Kalendis Release Notes (What’s New)

Created by Dr. Irv Bromberg, University of Toronto, Canada

[ Click here to go back to the Kalendis web page ]

Version 11.157(1678), revised Aug 14, 2020 (Sym454) = Aug 12, 2020 (Sym010)

• Bug fix: Revised Julian events were erroneously shown as Julian events, fixed with this update.
• Hebrew calendar and zmanim reports: new option lets user choose the shabbat and yom tov candle-lighting number of minutes before sunset, with the available choices being 18 (default), 20 (New York), 30 (Haifa), or 40 (Vilna, Jerusalem) minutes.

Version 11.156(1677), revised Dec 3, 2019 (Sym454) = Dec 5, 2019 (Sym010)

• Removed fonts from the Kalendis Installer, reducing the download file size. The required fonts are always present in Windows. Some Linux and macOS users may be lacking the required fonts, so added explanation and download links to the Linux and macOS instructions.
• Hebrew Zmanim reports: the special Windows section symbol character (§) was used to mark the Shabbat Mivarchim date upon which the molad would be announced in synagogues, as well as the corresponding footnote below the zmanim table, but web browsers on rare computers rendered it on printout with a capital A circumflex prefix (§) — fixed by always sending the HTML § code instead of the special Windows character.

Version 11.155(1676), revised Nov 31, 2019 (Sym454) = Nov 29, 2019 (Sym010)

• Expanded the number of User-Defined Locales from 5 to 30, now as a sub-menu of the Locales menu, and changed the minimum allowed Elevation from -200 to -450 metres (but this has no effect on sunrise/set times because they use sea level if the elevation is negative). If you save any locale with an Elevation more than 200 metres below sea level then you won’t be able to use any older version of Kalendis.
• Changed many web format reports (HTML) to prevent table cell contents from wrapping onto multiple lines, to yield better fit-to-page width, and changed long HTML tables to repeat the header row on each page when printed.
• Lunar window: the description of the lunation numbering convention now indicates that it is a mean lunation number. Note that the actual lunation may differ from the mean by quite a few hours. Fixed occasional discontinuity in the calculated mean lunation number.
• The Save As... file output dialog for Moladot and Zmanim reports now shows the current Molad Time format in the dialog title, as a reminder for the user.

Version 11.153(1674), revised Aug 26, 2019 (Sym454) = Aug 24, 2019 (Sym010)

• Bug fix: Last Old / First New Lunar Crescent times no longer ignore Daylight Savings (unless the Enable Daylight Saving Time checkbox is unchecked).
• Implemented mean lunar azimuth (direction) function, using it everywhere that crescent information is given (instead of ecliptic lunar latitude, which was too obscure and didn’t give a good enough indication of where to look to try to see the crescent).
• All displayed or reported azimuths (lunar and solar direction at the horizon) are now measured clockwise from true north.
• Changed default lunar phase format to: 0-360° (instead of ±180°, which remains an available option).
• Events and Holidays window now shows lunar phase and azimuth for moonrise and moonset.
• Twilight reports: Added columns for lunar phase at moonrise and moonset.
• Hebrew Moladot reports:
  • As mentioned above, substituted lunar azimuth for eclipic lunar latitude in crescent columns.
  • Now appends the locale identifier to the default output file name, because crescent information is locale specific.
  • In TAB/CSV format: added columns for old/new crescent arc-of-light.

Version 11.150(1671), revised Aug 18, 2019 (Sym454) = Aug 16, 2019 (Sym010)

Just minor changes: removed tool-tip-text from the bottom row panel buttons of the locale window (formerly Click to set moment to..., which no longer applies) and changed the displayed Delta T value to be rounded to one decimal instead of two decimal points (two decimals was a holdover from an old version that used to display Delta T in minutes rather than seconds).

Version 11.150(1670), revised Aug 9, 2019 (Sym454) = Aug 7, 2019 (Sym010)

A special thank you to Charles Davis who extensively beta tested Kalendis over the last several months, finding many problems and making many very useful suggestions for improvements and new features.

