now. The controls which were formerly on the "Pattern" and "Advanced" tabs (along with the New Pattern button) are now in a drawer on the left of the main window, while the "Recent" controls are now in a drawer on the right. The settings formerly in the "Control" tab have been moved to the Preferences dialog. * Copy now works with the currently selected recent pattern. Now you can copy and paste patterns into other programs! * Double-clicking on a recent pattern will install that pattern on the main display (same as typing Command-1). * Because the new generator does not generate seamless patterns by default, the Arrange option "Tile" has been changed to "Tile (seamless)" and a "Tile (not seamless)" options has also been added. If you are generating anything other than a full-screen pattern, these two settings will control whether or not the pattern created is seamless or not. (Full-screen patterns are never seamless, since they won't tiled). * You can now drag and drop from the recent list into other applications, in addition to using Edit/Copy to copy the selected pattern to the clipboard. By default, dragging to the Finder will make an alias to the original file, but you can hold down the option key to cause the file to be copied to the drag location. * Changed the naming scheme for pattern files. Each pattern is now named "Starfish-xxxxxxxxx-palette-(widthxheight)", where "xxxxxxxxx" is the seed value used to generate the pattern, "palette" is the name of the palette used, and "(widthxheight)" are the dimensions of the pattern. * Preferences are now organized in tabs, somewhat similar to the tabs used on the main window in the 1.x version. * Added a JPEG quality slider to the Advanced tab in the Preferences sheet. You probably won't want to use anything less than 80% for your desktop. * TIFF patterns now use LZW compression (lossless) to reduce disk space usage. * StarfishX will not automatically check for a new version more than once every 48 hours (assuming online version checking is enabled). * You can now drag from the recent pictures list to the "Next seed:" field, as well as the "Size:" and "Palette:" popups. Doing so will attempt to set the drag target to the value used for the recent pattern you are dragging. * Added new palette, "Savannah". Thanks to S. Rooks! Not yet: * Added French localization (but it's incomplete, since I added some new stuff). Many thanks to Bwass for the translation! Version 1.5 - 03/31/03 ====================== * Added an "Edit" menu to allow for Cut/Copy/Paste * Fixed bug where Command-N would sometimes stop pattern generation (it should have been Command-. and now it is). * Added Command-Shift-N as a shortcut for "Create until recent cache full". * Added new palette, "Sky". Thanks to Todd S.! * Moved all the options which were previously on the Advanced tab to the new Preferences sheet. * Improved the generation of random numbers. * You can now seed the random number generator to create the same pattern with different sizes/palettes. Also, if you find a really cool pattern, other StarfishX users can create it themselves just by giving them the seed value used (see FAQ for some caveats). * Added an option to allow you to specify the exact size of patterns created. * Added a "random (no full spectrum) option to the palette popup menu. * Added a badge icon to the StarfishX's dock image while creating patterns. * Changed "Delete" button on Recent tab to "Trash". StarfishX will now move files to Trash instead of deleting them immediately (and irreversibly). * StarfishX will now scan the patterns in the recent patterns cache and automatically "forget" any patterns which you've moved/deleted from the Desktop Pictures folder. * Fixed yet another bug which might cause StarfishX to create non-full-screen patterns when full-screen is requested. Version 1.4b2 - 03/18/03 ======================== * Change the code so StarfishX will generate a truly full-screen pattern on the main monitor. Version 1.4b1 - 03/18/03 ======================== * Added an option to automatically check for a newer version of StarfishX when StarfishX launches. * Added a "Run at reduced priority" option on the Advanced tab. This is on by default and will give other processes on your system more time relative to StarfishX (so it doesn't bring your machine to a grinding halt). This will have virtually no effect on pattern generation times on an otherwise idle system. * Fixed a bug which could cause StarfishX to be confused about the size of your monitor(s). Version 1.3b1 - 03/13/03 ======================== * Each new pattern now has a unique file name. This eliminates the weird double-set of the desktop when installing the new pattern. It also allows for: * Added option to keep recent patterns (5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250 or 500). See the Read Me file for more information. * Added a table to review all recent patterns and optionally to manually Save, Install on desktop, or Delete any recent pattern. * Added "Pattern" menu with 'Create New Pattern' and 'Create Until "Recent" Cache Full'. * Added a line of text under the main image well which indicates the palette used and size of the pattern selected/being generated. * Added address and link to StarfishX website in the About StarfishX window. * The main window can now be closed (and will remain closed on subsequent launches). This lets StarfishX essentially run as just an icon in the dock. When the main window is closed, clicking on StarfishX's icon in the Dock will re-open it. Also, the usual Command-O/W will open and close the main window while StarfishX is the front-most application. * Similarly, the "Minimize main window at startup" option has been removed in favor of simply remembering if the main window was minimized when you last quit StarfishX. (Note that you can quit StarfishX from its Dock icon by control-clicking on it.) * The tab you were last on is now remembered the next time you launch the program. * Improved overall performance of a core AltiVec function used by almost all the generators. You probably won't notice the difference, however, except in some very rare cases when the generator would actually come to a complete stop. Version 1.2b2 - 03/05/03 ======================== * Fixed a big, nasty memory leak introduced in 1.2b1. Very bad. :-( Version 1.2b1 - 03/05/03 ======================== * Added palette editing. See the Read Me file for more information. * Added six new default palettes: Aqua, USA, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, and Bronco * The "random" palette option now includes "full-spectrum" in the list of possible palettes. * Cleaned up timer options to reset time when you change the time interval. * Fixed a small memory leak when running multi-threaded. * Other minor code clean-up as I learn more about Cocoa. :-) Version 1.1b1 - 02/26/03 ======================== * Added timer options to automatically generate new patters after specified time period. (Provided you leave the program running.) * Added dock menu with option to start/stop pattern generation. * The position and size of the main window are now remembered between launches. * When the main window is minimized, the dock icon for the window shows the current progress of the image being generated (or the last complete image generated). * Added option to minimize the main window at startup. * Added popup menu to control how the pattern is installed on your monitor (using the same options available in the Desktop preference pane). The default it "Tile". * Added a numeric prefix to the display names in the "For:" monitor popup. This should restore secondary monitor(s) to the menu when there were matching names (such as "Apple Studio Display"). Version 1.0b1 - 02/18/03 ======================== Initial public release.