Delays...

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.

In software development, technical matters often cause delays and at times the problems come from surprising directions. A current example is found in the behaviour of the Windows operating system when loading Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs). In simple terms, the intention of DLLs is to avoid loading several copies of the same library facilities into memory when they are used from different parts of the program code. Unfortunately, in some situations, the library loader loads more than one copy of a DLL into memory. To further complicate matters, the conditions which cause more than one copy of a DLL to be loaded are different between Windows XP, Vista and 7!