• Due to multiple unresolved problems and unacceptable business practices of the domain name registrar, Netfirms.com, we discontinued the sym454.org domain name, changing all such URLs in Kalendis to use instead direct URLs like http://individual.utoronto.ca/kalendis/...
  • Useless web site statistics that can’t be configured to actually be useful, and when the tiny allocated storage is filled the customer can’t do anything about it without their administrators, who play dumb and it takes days to get them to clear the log files (during which time the customer’s web site can’t be updated, and usually is down).
  • Unwanted adverstisements forced upon customers’ web sites, most of them inappropriate or obscene.
  • Unreasonable pricing: whatever customers actually want automatically costs more than what they don’t want!
  • During purchasing checkout, hard-to-notice extra charges persistently sneak in by default, and it’s difficult or impossible to remove them.
  • Never give them permission to automatically charge your credit card or PayPal account, because they feel at liberty to apply those unwanted extra charges.
  • Frequent Netfirms.com web site changes and major reorganizations for no particularly useful purpose other than causing customer bewilderment.
• New feature: local Moonrise and Moonset times, quoted in terms of the offset from Universal Time (UT), and listed in the Events and Holidays window
  • At non-polar latitudes it is normal for each of these to be missing about once per month from a given local 24h date when it occurs a short while before midnight or a short while after the next midnight
  • At polar latitudes blocks of 2 or 3 moonrise and moonset events occur about twice per month, when the lunar declination is within several degrees of the celestial equator. When the lunar declination is toward the same pole Moon never sets, and when toward the opposite pole Moon never rises.
• Added Previous/Next Lunar Event menu commands. The former Previous/Next Season menu command is now Previous/Next Solar Event.
• Older versions of Kalendis disabled most Previous/Next lunar commands when the Lunar window wasn’t open. Now these commands are always available, and when invoked if the Lunar window isn’t open then Kalendis automatically loads it in order to list details in the Events and Holidays window.
• The end-of-report modal dialog, displayed after any report is generated to an external file, is now customized:
  • Larger, clearly readable text
  • The file path is shown in a monospaced font and is horizontally scrollable using the keyboard arrow, Home, or End keys, or the mouse
  • The dialog has 5 command buttons:
    • Cancel and Delete File
    • Copy Path to Clipboard copies the file path to the system clipboard but the modal dialog retains the focus
    • Select File in Location (doesn’t work if there already is a selection in that folder)
    • Launch will cause the configured app, if any, to open the generated file. If nothing happens then click Select File in Location, right-click on the file, and choose the app that should open that file type (.HTM, .TAB, .CSV), and if desired checkmark Always use this program to open this kind of file.
    • OK will simply dismiss the modal dialog
• There is a new option to use Local Mean Time (LMT) for a locale:
  • This applies to some built-in locales: Nile-Euphrates Midpoint, Temple of Zeus, Babylon, Greenwich Observatory (UT), Paris Observatory (only 9 minutes ahead of UT)
  • The User-Defined Locales window now has a Use Local Mean Time checkbox
  • Daylight Savings Time is disabled for LMT locales
  • Tip: if you want to use UT for a user-defined locale that isn’t at the Prime Meridian, specify 0 (zero) as the Time Zone. If zero differs by more than 3 hours from the expected time zone based on longitude then Kalendis will warn you, but you can dismiss and ignore that warning.
• The algorithms for first new lunar crescent and last old lunar crescent were thoroughly revised:
  • These events are no longer displayed in the title bar of the Hebrew calendar window, where they were confusing and often truncated — instead they are listed in the Events and Holidays window
  • They return a moment (local dusk or dawn with dark sky) instead of a date, shown as an offset from UT
  • A maximum of 5 days are searched forward or backward from the new moon looking for crescents
  • In previously released versions of Kalendis checking for the new crescent started on the last day of a Hebrew calendar month, but this sometimes missed the first crescent, which can occur earlier, depending on the locale and prior Hebrew calendar month lengths. Also, at the latitude of Greenwich some new crescents were missed because they didn’t meet the visibility criteria until the lunar phase was beyond 45°, so now the program checks up to 60°.
  • Formerly the lunar latitude for crescents was reckoned as of the moment of sunrise or sunset, but now it is reckoned as of the dark sky moment before dawn or after dusk = 4.5° solar depression.
• The Options -> Fixed Day Numbering... submenu now has a checkmark beside the convention is currently applies, and there is now a File -> Jump To... -> Fixed Day Number Epoch menu command that goes either to day #0 or #1, whichever is appropriate for that fixed day numbering convention.
• New Options -> Lunation Numbering... submenu lets the user choose from 6 lunation numbering conventions, and the convention and lunation number are now displayed in the Lunar window and listed in the Events and Holidays window. There is also a File -> Jump To... -> Lunation epoch (#0 or #1, depending on the convention) or a user entered lunation number menu command (an entered lunation number doesn’t have to be an integer).
• Added to the Julian and Roman calendar window: Olympiad cycle and year number, as arabic and roman numerals, incremented at Julian July 1st. New Options -> Olympiad Start Year... menu command (default = 776 BC), and new Options -> Julian Year Rome Founded... menu command (default = 753 BC). With AUC (ab urbe condita -- since the founding of the city [Rome]) checkbox enabled Julian years were formerly shown with a BUC suffix to mean before urbe condita, but that mixed English with Latin. Changed to PUC suffix standing for priorem urbe condita (before the city was founded), as suggested by Charles Davis.
• Changes to Astronomy... Twilight reports:
  • Moonrise and moonset
  • TAB/CSV format has new right-most Comments column to show information that was previously available only as pop-up information in the web format
  • TAB/CSV for full year: show the year without month at the top, along with the locale info and column headers only once at the top of the report, then output the entire year without blank lines, with the abbreviated month name as the date prefix in each row.
  • Last Old Crescent and First New Crescent events
• Major new reports for specialty purposes such as ancient research: Astronomy... Solar Events or Lunar Events:
  • submenu provides choice of number of years (or months) for the report, which is generated in TAB or CSV format only
  • fixed day numbers are output for all moments:
    • if the selected fixed day numbering option is match Julian Day Number (JDN) then proper JDNs will be output (integers = noon)
    • if the selected fixed day numbering option is match Windows OS then in spreadsheet or database programs and so on it is possible to format moments in the 20th century or later in the desired date and time format (Windows considers dates prior to the 20th century as invalid).
  • solar events reports include the next full moon after each equinox and solstice, and, for the north solstice the Olympiad cycle and year (where valid) as well as the following full moon (Olympic closing festival). The Roman emperor banned the ancient Olympics in 394 AD, but they were reinstated as the modern Olympics in 1896 AD.
• Major novel Hebrew calendar report, requested by Charles Davis, lists the reason(s) for New Year postponement(s) for each year. These reason(s) are also included in the information shown for the individual year that applies to the date currently in the Hebrew calendar window when the user clicks on the Hebrew cycle status information command button (to the right of the ? button), and shown on other reports where appropriate.
• Hebrew Moladot reports now show the Hebrew date of Shabbat Mivarchim, and beside it the Parshah and, if applicable, the special Maftir (Shekalim, Parah, Hachodesh, Machar Chodesh). These new fields are shown for the month of Tishrei, but surrounded by round braces because they aren’t actually announced for that month. As the Parshah may differ between Israel and the Diaspora, the column heading and default file name now indicates which it is.
• Changes to Hebrew zmanim reports:
  • Early Tefilin column renamed to Early Shma so that it will be understood as applying also to Shabbat and Yom Tov or other days when tefilin aren’t used.
  • TAB/CSV format zmanim reports now include the coming local apparent midnight as the right-most column.
• Added a special event to the Hebrew calendar: Yom HaAliyah in Israel = 7 Cheshvan (observed in schools) and 10 Nisan (observed nationally).
• Clicking any button above a value displayed in the bottom row of the Locale window or the Hebrew calendar window now does the same as clicking on the value itself, copying the information to the system clipboard, now without changing the Fixed Day Number.
• Previous/Next Mean Perigee/Apogee used to just jump to that moment, but now are also listed in the Events and Holidays window as a Lunar event.
• Moments copied to the system clipboard (fixed day number, Julian or Modified Julian Day number) are now rounded to the nearest second, as are moments output to Lunar Events and Solar Events reports. The fixed day number displayed in the locale window is never rounded, and accordingly the display field is wider.
• Fixed a run-time error that occurred when the end-of-report modal dialog was active.
• Fixed a serious crash that occurred on dual display setups where the Kalendis window was far to the right when quitting the program, later causing an integer overflow (when restoring the window positions) on the next launch with loss of all settings.
• Twilight and Hebrew Zmanim reports used to directly replace monthly files if they already existed. Certain unmentionable anti-virus programs falsely flag this as unauthorized encryption and then quarantine Kalendis. Changed to first lookup and delete each file if it already exists, before generating each new monthly file, which these programs allow.
• For several report types, older versions of Kalendis used to stop updating its windows if the user cancelled instead of specifying the output file, now fixed.
• Fixed some HTML syntax errors in web reports, and a variety of minor issues too insignificant to mention.

