Version Ancient History

Revisions from Version 1 to 1.4.5

November 5, 1998 to May 27, 2000

Version 1.4.5 - 27/May/2000

Pierre Molitor discovered some additional regional settings issues and a couple of generic problems.

	The pass schedule wasn't working in Regions outside of English(US). That's fixed
	Generically, when trying to update a small file of element sets with fresher data in a larger file, the program would sometimes enter an infinite loop and lockup. The only way to get out of it was to ctrl-alt-delete and end that Element Manager task. That's fixed.

I added a new option to the setup screen. You can now automatically load the last element set file used. If you are frequently returning to the same file, this can be helpful.

Previously, when you changed an element file and exited the program, you would be prompted to save the file. If you selected YES then the program opened a SaveAs dialog box and you had to specify the name of the file to save. Now, if you click yes, that dialog box does NOT open. The program just overwrites the existing file with the current file in EM. If you wish to save the file with a different name, you can. The dialog box that opens is a Yes/No/Cancel type. If you click cancel, you're returned to EM. Just select SaveAs from the file menu and enter the new name. This procedure follows the conventions used by most programs.

Version 1.4.4 - 10/May/2000 (distribution note)

I've removed the self-extracting archives and reverted to ZIP files. Some systems were having problems with the former. Nothing else has changed.

Version 1.4.4 - 27/April/2000

Johannes Mueller discovered another regional settings problem. He lives in Germany and found the program would crash if the Modify/Create element set option was selected from the Edit menu. I believe I've covered this but bug reports are welcome.

Version 1.4.3 - 25/April/2000

Pierre Molitor discovered a regional settings related bug. The program would crash when attempting to track a satellite when Windows was using a Regional Setting other than English(US). Specifically this came about as a result of my adding warnings about Tracking Accuracy for satellites in orbits with orbital periods of greater than 225 minutes. This feature was added in 1.4.2, so folks that haven't upgraded to that version shouldn't see a problem.

DOWNLOAD ONLY if you operate Windows with a regional setting that uses a comma (,) as the decimal point. Otherwise, you need not update to this version.

Version 1.4.2 - 18/March/2000

	On the "Orbital Screen", the button marked Plot Satellite previously opened the Tracking Display. Now, it starts the tracking routines, but does NOT open the Tracking Display. Also, regardless of your normal viewing options on the Tracking Display, when you "Plot" the mean anomaly of the satellite on the Orbital Screen ONLY, the tracking routines do NOT calculate lots of position information about the previous and future positions of a satellite (needed to draw track lines). This greatly increases the speed of the MA plot. So you can now have this active and scroll through the satellites fairly quickly. This button disappears once you actually open the Tracking screen and all data will resume being computed for that display thus possibly slowing down scrolling through satellites.
	Steve Bolton commenting on SeeSat-L mentioned he used Element Manager to find satellites with perigees (Argument of Perigee) in the Northern Hemisphere. I'm guessing here that he sorted the file by Arg of Peri and then manually went through the file finding satellites with Arg of Peris between 0 and 180 degrees. I was intrigued by this idea of looking for eccentric satellites passing through their perigee and being visible candidates. And so, I've added the capability to Select out satellites by their Argument of Perigee. You can set a lower and upper limit to the argument of perigee and only those satellites will be displayed. See Selection Screen Page for a little more detail.
	In a related matter, there has been recent discussion about maximum elevations at observer locations for satellites in low inclination orbits on the SeeSat-L list. Ralph McConahy posted a recap of a recent message from Ted Molczan on how to calculate maximum elevations. The idea was irresistible and so, I've added the maximum elevation as observed from the Home Latitude of the observer for both the perigee and apogee of the satellite on the "Orbital Screen".
	Jim Nix discovered some bugs. When attempting to view the satellite on the orbital ellipse (Orbital Screen) and having the tracking screen set to show NO TRACKS, the program did NOT show the satellite and introduced some strange display artifacts. That's fixed.
	His second discovery, entering a non-numeric value into the UTC Offset field on the setup screen crashed the program. This discovery led me to the realization that all the numeric fields in Setup would crash if a non-numeric value was entered. They've been fixed.
	Because this program does not utilize SDP4 algorithms, I've added an accuracy warning to the tracking and orbital display screens and the scheduled pass output file for birds with orbital periods greater than 225 minutes. Someday (maybe) I'll take another shot at a full SGP4/SDP4 implementation.
	There's now a "Reminder" display attached to the Splash Screen. See the Reminder Page for notes on how to use this feature. The data file for this reminder routine is "Space History.csv". It will always accompany the full distribution, however it is only included in the Lite distribution file for this initial deployment.
	I've added a button on the Satellite Situation Report screen to Save the displayed data to a file. All the data EXCEPT the full Sit Report boxscore roundup is saved to this file. If you run a siblings search and leave the siblings screen open (minimized OK) then that info is appended to the bottom of the file.
	I discovered that the Siblings report file generator had a bug. It wasn't properly posting the decay dates. Fixed.
	A bug, when exiting the program with the Pass Schedule Screen open an error (div by zero, I think) occurred. That's fixed.
	A slight speed improvement in the importing of radar cross section data from the Satellite Situation Report (about 25% faster). This is still miserably slow, but any speed improvement is welcome. Also, the program now detects if you have a Satellite Situation Report indicated on the setup screen and points these import routines directly to that file instead of dropping you to a dialog box pointing at the program's home folder.
	When playing around with the radar cross section import routines I discovered a bug in updating visual magnitude data and radar data. Previously the program might erroneously keep old data (Not substituting newer info, if that was requested). That's fixed. The result is a slightly slower process in this newer versus older routine, but coupled with some speed improvements in other areas of this section, the program overall has a slight speed improvement as described above.

