5 December 2007

Sudoku has been updated to Version 3.1.1. A very minor update, but by popular demand, this reverses the change that caused the "effects" toolbar to only use existing pencil marks. If the cell contains no pencil marks at all, the effects are shown based on the single rule of Sudoku.

3 December 2007

Sudoku has been updated to Version 3.1. The change in this version is:

• Limited the length of XY chains to 12 cells or fewer, or else the XY chain solver could recurse far too deeply during puzzle creation, using an excessive amount of time and processing power.

1 December 2007

Sudoku has been updated to Version 3.0. The changes in this version are:

• Added the XY-wing solving technique.
• Added the XYZ-wing solving technique.
• Added the XY-chain solving technique.
• Added the ability to colour different numbers in different colours. See the [...] button next to the default highlight on the colours tab of the options dialog.
• Added the ability to highlight multiple numbers at once. To highlight a second (or third, or fourth etc) number, hold down the control key while clicking the highlight button. (You'll probably want to assign different colours to each number first, see the previous change.) Sorry, but there isn't a keyboard short-cut for this function.
• Added the ability to load and print from Sudoku Collection (.SDC) files. These are files that can contain many sudoku puzzles. This allows for a collection of puzzles that aren't deleted as they're solved. (Contrast this to the library which is a temporary storage place for puzzles that are yet to be played.)
• When printing puzzles from the library, give the option of printing several copies of multiple pages, along with their solutions.
• It no longer de-selects the "enter pencil marks" option when the puzzle is completed.
• It no longer de-selects any highlight when all pencil marks are deleted.
• The highlight buttons now highlight strictly according to the cell content and pencil marks. Previously, if there were no pencil marks, it would create a set from the single rule of Sudoku, and then highlight from them.
• If you use a character such as X to represent empty cells, counting and then showing the solutions could omit one of the solutions and show the puzzle instead. This has been corrected.
• The Count Solutions function has been speeded up considerably.
• The copy-image-to-clipboard function now excludes the area surrounding the puzzle from the image.
• Added the ability to save puzzles in Simple Sudoku and Sudocue formats. (It was already able to load puzzles in either format.)
• Fixed the missing "untranslation" of menu options when English is chosen instead of the default language for the current locale.
• Added comma-separated and tab-separated clipboard formats. The latter is useful for pasting into spreadsheets.
• Fixed a problem with drawing menus under Windows Vista.
• When displaying the number selector, don't attempt to use the built-in transparency of newer versions of Windows unless running in 32 bit colour mode.
• Corrected an occasional problem with the chain reported for colouring. The eliminations were correct, but the chain was reported incorrectly.

28 November 2007

Version 2.16 of TResourceAllocationChart has been released. The changes are minor, but see the history page for full details. Registered users should have already received the latest source code by email - if not, please contact us.

22 November 2007

Fives and Threes has been updated to version 2.1. This is a minor bug-fix release to prevent the error "no can do" sometimes reported when the second domino was played.

1 November 2007

Fives and Threes has been updated to version 2.0. This upgrade adds some new variations as well as a simple chat facility.

29 October 2007

The free TExpressionEvaluator Delphi component has been modified to add several new functions: Abs, Frac, Min, Max, Power, Secant and Cosecant.

11 October 2007

One Foundation has been updated to version 1.2. This minor upgrade adds simple animation to better show which cards are being moved to where.

8 October 2007

Fahrenheit to Celsius has been released as freeware. Other "Convert Easy Lite" programs have been withdrawn.

13 August 2007

Search has been updated to version 3.4 after a minor enhancement. The change is to ensure the main screen is not positioned on a second monitor if that monitor had since been disconnected. This change is only of interest to those who switch between single and dual monitor running. For example, by docking and undocking a laptop.

17 July 2007

Search has been updated to version 3.3 after a minor bug fix. The fault resulted in a system error message when Search tried to determine the file attributes of a file that had since been deleted.

2 May 2007

WordPlay and Timesheet applications have been released as freeware.

1 May 2007

HTML Image Browser and FileTime applications have been withdrawn.

22 April 2007

Version 2.15 of TResourceAllocationChart has been released. The changes are mostly minor, but see the history page for full details. Registered users should have already received the latest source code by email - if not, please contact us.

5 January 2007

Version 2.9 of Sudoku has been released. This has the following changes:

• Added a new form to show some statistics on the puzzles in the library.
• Added the ability to print up to six puzzles from the library.
• The main window is set to re-appear in the last position it was used. If it was last displayed on the second screen of a dual-screen system, then the second screen was removed, this could result in the main window not being visible at all. It is now checked that the main window is on screen at start up.
• Allow "dot-notation" for pencil marks. This causes pencil marks to be shown using dots rather than numbers.
• Allow each number, whether a clue, big number or pencil mark, to be shown in a specific colour.
• Allow the selection of a second cell background colour that is used for odd numbered blocks.
• Made the number selector ignore clicks until it had faded in more than half- way. Occasionally, a selection could be made before the selector was even visible.
• It now remembers the printer you last selected.
• Improved the description of the coordinate format added to the solution log, as the original description was ambiguous for A1 - I9 format.
• If you exit with the puzzle unsaved, you're asked whether you want to save the puzzle before exiting. If you select yes, but then cancel the save dialog, the program exited anyway and changes to the puzzle were lost. The program will no longer exit in this situation.
• Occasionally, during the puzzle generation process, a part-completed puzzle could require deep recursion to solve and/or count the number of solutions. This could sometimes lead to excessive memory and/or CPU usage. This has now been prevented.
• Show user-specified cell background colour even if the cell content is incorrect.
• Corrected a bug in the optimisation that could cause X-wings or swordfish to be missed occasionally.