Version 10.118(1599), Revised Mar 28, 2018 (Sym454) = Mar 30, 2018 (Sym010)

• Hebrew calendar Omer report: added minor special days, and output file name now has either -Diaspora or -Israel suffix.
• Locales that use a comma as decimal separator: fixed bug that caused clicking on Month view to jump to a far future date when a decimal fraction was present in the Fixed Day Number field.
• Easter Comparisons: fixed bug that was rounding the date to the next day whenever the equinox or full moon moment was after noon.
• Last visible lunar crescent (at sunrise): now shown, when relevant, in the title of the Hebrew calendar window, and added Last Visible Crescent to the Previous and Next menus.
• Removed Bahá'í calendar and related locales because as of spring 2017 that calendar uses astronomical criteria rather than fixed arithmetic rules.
• Fixed the URL for the GeoHack map server, which had moved since the previously released version of Kalendis.
• Other minor tweaks.

Version 9.856(1576), Revised Nov 22, 2014 (Sym454) = Nov 20, 2014 (Sym010)

• Many improvements to the Hebrew calendar Moladot reports.
• Support for the new Israel Daylight Time rule.

Version 9.850(1570), Revised Jun 1, 2014 (Sym454) = Jun 3, 2014 (Sym010)

• Map server updates.
• Bug fix: Reporting of leap years and display of the leap rule description was incorrect for the ISO and RJiso leap rules when the starting weekday was other than Monday. Now fixed with simplified algorithm, but decided to hide the RJiso leap rule because there is probably no interest in its very long leap cycle.
• Previous and Next menus now offer Mean Perigee and Mean Apogee to find when Moon is closest or furthest, respectively.
• Improved wording of explanatory comments on Hebrew calendar Moladot reports.
• Improved wording of ztait hakochavim criteria on zmanim reports, which now use 3 dim stars for end of Shabbat or Yom Tov, but 3 bright stars for tzait hakochavim on ordinary days and at the end of public fasting days.
• Other minor changes not worth mentioning.

Version 9.837(1557), Revised Jan 1, 2012 (Sym454) = Jan 1, 2012 (Sym010)

