admin's blog

Due to the delay in the release of WaterSums 2.0, a new release in the 1.1 series is to be made. WaterSums 1.1.2 will be released in the next day or two (God willing) to fix some bugs and provide some very simple extra features.

Development of the newest version of WaterSums is still continuing, and the release of a beta version of WaterSums 2.0 is expected in the near future - God willing. With a completely new installer and automatic upgrade tool, WaterSums will look quite different during the installation process. Once it is installed, however, the appearance will be just the same.

The main enhancement is the ability to store project data in a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database. WaterSums 2.0 will allow you to save your projects into a local (or remote) PostgreSQL database and load them again as required. To store the data locally, you will need to install PostgreSQL and PostGIS on the computer running WaterSums. This gives a self-contained database option which many may choose to use. However, the greatest benefit can be found in a corporate environment where a single PostgreSQL server with PostGIS installed can be used to store all the projects created by all users.

After another visit to Kolkata, I (Mark Morgan) am returning from India via New Zealand where I will be visiting users (DV).

If you would like a visit, try sending a message and I may be able to visit you.

WaterSums 2.0 is having a slow birth with various platform and technology difficulties to overcome. For example, the integration of an internal Django server was unexpectedly difficult, but is now working well. Some of these difficulties may be the basis of blogs at a later date, but at the moment all efforts are concentrated on finishing the release. Having been wrong with 3 time estimates already due to unexpected events and equally unexpected problems caused by the interaction of different components, the release date is now to be "when it's ready". We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by this delay, and wish to assure everyone that the release of WaterSums 2.0 will be as soon as possible - when it's ready!

WaterSums continues to progress and the website has been expanded to include more information. Going directly to www.watersums.com will now display an introductory page showing the basic informaiton about WaterSums, particularly aimed at new visitors. The rest of the site can be accessed by links from the page including the new FAQs page.

There has also been another delay to the release of WaterSums 2, which is now expected at the end of February, 2011. With such significant architectural changes included in the release, there are many features to be finished off and extensively tested.

When released, WaterSums 2.0 is to add support for storing network data in a relational database, starting with PostgreSQL/PostGIS. Users will still be able to associate data with separate projects and the existing import/export tools will continue to work, ensuring that network model data can still be easily exchanged. We continue to work hard on the development of WaterSums 2.0, but there have been various technical and other delays. As a result, we have to announce a significant delay to the release date: the next release of WaterSums is now planned for the end of January, 2011. We apologize for any difficulties this delay may cause.

At WaterSums we have prided ourselves in keeping to release schedules, so we feel that we owe our users an explanation of the reasons for such a long delay. Most of the current delays have resulted from technical difficulties (one of which is described below). The remaining delays arise from the absence of the leading developer who plans to be in India for most of the rest of 2010. His strong associations with the Christadelphians in India and particularly with congregations in West Bengal have taken him to India on several occasions in the last few years. Development takes a back seat for him at these times.

WaterSums continues to improve, and in the last few months several major changes have begun which will be shown in the release of WaterSums 2.0, planned for the start of July 2010 (DV). Pre-release purchases of WaterSums 2.0 are now being accepted - for the same price as WaterSums 1.1!

Today sees the release of WaterSums 1.1.1, more than 4 months after the initial release of WaterSums 1.1. This version includes many new features, most of which are described in the Release Notes. Some bug fixes have been made also. We also have a new website theme to celebrate - designed by Chris Morgan.

The main highlights of WaterSums 1.1.1 are:

• auto-analyse,
• contours,
• simple and rule-based control editing,
• analysis report file display,
• Load and Save features for Curves and Patterns, and
• feature catch-up for the Adobe SVG Viewer plugin.

WaterSums now has a single download that utilises 64-bit features where possible on 64-bit Windows operating systems and runs as a 32-bit application on 32-bit systems.

Why not download the new version and test it today? The new automatic analysis and display of contours will certainly get your attention.

In the first part of this article, the difficulties of enhancing WaterSums to use toolbar buttons to control simulation playback speed with the Adobe SVG Viewer (ASV) were discussed. In the second part, an asynchronous pause and unpause function were presented. This third and last part ties the pieces together by presenting a solution which makes it relatively easy to control the ASV without the crashes that can happen frequently when there are active animations.

In the first part of this article, the difficulties of enhancing WaterSums to use toolbar buttons to control simulation playback speed with the Adobe SVG Viewer (ASV) were discussed. In this part, we see the implementation of some functions to help with the necessary pausing of animations before various ASV operations can be performed successfully. Searches of the web did not find any useful hints in this direction, but extensive experimentation and testing came up with a method that worked without crashing.

Update: This blog entry has been updated to include extra checks to make the pause function safer for more complex animations.