As promised, the “official” b40 release is now available, replacing the experimental version released last week. Most users can simply let Panorama automatically update. The only reason you would need to manually install this version would be if you are running macOS Sequoia and you did not install last weeks experimental b40 version. Hopefully none of you fall into this category, but if you do need to manually install, the direct download link is:
Or, you can simply go to http://www.provue.com and download the trial version, which is the same version.
In addition to fixing the problem with Sequoia, this release also includes updated documentation, and includes the changes below.
Panorama no longer allows the user to click to change window order while a procedure is running.
When opening a shared database Panorama prevents window switching or running other procedures until synchronization is finished.
Implemented the webshare statement (brought over from Panorama 6.0).
New nanzero( and nanerror( functions provide additional flexibility in dealing with invalid floating point values.
The View and Action menus now work correctly with form and procedure names that contain the } character.
Double chevron notation now works in the formulavalue function and statement, and formulacalc. (This means that it now works correctly in the Formula Workshop, and dialogs like Morph > Formula Fill.)
The selectrelated and selectrecordsrelatedto statements now work even if the specified relation options aren’t all in upper case.
The BinaryDataBuild( function now works correctly with double chevron notation.
Fixed pattern( function for scientific/engineering notation with small numbers and negative numbers.
Creating a new database with an imported text file with field names now strips off any blank lines from the beginning and end of imported data.
The PrintToPDF statement COPIES option now works correctly if default printer specified.
Updated Zip Code information with July 2024 data from US post office.
Panorama now now automatically opens the Site License window if you are not logged in.
Oops. Misspelled “dictionary” in seven error messages!! Now fixed.
Documentation of info(“guid”) function now mentions UUID as well as GUID.
Documentation corrections from David Thompson, Peter Newble, James Cook, Robert Ameeti, David Scott
On two separate computers, both running Sonoma, Panorama X Server kept launching as b39. I tried on a third computer and server stays at b39.
Manually deleting Panorama X Server didn’t work either. When I tried starting Server then, I got a message: Warning: Download of PanoramaX Server.app may be corrupted!
So for now I’m running Panorama b40 and Panorama X Server b39.
On a server that does a restart each night, we can’t stop the notice for the b40 update from appearing when Panorama launches. It sometimes interferes with automated tasks.
As I read about the new nanzero( function in Build 4513, I heard the square root of minus eight, shout out, "Invalid?, “Invalid!” - who you call’ng invalid? I’m the square root of 8 times the square root of my buddy, minus one.
And sticking up for my buddy, the square root of minus 1 is not Invalid. In fact, some would say the square root of minus 1 is not invalid but is a fundamental concept that extends the real number system to include complex numbers." Sheesh!"
I’m not sure if you did this on purpose, but the square root of minus 1 is indeed an imaginary number. A complex number is a combination of a real + imaginary number.
Panorama floating point values use IEEE floating point values. The IEEE format only supports real numbers, not imaginary or complex values. So as far as Panorama is concerned, imaginary numbers are invalid. If you have an application where you need to store complex numbers, you would need two fields - one for the real component, one for the imaginary component. Performing math operations on these values would be tricky.
In other words, complex numbers are not natively supported. But I am sure someone clever and motivated enough could adapt Panorama X to deal with them.
(Upon further reflection, there are some numbers which are beyond the ability of our computers to support. The square root of 8, for instance, can only be approximated, and we should not even touch on π, for that matter.)
π can be approximated every bit as accurately as the square root of 8, or even a rational number like 1/5. The precision of a floating point number is equivalent to a little more than 15 significant figures decimal. It’s a pretty rare situation where you actually need more precision than that.
Ah, the amount of approximation! Cue the Mathematician, Physicist, and Engineer jokes!
I talk to my carpenter friend about tolerances. Sometimes they must be extremely fine. Sometimes they need to be more coarse. That is the difference between a carpenter and a cabinetmaker.