• Symmetry454 and Symmetry010 calendars: show the week number in 4-week groups since the calendar epoch.
  This new feature is useful for regularly spaced payments such as payroll, rentals, loans.
• Kalendis now saves and restores its window state and position between sessions.
• Bug fixes in Locales menu:
  • New York City was previously set to time zone +5, now corrected to -5 hours.
  • Disabled daylight saving time for Bagota, Lima, Mecca, Hanoi, Iceland, Beijing, Babylon, Tehran, Seoul, Tokyo.
    (Hanoi, Seoul, Tokyo are built-in locales that don’t appear on the locales menu but are used for the Oriental lunisolar calendars.)
  • Changed Yellowknife name to Yellowknife, NWT, Canada.
  • Corrected spelling of Columba to Columbia.
• Changed the Adjust for Daylight Saving Time checkbox caption to show No Daylight Saving Time when a locale with DST disabled is selected.
• Reports in general:
  • File names: changed _to - between words of file names, as recommended by Google.
  • Changed most HTML tags to lowercase.
  • Changed table borders to use proper style syntax.
• Hebrew Zmanim reports:
  • Boldfaced the molad announcement line to make it easier to find.
  • For equinoxes and solstices show Gregorian rather than Hebrew dates.
  • Last column was formerly 3 Dim Stars , now renamed to 3 Stars. For the end of Shabbat or Yom Tov it continues to use 3 dim stars [Tucazinsky], but now for other days including the end of fast days (except Yom Kippur) it uses 3 bright stars [Vilna Gaon].
  • Added Sigd festival (Beta Israel) on the 29th of Cheshvan.
• Clicking on the Lunar form: in addition to the mean J2K lunation number, it now copies to clipboard the Nth new moon number (from Dershowitz & Reingold in Calendrical Calculations), as well as the Brown, Goldstine, Hebrew, and Islamic lunation numbers.
• Adjusted clipboard position and height to allow for two lines to be visible, changed its background shading from white to the same grey as its host window background.
• Chinese calendar: allocated more space for the Sexagenary Day label.
• Hebrew possible weekdays: major new built-in report calculates the exact full-repeat-cycle frequency (in 689472 years) of all possible weekdays for all possible traditional Hebrew calendar dates.
• Twilight report: Fixed USNO URL (file extension was .html, changed to .php).
• Hebrew calendar info button:
  • For dates in Adar show frequencies in Adar and also for Adar combined with Adar Rishon (useful for yahrzeits).
  • For dates in Adar Rishon show frequencies in Adar Rishon and also for Adar combined with Adar Rishon (useful for yahrzeits).
  • For dates in Adar Sheini show frequencies in Adar Sheini and also for Adar combined with Adar Sheini (for yahrzeits and events such as Purim).
  • For days 1 to 29 of Adar or Adar Rishon show all years frequencies as referring to that day of Adar or Adar Rishon.
  • For Adar 1 and Adar 2 show weekday frequencies twice: per common or leap year, then per all years.

Version 9.780(1500), Revised Nov 13, 2010 (Sym454) = Nov 11, 2010 (Sym010)

• Reduced Gregorian and Roman date field font sizes from 12 to 11 points so that the longest dates will display properly.
• Reports --> Hebrew --> Tekufot:
  • +60 days later for Tekufat Tishrei now shows on a new line.
  • Minor HTML correction: Time column heading was missing its end tag.

Version 9.778(1498), Revised Nov 3, 2010 (Sym454) = Nov 1, 2010 (Sym010)

• Reports --> Hebrew --> Tekufot:
  • Added submenu for choice of zone, mean solar, or local apparent time. Only zone time includes DST adjustment, if enabled. To generate a report in Jerusalem mean solar time, select Jerusalem as the locale, navigate to the desired year, then choose by Local Mean Solar Time from the Tekufot report submenu. For universal time (prime meridian) choose instead Greenwich as the locale.
  • The report now shows Birchat HaChamah for Tekufat Nisan when applicable.
  • For Tekufot of Amorah Shmuel now also shows the Gregorian and Julian dates, and for Tekufat Tishrei also shows the Gregorian and Julian dates 60 days later.
  • Corrected Rambam epoch slightly, now assuming that it refers to exactly 18:00h Jerusalem mean solar time.
  • Tables in report now have ToolTip text for Time column, and no text wrapping of cells. HTML syntax corrections.
  • Rearranged column sequence.
  • Report now uses matching season colour for Tekufat Adda and Tekufat Shmuel.
  • Fixed CSV and TAB formats.
  • If printing to a color printer, note that some web browsers don’t print the colors properly, especially those of the table borders, so check your Print Preview first. If the colors are not rendered properly in Print Preview then try a different web browser.
• Gregorian and Symmetry calendars: added USA Black Friday as the Friday after USA Thanksgiving.
• Yerm era report:
  • Revised URL for NASA Delta T polynomials.
  • If output file exists and user wants to use it as is, display it in web browser.
  • If Offset is not zero then put _plus in front of it instead of + in file name, for UNIX compatibility (web sites).
• Gregorian and Julian calendar info text reworded, and added Easter computus info (not shown for Revised Julian because practise varies).
• Symmetry calendar: Added comment documenting mean month for Symmetry Easter computus based on 4366 lunar months in 353 years.

Version 9.770(1490), Revised Jul 5, 2010 (Sym454) = Jul 5, 2010 (Sym010)

• Added to Options menu: Even-Length Symmetric Cycles... command so that the user can choose whether even-length almost symmetrical leap cycles shall have the middle two years leap then non-leap (default) or non-leap then leap. These are the only 2 non-symmetrical years in the such cycles. For more information, see the discussion of symmetrical leap cycles on our Solar Calendar Leap Rules web page.
• Many minor improvements to the reports that list leap years for various calendars and leap cycles.
• Removed submenu for reporting Symmetry calendar leap years. Instead:
  • When reporting simple fixed arithmetic leap cycles, now starts at beginning of cycle containing currently displayed year.
  • For astronomical or linar approximation leap rules, listing now starts from the first year of the century that contains the presently displayed year.
• Symmetry calendar experimental leap rule equinox and solstice average alignment revisions:
  • NE79 and MNE79 rules renamed to NE80 and MNE80, respectively, and changed so that astronomical northward equinox now averages to midnight starting the 80th day of the year (Sym454 Mar 17th) at Jerusalem. Likewise LANEY leap rule offset changed from +0.9 to +0.4 to accomplish a similar change.
  • NS171 and MNS171 rules renamed to NS174 and MNS174, respectively, and changed so that astronomical north solstice now averages to midnight starting the 174th day of the year (Sym454 Jun 20th) at Jerusalem. Likewise LANSY leap rule offset changed from +3 to +0.4 to accomplish a similar change.
  • For more information about the above leap rules, see our Solar Calendar Leap Rules web page.
• Added the symmetrical 1803-year cycle to the list of experimental Symmetry calendar leap rules. This cycle is of interest because it contains exactly 22300 lunar months = 100 saros intervals, useful for implementing a simple, exceptionally short (1803 years) Easter computus. For more information, see the discussion of the 1803-year leap cycle on our Solar Calendar Leap Rules web page.

