eXtrema News
All inquiries to: E. Sternin

For the latest changes, see in the ChangeLog file on GitHub. The information below gets updated only when a release happens.

Version 4.7.2
  • roll back to wxWidgets 3.0.5 as minimum in Makefile.in; use 3.2.2.1
  • bugfix release: gaussin() bugs fixed
Version 4.7.1
  • switch to wxWidgets 3.2.1, better high-dpi operations
  • bugfix release: replot, window indexing fixed
Version 4.7.0
  • first fully common-codebase release under Linux and Windows
  • a significant change in functionality justifies a minor version advance. Minor subversions are reserved for bug fixes and minor changes.
  • a re-work of how fonts are handled, and standartization to one preferred foundry, GNU FreeFont, on all platforms. To do: font-picking selector, font inclusion in .eps, etc.
  • many demo scripts enhanced and overhauled.
  • bugs quashed: graphics refresh under MSW
Version 4.6.2
  • commit to using wxWidgets 3.1.5+ on all platforms, remove temporary accommodations for for high-dpi screens
  • change path handling for service files, everything is now relative to the path to the executable
  • issue an AppImage (Linux) and a self-contained binary zip (Win)
Version 4.6.1
  • codebase made compatible with MingW compiler for Windows; 32-/64-bit Windows versions need wxWidgets 3.1.5+
  • all button images converted to .gif, transparent background; buttons organized into wxPanels
Version 4.6.0
  • updated to wxWidgets v 3.0.x (mostly compatible wih 3.1.x), intermediate bitmap/screen update scheme revamped
  • a switch to FreeFonts, rationalization of UTF16 support
  • bold/italic switches in text strings
  • temporary accommodations for high-dpi screens, like Chromebook; these will need further revision for wx 3.1.x+ and for Windows
  • self-contained binary AppImages for Linux created
Version 4.5
  • wxWidgets updated to v.2.8.12, gcc to v. 4.8.5, minor code incompatibilities resolved.
  • a big change in font handling Graphics/GRA_Graphics/GRA_drawableText.cpp modified to be usable on a modern UTF-8 platform. To compensate, reverse re-mapping added to Graphics/GRA_postscript.cpp (back from symbol.ttf in Latin-1 Supplement encoding). This is a very poor solution, but the entire font-handling needs a major revision, so this is just a temporary patch. EPS does not support UTF-8 fonts, so this will require building a custom dictionary in the PostScript preamble, or switching to PDF. With this workaround, PNG/JPEG/EPS all work and look the same.
  • preliminary work started to move to wxWidgets v.3.0.x
Version 4.4.5
  • The contour plot feature has been completely rewritten. It now produces plots corresponding to the interactive help documentation (which was also updated).
  • A graph legend should no longer disappear on a hardcopy or a window resize after setting LEGENDON false or using the DEFAULTS command.
Version 4.4.4
  • A bug was fixed in the calculation of the world and monitor coordinate systems after a change in aspect ratio. This led to a better result in PostScript output of text strings.

    Note: if you are having problems with Greek characters or other math symbols, copy the symbol.ttf font file from the fonts/ subdirectory to /usr/share/fonts/extrema.
Version 4.4.3
  • A 3D graphing speed button has been added to the visualization window which allows the user to plot (x,y,z) data on basic graph axes, with the ability to zoom in/out and rotate in 3 dimensions.
  • (linux version) The figure drawing speed button on the visualization window has been enabled which
    allows the user to interactively draw various types of arrows, polygons, and ellipses.
  • (Windows version) The polygon type figures were not following the mouse movements correctly.
    This has been fixed.
Version 4.4.2
  • (linux version) Help file structure was modified, reorganized and simplified (and corrected in some cases). The default location where the Help and Images directories are installed was rationalized to be /usr/local/share.
  • The Windows version had a problem with reading a matrix from a file. This has been fixed.

  • A problem with autoscaling only one graph axis while the other is fixed has been corrected.
Version 4.4.1
  • PostScript output of graphs with an automatic graph legend were not producing all the proper line widths. This should now be fixed.
Version 4.4.0
  • The parameter errors displayed on the resultant graph for the FIT gui are now the standard errors (E1) instead of the reduced standard errors (E2).
  • Added new general characteristics: BACKGROUNDCOLOR and BACKGROUNDFILE.