Version 1.4.1 - 21/February/2000

	I've added an element set modifier/creator routine. Consider this part of the program in Beta-Test. And I'd like both positive and negative feedback (i.e. It works or doesn't). See Create/Modify Elset page for the details on how it works.
	The old map on the tracking screen has been replaced by three maps of differing resolutions. There is a low rez map that loads when the display shrinks to a width narrower than around 620 pixels wide. A medium rez map loads from 620 to 750 pixel widths and a high rez map loads when you stretch the map to wider than 750 pixels. These maps almost double the size of the EXE file, but packed (compressed) in a zip or CAB file they don't significantly increase the distribution size.
	Also, I was trying to figure out what the lat/long was for Cape Canaveral (while trying to create an element set for STS-99) and decided to add a quick lookup feature to the Tracking screen. Point the mouse to the desired location and right click. A pop up menu opens showing the latitude and longitude of that point. You can select this location as the "Ground Station" to run quick pass predictions for locations other than your home site. Also on that popup menu is an option to restore the original latitude and longitude of your home station as it appears on the setup screen. If you don't wish to change your ground station location, just click anywhere outside the popup menu and no changes are made and the menu disappears. WARNING!!! A new feature or a bug depending on your outlook. If you select a new ground station then open the Setup screen and select save setup, that new ground station location will replace your original home coordinates. If you do not specifically go to the setup screen and hit save, the original home coordinates are retained and you can restore them at any time as noted above or when you next run the program. Where's the feature aspect of this behavior? You can quickly set your home location by right clicking on it on the tracking screen, selecting it as the new ground station then, going to the setup screen save the setup and your done. Of course with the very low resolution of the maps, you will probably want to manually key in your home location, but this might suffice for people who live on top of unique geographic features that show up on these maps.
	On the tracking screen, you can now add a track line (in addition to the series of dots) for the satellite being tracked. If this line is active you can remove the dots or leave them, your choice. There is a bug here that I'm sweating over. For satellites in orbits with inclinations of 89.5 degrees to 90.5 degrees (roughly) the track line can behave erratically.
	You can now "track" the satellite on the "Orbital" Screen. This new feature will graphically show you where, along the ellipse, the satellite is and if it is ascending toward or descending from apogee. The Tracking Screen must be active for this to work. All satellites move in a counterclockwise motion on this display. See the Orbital View page for a screenshot.
	Kevin Fetter is developing a website and needs an ASCII text file that contains ONLY Norad ID numbers. That's now available from the Utilities menu. Click on it, you'll be prompted for a filename and the program will write out a file of NORAD Ids of your ACTIVE satellites.
	I discovered how to use "Real" popup menus. So, the popup context sensitive menu on the main screen (when you right click a satellite) will conform more precisely to win32 conventions.
	THIS IS COOL!! Hey, learning how to program can be fun right? Most of the different windows that open (Tracking, Statistics, Selection, Satellite Sit report, etc.) now have "sticky" locations . If you open and move them around then close them, they will reopen in the same location. When you exit the program, it will save the locations of most windows to a special file. You can also go to the setup screen, select Window Layout and click save the program will save that file. It's not really necessary, but in the first incarnation of sticky windows it was. Anyway ... Next time you run the program, each window will open where you placed it last time. In order for this to work you must OPEN a window (Track, Pass, Orbital, etc.) move it to the location