Version 9.747(1467), Revised Feb 17, 2010 (Sym454) = Feb 15, 2010 (Sym010)

• Added display of cycle information to the Symmetry454 / Symmetry010 and Gregorian windows.
  This shows the year number within the leap cycle, and the cycle number since the epoch.
• Sym454 and Sym010 now separately remember their leap week mode (append-to-December to stand-alone at end-of-year), with the default for Sym454 being append-to-December and the default for Sym010 being stand-alone at end-of-year.
• Clicking on ISO day or Gregorian day now includes day + remaining = year length in the clipboard copy.
• At the end of generating most reports the path to the report file is now shown in quotes and is also copied to the clipboard so that the user can paste the path into My Computer or Windows Explorer or into a document (exceptions: Twilight & Astronomy reports and the Hebrew calendar Zmanim reports, both of which typically generate multiple files including an index file and a report for each month of the currently displayed year).
• The Yerm Lunar Calendar button caption now changes to Progressive Yerm Era when that is in effect, and when the user clicks on the date field beside it the date format is now copied to the clipboard along with the date, either cc-yy(mm(dd or ee-yy(mm(dd, depending on whether the calendar is using a fixed cycle or a progressive yerm era list, respectively.
• The path to the Progressive Yerm Era list is now remembered along with the user-defined locales, so it is no longer lost if the user clears all preferences.
• When the user chooses to generate a Progressive Yerm Era list, if the file already exists in the selected directory then Kalendis now offers to use it as is, cancel, or continue generating the list. Using an existing list makes it faster to switch between yerm era lists, or for multiple users to share a list.
• Reduced the font size for the Clipboard line and for the verbose form of Bahá'í date.

Version 9.741(1461), Revised Feb 10, 2010 (Sym454) = Feb 8, 2010 (Sym010)

• Changed the ISO date separator from a barely visible raised dot (which didn’t display properly on some international systems) to a simple dash (which is the separator that is used in the ISO standard).

Version 9.740(1460), Revised Feb 2, 2010 (Sym454) = Jan 30, 2010 (Sym010)

• The Symmetry010 calendar is no longer restricted to Experiment mode, the user can switch between the Symmetry454 and Symmetry010 calendars at any time.
• The new Kalendis installer is now much simpler to use, because it launches the setup program automatically and cleans up when done.
• Fixed bug: repeatedly toggling the Julian calendar Revised Julian mode on/off was messing up the Events window.

Version 9.735(1455), Revised August 19, 2009 (Symmetry454) = August 14, 2009 (Gregorian)

Bug fixes:

• Improved the way that complicated astronomical values are cached, now more robust if user changes the fixed day numbering epoch.
• Force 24h time format for all displays and reports (the 24h checkbox is now permanently marked).
• Hebrew Moladot reports: In TAB/CSV output format the First See Crescent column now includes the Gregorian year, to prevent an external spreadsheet or similar program from defaulting to the current year instead of the intended year.
• Fixed: If the user exited from Kalendis using the File --> Quit... --> and Save Preferences command, the preferences actually got corrupted because they were saved after all of the calendar windows were closed.
• Fixed: If many events were listed and the Events window had a vertical scroll bar, then the user scrolled to the end of the list and did anything to cause the list of events to be updated, Kalendis crashed.
• Fixed: The default appearance of Windows XP employs window title bars that have an exaggerated height, which increases the height of every window in Kalendis, thus when all windows were open in their default positions they didn’t fit within a 1024 by 768 minimum screen resolution.
• Believed fixed: A glitch involving the Month view: If the Kalendis Month view was the active window and the user chose any command that jumped to another date/time, such as almost any command from the Previous or Next menus, then the time portion got dropped and the displayed moment was as of midnight on the same day. All Kalendis windows and the Events list also got updated four times.
• Fixed minor bug: Clicking on the Univ Time box caused the time corresponding to the fractional part of the presently displayed Fixed Day Number to be copied to the system clipboard as Universal Time, Standard Time, Mean Solar Time, and Local Apparent Time. The time shown beside Standard was actually Daylight Saving Time when Adjust for Daylight Saving Time was checkmarked and displayed in red text (indicating that Daylight Saving Time applies to that moment). This new release of Kalendis copies DST or Standard, as appropriate.
• In the unlikely event that Kalendis crashes upon launch, then upon the next launch it first deletes all preferences, in case a registry corruption caused the prior crash. Thus if Kalendis does fail to fully launch, it is worthwhile to try it again (once).