  • The background of a graphics subwindow can now be set to a solid color or to a png image. Use SET BACKGROUNDCOLOR to set the background color for the current graphics subwindow (as chosen with the WINDOW command). Use SET BACKGROUNDFILE to set the background to a png image.
  • Added new general characteristics: ARROWHEADWIDTH and ARROWHEADLENGTH. Use SET ARROWHEADWIDTH to set a scale factor to be applied to the head width of any arrows drawn with the FIGURE command, while SET ARROWHEADLENGTH applies to the head lengths. For example, to have arrow heads twice the width of the default, enter SET ARROWHEADWIDTH 2.
Version 4.3.6
  • The cursor is now positioned at the end of the command line on a command line recall with the up/down arrow keys.
  • Initial indexing for linear interpolation was off by one causing incorrect results in some cases. This is fixed.
  • New feature: import an image using the "import a drawing" button or the "File->import" menu item on the Visualization Window, then click the "Digitize" button on the Import Window to be able to digitize coordinates from the image and store the x-y values in vectors. For example, this allows the user to scan a graph from a journal article, producing a png or jpeg, and then digitize values from that image.
Version 4.3.5
  • The REPLOT command was failing for some cases of XLOGBASE or YLOGBASE > 1. This is fixed.
  • The GRAPH command was failing if autoscaling was on and a linear axis was drawn first, with a large maximum value, and then the logbase was set > 1 and the GRAPH drawn again. This is fixed.
  • Setting the virtual min/max was not working properly when the number of large increments was set to zero. This is fixed.
  • In an attempt to rationalize the linux and windows fonts, now both versions try to use the same fonts. When more open source fonts become available, they will be added to extrema. Also, the font names used in
    PostScript output have been changed in an attempt to get better results.
  • (linux version) The unicode stream output (used when saving a session) has been corrected for a number of classes.
Version 4.3.4
  • The Fit command was failing when the fit expression was an evaluatable text string, e.g., FIT y=EVALUATE(f) or FIT y=1*f, where f is a text string. This has been fixed.
  • The Windows version of extrema v4.3.3 has debug output which I simply forgot to turn off. This has been corrected.
Version 4.3.3
  • The REPLOT command was failing with the axis min > max. This has been fixed.
  • When reading data from a file into vectors, a record in the data file which begins with the comment character, default value '!', will be ignored.
  • The explanation of expression variables in the Introduction in the Help has been updated with more accurate information.
Version 4.3.2
  • Several source files were modified to accommodate gcc v4.3, which "cleaned up" some header dependencies.
Version 4.3.1
  • More polar plot characteristics were added: POLARAXISANGLE, POLARAXISLINEWIDTH, POLARCLOCKWISE, POLARCOMPASSLABELS.
  • The GRAPH\POLAR and GRAPH\RADAR commands were modified. GRAPH\RADAR draws a polar plot with POLARAXISANGLE set to 90, POLARCLOCKWISE set to 1, and POLARCOMPASSLABELS set to 1.
  • The help files were updated.
Version 4.3.0
  • Polar plots have been added. GRAPH\POLAR now draws a true polar plot. Polar plots have their own set of characteristics, and the help files have been updated with the new information.
Version 4.2.10
  • When reading a matrix where the number of columns is not given, extrema was returning 1000 columns, which is obviously wrong. This has been fixed.
  • (linux version) All help files have been modified to remove extraneous Windows specific stuff and to fix up broken links and incorrect information.
  • Added trapezoid rule calculation to the INTEGRAL function. Syntax: INTEGRAL(x,y,'TRAPEZOID')
Version 4.2.9
  • You can now pass an extrema script and parameters as command line arguments. This script will be executed immediately. Linux example:
      $ extrema --script "testIt.pcm 50 90 'some  string'"
    
    will execute the script testIt.pcm with 3 parameters (2 numbers and a string).
  • To achieve the same effect with the Windows version, you would open the properties for the extrema icon and modify the Target field.
Version 4.2.8
  • The Heaviside function has been added. HEAVISIDE(x) = 0.0 for x < 0; 0.5 for x = 0; 1.0 for x > 0.
  • (linux version) The dependency on libxml2 has been removed. eXtrema now uses wxXmlDocument and wxXmlNode instead.
  • (linux version) Modified Command, FCN_adev, FCN_mean, FCN_gmean, FCN_rms, FCN_skew, FCN_stdev, FCN_date, FCN_time, CMD_get, CMD_read, CMD_scalar, CMD_set, GRA_axis, ExSpinCtrlD, ExSpinCtrlI, and ExColorCtrl to comply with the gcc 4.1.x compiler.