you wish it to always appear and then CLOSE IT. Closing a window sets its location. After opening, moving, resizing (tracking screen only) and closing windows use that option on the setup screen or just exit from the program and those new locations are saved. I really like this. I have lots of screen real estate (21" monitor running 1290x1024) and there's room for lots of screens with no overlap. But it was such a pain always having to keep moving them around each time they opened. If you change screen resolutions, the all windows should open along the edges of the screen if they will not completely fit within the screen boundaries in the new resolution. If I made an error in programming and one of the windows is lost off the edge of your monitor you can reset all the window positions. First, close the window that is missing (use the task bar, right click on the offending window and select close). Then click on setup, and on the Window Layout form, click reset layout. All windows will now open centered on the main screen as the program used to operate. You might (but should not) have to close and restart the program to recover a "missing" window. I can add this sticky feature to any screen but have limited it to just those screens that usually stay open. If you want a screen to stick and it doesn't. Let me know, I'll get out the glue.
	Jim Nix discovered a bug in the sorting routines for ILD data. Fixed.
	Ron Lee discovered a few bugs in the Sit Report routines. The decay calculated age was incorrectly showing 2 months for satellites still in orbit. Fixed
	In a related matter, NOW when a satellite is in orbit, the box containing the calculated age for decayed satellites is removed from the form and the label "Decay Date" is removed from that box as it is filled with the text "On Orbit". Cosmetic change only.
	I discovered that searching on a partial Norad Id string would not find matches. Fixed
	A very slight search speed improvement for the Sit report. Now, if you are searching for matches and the program moves from the In orbit file to the decayed file the program will resume the search in the decayed satellite file if you continue on to find the next match. This saves the time the program used to take to read through the entire first file just to look for the line to resume a search on.
	Idiosyncratically, I hate the piece letter in ILD(COSPAR)s being separated by spaces from the year/launch number. So, the program now compacts them into a "spaceless" string in both the import and paste functions when this condition is detected.
	I've re-labeled all occurrences of the word "decay" where that word was referring to the 1st Time Derivative of Mean Motion and replaced it with that term. I'm not sure why I started up with Decay in the first place.
	The 2-line element breakout available from the Help menu now uses the format found on the OIG web pages. It's a little clearer.

Version 1.4.0 - 27/January/2000

	Satellite Situation Report now directly supported. You can right click on any satellite (on the main screen) and bring up all information contained within the Satellite Situation report on that bird. You can also find all satellites that accompanied that satellite into orbit. See Satellite Situation Report Page for details.
	The Remove Duplicates option under the utility menu has been speeded up by a factor of (guessing here) 10.
	A bug discovered. After removing duplicate element sets, the program crashed when you used the scroll bar to move to the bottom of the file (on the main screen.) Fixed.
	Discovered some bugs with right clicking on Empty Satellite boxes on the main screen. For instance, right clicking on an empty box and selecting cut would remove the last satellite element set loaded. That won't happen anymore. Right clicking on an empty box and selecting track would crash the program as there were no orbital elements to calculate an orbit. Some other minor stuff, all of it (I hope) fixed.
	The way the program was displaying the Splash screen was a little inconsistent. That's fixed.
	In version 1.3.9 I mentioned I could add the ability to restore the sort order to that when the element file was loaded. Well, I did that. Open the sort form and select "Restore Original Order".
	Sorting by ILD was plagued by a Y2K bug. Fixed.