New features:

• Added traditional oriental lunisolar calendars: Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, and can Report the Events for Year for these calendars, with or without sexagenary day numbers and names.
• Added Karl Palmen’s Yerm Lunar Calendar, and progressive yerm era variants of it generated using the Reports --> Yerm Eras for mean Lunar... command, or a traditional molad yerm era variant of it generated using the Reports --> Hebrew... --> Yerm Eras for Tradtional Molad command. The Previous and Next menus now show Yerm and either Fixed Yerm Cycle or Progressive Yerm Era, depending on the current configuration of the Yerm Lunar Calendar.
• There is now a separate Lunar window, showing lunar Age, Phase, Distance, Ecliptic Longitude, Ecliptic Latitude, and Declination, along with the yerm date of the presently configured Yerm Lunar Calendar. Clicking on these fields copies their contents, usually in higher precision and sometimes with extra information, to the system clipboard.
• Added Vedic Tithi to the Previous and Next menus
  (after adding this feature I regretted doing it, but left it in because it was a lot of work).
• Solar Declination is now displayed below Solar Longitude.
• The Symmetry454 calendar and variants now employ symmetrical leap cycles for fixed arithmetic cycles, and their mean years are now quoted to the exact fraction of a second.
• New commands related to symmetrical leap cycles added to the Previous and Next menus for jumping to the first year of the previous or next symmetrical leap cycle. If starting the jump from any moment within the first year of a cycle, finds the same moment in the year being jumped to, which is a quick way to watch what happens to the solar longitude drift from cycle-to-cycle. If starting the jump from any other point in a cycle, jumps to the beginning of the current or next leap cycle.KalendisKalendis
• Rearranged Sym454 window to move the Experiment checkbox from bottom right to top right, and Start On combo box (pull-down list of weekday choices) from middle right to bottom right.
• The Symmetry454, Gregorian, ISO, and Hebrew calendar windows now show day number within year, days remaining, and length of year.
• The Symmetry454 window now supports multiple quarter-structure variants. Click on the Experiment checkbox, then each time the user clicks on the Quarters frame at the top right of the window, toggles to the next structure. In 4+5+4 mode it will go through 4+4+5, then 5+4+4, then back to 4+5+4. In 30+31+30 mode it will go through 30+30+31, then 31+30+30, then back to 30+31+30. Holidays and Events adjust accordingly.Kalendis
• File menu now has a new Jump By command that prompts the user for the size of date jump (negative or positive, whole number or with decimal fraction). The jump unit depends on what is selected on the Step menu (Days, Weeks, Lunar Cycles, Solar Years, Decades, Centuries).
• New Symmetry454 calendar report: Convert Symmetry454 List, generates a quick reference sheet useful for manual conversion of dates to and from Symmetry454 dates for a single calendar year. The other calendars that are listed on this report depend on which calendar windows are open at the time that the report is generated, but can include ISO, Gregorian, Julian (traditional or revised), an oriental lunisolar calendar (Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, or Japanese), or any supported variant of the Bahá'í calendar.Added to Previous and Next menus: First Visible Crescent (info displayed in title bar of Hebrew calendar window).
• For the Symmetry454 calendar (and variants), when the date is within a leap week the Events list will show Semaine de la Révolution (Leap Week) as an event. This is intended in the sense that the purpose of the leap week is to keep the calendar in sync with Earth’s revolution around Sun.
• Symmetry454: For the non-fixed Easter date now uses the Gregorian Easter computus only for the 71/400 leap or ISO leap rules, because they have calendar mean years identical to the Gregorian calendar mean year. For all other leap rules the Symmetry454 calendar now uses the Uniform Easter, based on astronomical algorithms. Added Uniform Easter to Previous / Next menus.
• Symmetry454: removed the RJiso and 559/3150 leap rules, and disabled astronomical and mean astronomical leap rules except for those that use zero offset from the New Year moment (BNY, MOY, RAY).
• Disabled support for The World Calendar and the 13-Month Calendar.
• Added more map servers to choose from, most comprehensive is the WikiMedia / GeoHack.
• Changed default map server from MapQuest to Google Maps.
• The Hebrew cycle status information button (to the left of the question mark button in the Hebrew calendar window) now shows possible weekday statistics for the currently displayed Hebrew day and month.
• Hebrew Moladot reports: added the moment of the actual NEW Moon and FULL Moon, in local clock time, so that the user will know the true interval over which the lunar phase is waxing, added 1st See Crescent column showing the Gregorian date on which at sunset it is predicted that the new lunar crescent might first be visible, if local conditions permit. (It will not be possible to see the crescent on prior days.) Also added Duration 29 days + column showing the duration of each lunar cycle of the Hebrew calendar year, in terms of the hours and minutes (HH:MM) in excess of 29 days.
• For Progressive Moladot this version employs the mean lunar conjunction, calculated for Universal Time according to the math given on my web page Length of the Lunar Cycle at <http://individual.utoronto.ca/kalendis/lunar/>, then it adds 2h 37m to refer the moment to a local mean time clock at the meridian that is mid-way between the Nile River and the end of the Euphrates River (at the point where it joins the Tigris River). This mid-point is approximately at the place where the modern borders of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq converge. The calculated progressive molad moments differ by about +16 minutes (in the present era) from that which would be obtained using the progressive molad arithmetic as given on the Rectified Hebrew calendar web page, which is referred to the meridian of Jerusalem.
• New report related to the Hebrew calendar: Tekufot (seasons), click here for an example report.
• Hebrew calendar Zmanim reports (ritual times of day) now show the moments of the astronomical equinoxes and solstices.
• User-Defined Locales: added 4 elevation scroll controls that handle 1000s, 100s, 10s, and units. Clicking on Time Zone frame or Elevation frame is now a quick way to zero the time zone or elevation, respectively. Increased the elevation limit from 4000 to 12500 metres to allow calculation of sunrise or sunset for a cruising aircraft.
• Former Export menu renamed to Reports.
• Change Background Color and Change Foreground Color are now added to the bottom of the Window menu.
• Most dialog boxes now prompt the user Copy to Clipboard? with Yes and No buttons. Since the No button is the default, simply pressing the Enter key will dismiss the dialog without doing anything.
• Added to built-in locales: Beijing, High Point, Nile-Euphrates Midpoint (at latitude of Jerusalem), Montreal.
• The User-Defined Locales form now allows the user to paste or type in decimal values of latitude or longitude. Click in the areas on the right side of that window where the decimal values are displayed.
• Minor wording improvements and enhancements of various reports.