Version 4.2.7
  • (linux version) New feature. A command line beginning with the % character will be interpreted as a system command, e.g., %ls. The output from the command is displayed in the terminal window.
Version 4.2.6
  • New context sensitive options. If you right-click on a drawn text string, a form pops up allowing you to modify aspects of the text string, such as color, height, angle, font, location, etc.
  • Writing a scalar to a file was failing with a complaint that it wasn't a vector. This has been fixed.
  • (linux versio) Writing a text string to a file was writing gibberish instead, due to a unicode confusion. This has been fixed.
Version 4.2.5
  • Replot with commensurate axes has been fixed.
  • New context sensitive options are available. Right click on a data curve on a graph and a form pops up allowing you to modify the line type, line thickness, color, histogram type, plotsymbol type, color, size and angle, etc.
Version 4.2.4
  • There are new context sensitive graphics options. If you right-click on the x- or y-axis of a graph, a form pops up allowing you to modify many axis characteristics, including color, location, scales, grid lines, tic marks, etc. This new feature will be extended to other graphical objects soon.
Version 4.2.3
  • (linux version) Minor bug fix for PostScript output. If the .eps extension was not supplied, the plot file was created but not completed. If the .eps extension was supplied, everything was ok. This is now fixed.
  • Minor bug fix. If the graph legend is off but a string is supplied as the first argument to the GRAPH command, an error occurred. The string is now ignored, as specified in the documentation.
Version 4.2.2
  • New ELLIPSE command can be used to populate an ellipse given the major- and minor-axes, centre, and angle; or it can be used to fit an ellipse to a set of data points. The Help files have also been updated.
  • New POLYGON command takes the coordinates for the vertices of a polygon and some data coordinates, and returns a vector indicating which data points are inside/outside the polygon. The Help files have also been updated.
Version 4.2.1
  • (linux version) Minor changes were made to the code to continue to allow linking with wxGTK v2.6.x. It is recommended that users upgrade to wxGTK v2.8.x as there have been improvements and the windows simply look better.
  • Minor bug fix made to the aspect ratio section. Hidden pages were not being reset properly. The commands ALIAS and DEALIAS have been implemented. ALIAS allows the user to create new commands out of the built-in commands. Command DEALIAS is used to remove an alias.
Version 4.2.0
  • PostScript output has been modified. Output files should be smaller and GhostView display of output files should be faster.
  • The Visualization window now allows for multiple graphics pages in a tabbed format. A new graphics page adds another tab. Use the new speed buttons to add a page or remove the last page. Also, you can use the new PAGE command to add or select a page.
  • Orientation (landscape/portrait) has been superseded by aspect ratio. You can still change the orientation, but you can also just change the aspect ratio (height divided by width of the graphics page).
  • The SAVE and RESTORE feature has been updated to take multiple graphics pages into account.
Version 4.1.10
  • The hyperbolic trig functions (sinh, cosh, tanh, sech, csch, coth, asinh, acosh, atanh, asech, acsch, acoth) were added.
  • (linux version) A new PostScript driver has been written so the Greek characters and (most) math symbols appear properly in PostScript output. The Windows version was already OK.
Version 4.1.9
  • A bug was fixed in the EXECUTE command which occurred when attempting to prepend the current path to a filename. The "/" was missing before the filename.
  • Script handling has been fixed. Scripts can now be deeply nested, and the PAUSE command works as advertised. Previously, nested scripts were simply not handled correctly, leading to possible stack overflows and other serious problems.
  • The functions SKEW, MEAN, VAR, STDEV, RMS, MEDIAN, KURT, IMIN, IMAX, GMEAN, and SDEV were added so that the various statistics can be obtained easier than via the STATISTICS command.
  • Bugs in the TIME and DATE functions were fixed, so these functions should now operate as advertised.
Version 4.1.8
  • A serious bug was discovered in the scripting code. Version 4.1.8 should not be used.
Version 4.1.7
  • A bug was fixed with log scales when there are no major tic marks showing.
  • The FIT command was not recognizing the /CL qualifier (requesting the confidence level) and this has now been fixed.
  • Support for MINUIT (minimization code from CERN) has been added (optional for the Linux version). MINUIT brings in other methods for fitting and allows for limits on fit parameters.