Version 1.3.9 - 21/January/2000

	Added the ability to edit the vis data and radar cross section on the edit screen. Also changed the default load of this form to automatically copy the existing element set into the edited fields.
	While fooling around with this ILD stuff, I've managed to slightly tweak the speed of updates in various regions of the program. Element updates, ILD checks, renaming with Satname.dat adding mag and radar data are now approximately twice as fast. This speed increase is most pronounced when you are dealing with lots of active satellites in the program. The loaded elements are now sorted by norad id prior to these actions. If anyone NEEDS to keep track of the original order of the loaded elements, I can add that ability. Let me know.
	ILD/COSPAR checks now available in the Update routines. Following the SeeSat-L list recently and in response to a suggestion by John Gardner the program now optionally verifies a match to the ILD in addition to the NORAD Id. See the Updating Elements Page.
	In a related matter, and in response to requests from Richard Hines and Lee Blanton, you can now go to the Setup screen and specify that you wish to retain the English/Common (whatever) name of a satellite when you update your file. This is covered in more detail on the Updating Elements Page too.
	ILD/COSPAR checks can also be made on active satellites. This function is available on the Utilities menu on the main screen. You have to first build a master ILD file. This file will contain the Norad ID, the ILD data and the Name of the satellite. Once written, the data in this file will NOT be overwritten by newer data. You have to edit it manually. This is to ensure once you have a good ILD database, it doesn't get corrupted accidentally. You can at any time, add element sets to the file. Once you have an ILD file, you can check your active sats against it and make updates in a manner similar to the update routines above.
	On the Pass Schedule screen, the program now attempts to to find the Zenith of a pass. The time increments in a pass by 1 minute intervals. Once the zenith is detected, the increment is reset to that time. The zenith is highlighted in Green. Then the program increments at a 1 minute rate again until the satellite is below the horizon.
	I decided to add a footprint radius indication to the text display available from the tracking screen. In the process, I discovered my range circles were slightly off. I believe they are now a bit more accurate. This is a matter of a few kilometers nothing dramatic.
	A bug in the selection process. If you tried to select satellites by their common names, used partial match and entered an exact match name the program would miss it. That's fixed.
	Added the ability to select satellites by their Norad Classification. You know, that "U" that usually follows the Norad ID in a two line set on line1. Well I received a request to include this ability for folks who dabble with element set creation and append letters other than "U". So now you can search out all the element sets with a "P" for predicted or any other letter character you may use to identify element set types.
	The data that fills out the Sort Selection Screen was being lost when that screen was closed. It is now properly refreshed with sort type and direction as well as the checkmarks placed beside the previously used sort parameter.
	Some minor bugs fixed. New ones probably introduced, but I've been doing more checking this time out so we'll see.

Version 1.3.8 - 13/January/2000

New Feature - The program will now run pass predictions. From the tracking screen, click on "Pass Schedule" and select one of the options. A new window will open with the pass schedule for the active satellite. Check the Pass Schedule Page for details.

Richard Hines wanted a routine to clean Line0 of all data besides the name. Now, on the utility menu there is an option to do this. The program will allow a 15 character name if there is magnitude data. If no mag data appears, then the program will retain up to 25 characters of a satellite name. All other data, radar cross section and perigee/apogee data will be removed.

You can now use a select file as well as the more traditional "satname.dat" file to rename the active satellites. On the Utility menu the Satname.dat option has been replaced by "Rename Satellites". It opens submenus that will lead you to the appropriate action.

Richard Hines discovered a bug in the use of Satname.dat to rename element sets. Using this routine repetitively would crash the program. Fixed.