Version 9.336(1058), Revised November 21, 2006 (Symmetry454) = November 19, 2006 (Gregorian)

Bug fixes:

• Monthly view now properly adjusts its height to take account of extra-height form title bars used by default in Windows XP.
• Preferences loading routine is now more robust, to avoid a run-time error at program launch reported by some users.

New features:

• Added to Links menu: Lengths of the Seasons.

Version 9.330(1052), Revised November 11, 2006 (Symmetry454) = November 9, 2006 (Gregorian)

Bug fixes:

• Previous/Next New/Full Moon commands now work properly with non-Gregorian fixed day numbering epochs.
• The monthly calendar view of the Julian and Roman calendar now properly crosses from year 1 BC to 1 AD forward or backward.
• Torah portions are now suppressed for Hebrew dates prior to the era of the Maccabees.
• Improved rounding use for separated times and angles (was occasionally causing some odd decimal points to be displayed).
• Switching the locale from a built-in locale to a user-defined locale that was originally copied from that same locale was sometimes not detected as a locale change, now fixed.

New features:

• It is now possible to run Kalendis under Linux or MacOS X, click here for instructions.
• The Persian Calendar (modern astronomical), and Persian Leap Years export report.
• All calendars and their monthly views and events are now color-coded, and the user can change a calendar’s background color by double-clicking on its date, or the foreground (text) colour by right-clicking on its date. There is a new Undo Last Color Change (Ctrl-Z) command, and when Quitting from Kalendis there is a new command but Reset All Colors that restores the default color settings.
• The user can now switch off Delta T to force all astronomy calculations to work in terms of atomic time (ephemeris days). Kalendis warns of the consequences of doing so at the time that it is done, and once at each subsequent program launch until the user switches Delta T back on.
• The Monthly view now remembers the user’s choice of calendar for next launch (previously it always reverted to Symmetry454).
• The former Ignore Elevation checkbox is now simply labelled Elevation and has the meaning of Use Elevation, defaulting to checkmarked.
• Earth orbitial eccentricity is now calculated using the algorithm of Pierre Bretagnon (1984), as given by Jean Meeus in chapter 33 of More Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Variations of Orbit of Earth, pages 201-205, published in 2002 by Willmann-Bell, Richmond VA. Although this ought to improve lunar calculations, which formerly employed a polynomial, this enhancement unfortunately has no effect on the solar longitude because eccentricity is not explicitly separated in the solar algorithms that Kalendis uses. Also, Kalendis continues to use a polynomial for perihelion and aphelion longitude instead of using the more accurate perihelion calculated by the Bretagnon algorithm.
• The lunar distance is now shown when the user clicks on the Moon Phase button, and in the quarter phase tool tip text of time and astronomy export reports.
• Direction bearings are now quoted as angles relative to the eight cardinal directions (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW).
• New built-in locales: Washington DC (Zero Milestone), New York City (Times Square, Manhattan), and changed the Tehran coordinates to point to the Azadi Tower (try it using Google as the map server). The coordinates for Mecca have always pointed to the Kaaba, but now that is actually indicated in the locales menu.
• If Tehran is selected as the reference meridian for the Future Bahá'í Calendar the reference longitude is now exactly 52.5°E, the same as the Persian Calendar = Official Meridian of Iran. Nevertheless the Persian Norouz and the Future Bahá'í Naw-Rúz may differ by a day because Bahá'í dates start at sunset whereas Persian dates start at midnight with the equinox moment computed relative to local apparent noon.
• Added Tool tip pop-up explanations for many of the column headings on web style export reports.
• New Jump To... commands, with addition of jumping to fixed day number #0 or #1.
• Reviewed and revised information text for all supported calendars.
• The Links menu now has new links to my Hebrew and Bahá'í calendar web pages.
• Added more choices for setting the fixed day numbering epoch (Truncated Julian Day, COBOL epoch, Persian epoch).

Numerous other enhancements that are too minor to detail.

Version 9.260(982), Revised August 12, 2006 (Symmetry454) = August 11, 2006 (Gregorian)

The Month view of Julian or Roman calendar was malfunctioning if the AUC (ab urbe condita) year option was checkmarked (years since the founding of Rome) and the user attempted to use the Month view to change the displayed date, now fixed.

Improved Hebrew calendar reporting of Torah portions and special sabbaths.

Hebrew export of yahrzeit, birthday or anniversary dates from today used to start from one year later than intended, now fixed, and menu choices are now From Original Year and From Present Year.

Improved appearance of ISO dates in the Gregorian window and on the month view.

Improved the appearance and function of the World / 13-Month calendar window, reduced its width to fit better on screen.