  • The SCALAR command was modified to allow limits on fit parameters destined for use in MINUIT, e.g., SCALAR\FIT A[min:max]. These limits are ignored by the original FIT command.
  • A bug in the PAUSE command was fixed. A pause in a second level macro (one called by another macro) was causing all scripts to stop after the pause.
  • A bug was fixed in drawing a linear axis when the virtual min and/or max are within the axis min/max.
Version 4.1.6
  • The output file path used in the hardcopy command
  • The TIME and DATE functions now operate as advertised in the help.
  • The STATISTICS command now calculates the median properly for all cases.
  • A bug was fixed in the parser so that you can now have a qualifier appended to a variable with an index, e.g., STATISTICS X XM[1]\MEAN
  • It is now possible to have interactive text placement from within a script.
  • The hint window which opens on interactive text placement now displays the string you are drawing.
  • (linux version) eXtrema now works with wxGTK-2.8.0
Version 4.1.5
  • (linux version) added extrema.spec, extrema.desktop, and extrema_icons.tar.bz2 to the distribution
  • Added the ECHOON characteristic. ECHOON controls whether an executing script is displayed in the command history window as the script is executing.
  • The file path for the EXECUTE, READ and WRITE commands now defaults to the current directory.
  • Fixed a bug when AUTOSCALE ON\VIRTUAL is set.
  • Fixed a bug when DESTROYing a text variable or when DESTROYing an element of an array text variable.
  • Fixed an autoscaling bug
  • Fixed a parser bug. Command line was not parsing properly a qualifier after a closing bracket, e.g., STATISTICS X XM[1]\MEAN
  • Fixed REPLOT of log scales when autoscale is off.
Version 4.1.4
  • (linux version) "make install" modified again. Directories extremaHelp/ and extremaImages/ renamed back to Help/ and Images/. These directories will now be placed, by default, in /usr/local/share/extrema/. The fonts/ directory has been added to the distribution. These TrueType fonts are freely available, but the user must install them. The SYMBOL font is necessary for the special symbols, such as <alpha>, <beta>, etc.
  • (linux version) the QUIT command dialog now only has "Yes" and "No" buttons, and if you click the "No" button, the program does not quit.
  • (linux version) various source code files were modified to accommodate newer compilers.
  • A new characteristic, MAXHISTORY, has been added which controls how many history records are stored for each variable.
  • The ICLOSE function has been fixed. The default calculated index is now initialized to 1 instead of 0.
Version 4.1.3
  • (linux version) "make install" did not copy the image directory (for buttons) or the help file directory (for online help) to the proper location. These directories have new names, extremaImages/ and extremaHelp/, and should now be copied to the $(prefix)/share directory on a make install, where $(prefix) is the directory mentioned with the configure command, which defaults to /usr/local.
  • (linux version) It seems the latest compilers do not like unnecessary class qualifiers in header files. This required modifying src/Commands/CMD_density.h, src/Commands/Command.h, src/Functions/ScalarFunction.h, and src/Graphics/GRA_window.h (Thanks to S. Umar for finding this and suggesting the simple fix)
  • The optional grid lines (controlled by characteristics YGRID and XGRID) were being drawn in the color of the last text string drawn. This has now been fixed, and they are drawn using the corresponding axis color (YAXISCOLOR or XAXISCOLOR).
Version 4.1.2
  • eXtrema has been ported to Linux, making use of the wxWidgets OpenSource cross-platform toolkit. This version is available for download from SourceForge and TRIUMF. A binary executable is also available for download.
Version 4.1.1
  • The RESTORE command restores a previously saved program session, saved with the SAVE command. This means that all variables will be restored, as well as the command history and message window information. Any displayed graphics will also be restored. The RESTORE\MUD command restores muSR MUon Data (MUD) type data files containing histograms.
  • After the STACK filename command is entered, all subsequently entered commands, and most of the actions performed on gui forms, will be written to the stack file. This stack file can later be executed with the @filename command. Thus, the STACK command is a way of interactively creating a script command file.
Version 4.0.27
  • Added BIVINTERP function. This function interpolates, from values of the function given at input grid points in an x-y plane and for a given set of points in the plane, the values of a single-valued bivariate function z = z(x,y).
Version 4.0.0
  • New features: all-new GUI; expanded color and font support; Hypertext online help; full Win/9x, Win/NT support.