Freshening Element Sets -

Don Gardner uses the "Freshen Element Sets" option and noticed that his files were not being freshened when the newer element set failed checksum validation. That was true. I figured users would verify the validity of a source file first before using it as a source for updates. But, this does require an extra step. So, I've implemented the same checksum verification routines for this action as is used when importing a file specifying checksum verification.

Drat - When selecting Freshen Elements - Add non-existent Sets the program was incorrectly adding duplicates for each pre-existing set. I'll never get this stuff cleaned up :-) anyway, it's fixed now.

Helmut Berghardt and Lutz Schindler both reported bugs in the Tracking and Orbital screens and some derived element set values. These were problems related to Regional Settings other than "English (US). I've debugged the program in German and French Regional settings and it now works properly.

There was a bug in the "Static Time" display on the tracking screen. If you tried to change the time for a satellite, the display would not update. That's now fixed.

If you did a duplicate check, then selected save file, and there was no file loaded, then you changed your mind and canceled the save as dialog box, the program crashed. That's fixed.

From the Utilities menu, if you select "Add Apo/Perigee Data to Line0" the program will now add that data in the same measurement system in use in the program. Previously, only the kilometer measurement system was used. Now, you can save these values in miles and nautical miles too.

The program now tries to keep track of any changes you make in the element file loaded. Other than sorting, if you make changes, it should take note of that and prompt you with a "Save File?" message when you exit the program. I found that I would frequently forget to save files after adding Mag or Radar data and pasting stuff in from the clipboard. This addition should assist in this situation.
One note about this feature! Whenever you do a file save, the variable that keeps track of this is reset. So, suppose you 1.) Add Mag data to the entire file, 2.) Select Satellites with inclinations greater than 30 degrees, 3.) Save the resulting subset to a file, 4.) Remove all selections restoring all element sets to active status and finally 4.) exit the program. EM will NOT prompt you to save the full file with new Mag data as that save action back in step 3 reset the variable that keeps track of this information.

When you saved the "English" name of a satellite to the satname.dat file, the program wasn't properly sorting the resulting output. This is now fixed.

When you open the selection screen and make a change to any selection parameter, that parameter automatically becomes active. Saves a mouse click.

The the name of the currently loaded file was being displayed with a full path on the title bar of the main screen. If your file was buried deeply in subdirectories or if the filename was too long, it wouldn't fit on the screen. I've stripped out the path (folder/directory name) and now the program just presents the the filename.

Also, related to the previous change, when you made selections the program previously appended "Selections Made" to the end of the filename. Since that indication is now present above the list of satellites on the main screen, I've removed it from this part of the display.

Some bugs in the Selection process have been stamped out.

The "Paste from Clipboard" process used to be limited to a maximum of 100 elements. I've increased that to 300.

Also, a bug in the paste routines. If the program had NO elements loaded and you tried to paste more than 62 element sets, the program crashed. That's fixed.

Version 1.3.7 - 05/January/2000

On the main screen above the multiple listings of satellites -

	I have enabled recognition of element sets that are dated in the future. In the event your active element sets contain a satellite with an epoch day in the future, the display now indicates the most recent element set is so many days in the FUTURE.
	If you make a selection the words "Selection Active" now appear on this line.
	If you sort the active elements the type and direction of the sort is shown on this line. The direction of the sort is indicated by a "(+)" or "(-)".

On various Statistics Screens -

	I discovered a flaw in the way the program Charted Epoch Age of element sets. If elements were dated in the future, they were ignored. Now they are included in the <= 1 day column.
	I also discovered a flaw in the way the program kept track of the newest and oldest element sets on the Age tab of the Statistics screen. Element sets that are set in the future were being ignored. That's been fixed.
	The Charting of International Launch Designations (ILD) became confused with Satellites launched in the year 2000 and beyond. That's fixed.
	There was a bug in the "2nd order of MM minimum". That's fixed.
	When you double clicked on a satellite on the various statistics displays, the main screen was NOT updating the plain text element sets and the derived data. That's fixed.

