What's New -  December, 2006

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December 17, 2006:  We are off to Connecticut in the morning  to visit the daughter and grandkids that couldn't make it here for Thanksgiving.  So don't be alarmed if emails do not get answered for awhile.  We'll be enjoying the holidays but I'll see you you again next year.   In the meantime,

Have a  safe and happy Holiday season!

 

December 7, 2006: There are a number of word related programs here on DFF that use a compressed dictionary  format for fast word retrieval.  A program Dicmaint is provided to maintain the dictionary.  . A small fix to Dicmaint (included on the Wordstuff2 program page) was made today.  For programmers it is significant that  an older version of the dictionary unit was  being distributed with the Wordstuff and Dicmaint source code.  As of today, the version contained in the DFF  library unit will be the only one distributed.  See the above link for more information;

December 6, 2006:  Charles Doumar has done much of the follow-on development in our unit for very large floating point number arithmetic, UBigFloatV2.  His latest additions were posted today in a new version of the DFF library zip file, DFFLibV08.   The BigFloat Test program was also reposted with tests for some  of the new methods, specifically for calculating natural and base 10 logarithms, a Power function (xy) and Exp, to calculate ex for very large numbers.

The library file contains a number of units in addition to UBigFloatV2.  Its purpose is to provide a common location for units which are used in multiple programs posted on this site.   This centralized location concept simplifies maintenance when changes are made to library units.  A number of units in DFFLibV08 have had minor updates:

  • UDict  dictionary unit now has a  DIC.INI file  to retain default dictionary path information from run to run for programs which use it.

  • In the Mathslib math unit, the TPrimes object for finding prime numbers now has new "radical(N)" function returning the product of the unique prime factors of N

  • UComboV2, a unit with a class to compute combinations and permutations had a minor change change to return 0 instead of 1  as the Count if the number of items to be combined ot permuted is 0.

  • In DFFUtils, utility routines,  procedures ReformatMemo and SetMemoMargins  now handle TRichedit in addition to TMemo components.

  • As described above, UBigFloatV2  adds several new functions including Log, Log10, Exp, Power, Floor, and Ceiling functions along with several support functions.
     

December 2, 2006:  A new word puzzle is available today.  Word Squares is based on puzzles found several times a year in our  Mensa Page-A-Day Puzzle Calendar.   Player must complete a square grid of words, each word running both vertically and horizontally and using all of a given set of letters. A example is shown at right:  The starter word is "FIND" and three additional 4-letter words must be formed beginning with the letters  I, N, and :D and containing the 9 letters: "AADEEETTX".   The program will generate random puzzles, allow you to solve them or show show you the solutions when you get stuck.  Grids may be 4x4 or 5x5.  The 5X5 grid increases the chance that you will be using that "I give up" button!