Several other enhancements that are too minor to detail.

Version 9.245(967), Revised July 25, 2006 (Symmetry454) = July 27, 2006 (Gregorian)

User can now set the fixed day numbering epoch to any date in the past or future. From Options menu choose Set Fixed Day #1 to... and make your choice. My personal favorite is the first day of the 3rd millennium, January 1, 2001, but if you prefer your own birthday, be my guest!

This version corrects a long-standing Windows 95/98/ME problem that I just learned about:
Export and Links menu items were unable to launch the user’s web browser, now fixed.

The Adjust for Daylight Saving Time checkbox no longer disappears, and is now color-coded. Black if checkbox is unchecked (always standard time). Blue if checkbox is marked and standard time is in effect. Red if checkbox is marked and daylight saving time is in effect. This checkbox is disabled for Greenwich Observatory and Paris Observatory, and for any user-defined locales for which the user has selected Disable Daylight Saving Time for this Locale.

Monthly window now offers the ISO Calendar, in groups of 4 weeks, plus other minor improvements.

Hebrew Calendar weekly Torah portion is now shown in Events window, on Sabbath when it has a regular weekly reading, and on Monday and Thursday when not yom tov, chol ha-moed, rosh chodesh, or chag.

Enhancements to various Export reports, especially the Twilight and Astronomy reports and the Hebrew Calendar Zmanim exports (which now show the weekly Torah portions).

The leap month variant of the Bahá'í Calendar now has available a Persian name for the leap month: Mah Kabie-Seh.

Version 9.223(945), Revised June 24, 2006 (Symmetry454) = June 28, 2006 (Gregorian)

Major Enhancements

Implemented new Monthly view window that can display an interactive monthly view of any supported calendar. By default it uses a novel layout that has the weekdays going down instead of across, so that there is room to display the full weekday names, but the user can click on the Across button to change the layout so that abbreviated weekdays go across instead of down (hover over the weekdays to see their full names), and this setting is remembered in the preferences.

Added more Map Server choices.

Enhancements to various Export reports, especially the Twilight and Astronomy reports and the Hebrew Calendar Zmanim exports.

Added support for all Bahá'í Calendar Variants as documented on my new web page dedicated to Bahá'í Calendar Arithmetic.

Added Start On pop-down menu to the Symmetry454 window, now allowing user to chose any weekday to start the calendar year (if Experiment mode is enabled). The Fixed Easter date shifts appropriately when the user changes the Start On weekday, to keep the Fixed Easter date on the Sunday that is the median date for Easter according to the Astronomical method of the World Council of Churches.

Symmetry454 leap year lists for fixed arithmetic cycles now include a grouping analysis of the leap year intervals.

User can choose option to have Symmetry454 leap week appended to December (normal default) or stand-alone after December.

Leap week variants of The World Calendar and The Thirteen Month Calendar use the same Start On and leap cycle settings as the Symmetry454 Calendar.

When Kalendis launches a web browser, it should now be the user’s default browser for HTML files (previously it always tried to launch Microsoft Internet Explorer).

Numerous other enhancements that are too minor to detail.

Note that the options to display the original and leap day at end of year variants of The World Calendar and The Thirteen Month Calendar are currently disabled, because I have not yet figured out a satisfactory way to handle the null days on the new Monthly calendar view.

[ Click here to go back to the Kalendis web page ]

• Reduced Gregorian and Roman date field font sizes from 12 to 11 points so that the longest dates will display properly.
• Reports --> Hebrew --> Tekufot:
  • +60 days later for Tekufat Tishrei now shows on a new line.
  • Minor HTML correction: Time column heading was missing its end tag.
  • Reports --> Hebrew --> Tekufot:
    • Added submenu for choice of zone, mean solar, or local apparent time. Only zone time includes DST adjustment, if enabled. To generate a report in Jerusalem mean solar time, select Jerusalem as the locale, navigate to the desired year, then choose by Local Mean Solar Time from the Tekufot report submenu. For universal time (prime meridian) choose instead Greenwich as the locale.
    • The report now shows Birchat HaChamah for Tekufat Nisan when applicable.
    • For Tekufot of Amorah Shmuel now also shows the Gregorian and Julian dates, and for Tekufat Tishrei also shows the Gregorian and Julian dates 60 days later.
    • Corrected Rambam epoch slightly, now assuming that it refers to exactly 18:00h Jerusalem mean solar time.
    • Tables in report now have ToolTip text for Time column, and no text wrapping of cells. HTML syntax corrections.
    • Rearranged column sequence.
    • Report now uses matching season colour for Tekufat Adda and Tekufat Shmuel.
    • Fixed CSV and TAB formats.
    • If printing to a color printer, note that some web browsers don’t print the colors properly, especially those of the table borders, so check your Print Preview first. If the colors are not rendered properly in Print Preview then try a different web browser.
  • Gregorian and Symmetry calendars: added USA Black Friday as the Friday after USA Thanksgiving.
  • Yerm era report:
    • Revised URL for NASA Delta T polynomials.
    • If output file exists and user wants to use it as is, display it in web browser.
    • If Offset is not zero then put _plus in front of it instead of + in file name, for UNIX compatibility (web sites).
  • Gregorian and Julian calendar info text reworded, and added Easter computus info (not shown for Revised Julian because practise varies).
  • Symmetry calendar: Added comment documenting mean month for Symmetry Easter computus based on 4366 lunar months in 353 years.