On the Utility Menu -

	Don Gardner discovered a Y2K error in the "Update Elements" routines under the Utility menu. Fixed
	I discovered that the "remove duplicates" routines were not Y2K compliant. Fixed
	The clock available on the Utility Menu wasn't formatting the epoch day properly. Fixed

Once elements are sorted , the sort sticks though selection or de-selection activity.

On the Tracking Screen -

	The satellite's current position now BLINKS. It's easier to find when the display gets confusing with some types of orbits.
	The "Elements at Epoch" display (from the Tracking Screen) was Y2K scrambled. That's fixed.
	The "Elements at Epoch" display is now automatically closed when you close the tracking screen.

Some light gloss throughout the program -

	Several tooltips (bubble help) have been added to indicate meanings and functions of various displays.
	I've cleaned up the text displays on various screens. It probably won't be too noticeable but might be easier to read.

Version 1.3.6 - 31/December/1999

	A couple of Y2K bugs in the Statistics screen. Fixed. If you discover any other Y2K stuff over the next couple of weeks, let me know and I'll try and fix them.
	Now, when you shrink the tracking screen to a width narrower than the width of the menu, the menu is removed. The labels on the grid are also removed when they become too crowded. This makes a really small tracking screen more aesthetically pleasing.
	The aspect ratio of the tracking screen when initially opened now matches the window size of the main screen.
	If your default measurement system was in kilometers, EM would not display the Apogee Yellow Alert level on the setup screen. It would work in the program, just not display on that screen. Fixed
	During STS-93 I was irritated that they kept referring to the altitude of the Shuttle in Nautical Miles. They have always done this and usually, using STSPlus, it was no big deal. But now, I use my program so ... just after that flight I added Nautical Miles as one of the measurement systems. This actually happened a few versions back but apparently I never mentioned it in these notes. Clicking on the Miles/Kilometer or Naut Miles button will change to the next system. The button used to say "Switch to xxx". Now it just indicates which measurement system is active.

Version 1.3.5 - 25/August/1999

	Sorting times have been dramatically improved by using "QuickSort", an algorithm created by C. A. R. Hoare as published in "Astronomical Algorithms" by Jean Meeus. A progress bars still pops up, but it is meaningless now as an indicator of the progress a sort is making. Rather, they are now really activity indicators. If the progress bar jumps all over the place, the program is sorting. If it sits on one setting for very long it's probably an indication I've introduced a bug. So far, everything is working fine on my machines. Sorting a 2500 element set file used to take 6 seconds, now it takes 1. I have a pretty fast machine, but, I imaging the speed increase will be welcome by many. This sorting technique is used where ever sorting is being done with the exception of the ARCHIVE file listing.
	Richard Hines discovered another inappropriate message box. If you check marked several satellites and CUT them from the display, then sorted the file, a message box would pop up warning that checkmarks could not be maintained during a sort. Since the check marked satellites were removed, it was nonsensical. I've fixed that.
	VB only allows 255 controls per form. The Main Screen of the program recently exceeded that limit. As a result, I've changed the way SORT works. Now, clicking on Sort opens a sub-form where you make selections from drop down menus as you used to do from the Main Screen's drop downs. As was previously implemented, checkmarks are placed beside the last type of sort executed. Since this is a form, I've also included this information directly on the form for faster access (you don't need to pull down menus). This change gives me back 40 plus controls to use on the main form. I can use them.

Version 1.3.4 - 20/August/1999

	Richard Hines discovered a minor inconsistency. When opening the save or open dialog boxes they sometimes had misleading titles. You might be trying to load a new element set and the dialog would be titled, "Save Select File" or something equally misleading. I've gone through all file dialog boxes and forced titles appropriate to each action.
	Richard also discovered another bug. The program would fail when you attempted to open an Archive file (ARK) with the message input past end of file. This bug was introduced when I fixed a previous bug. I can't seem to win here. But, it's fixed now.
	When fixing another issue, I seem to have damaged the Update option again. It's now fixed, again.
	In another of my programs folks were having a hard time changing the URLs on the "Launch Browser" screen. I've added the ability to Right Click on a button which will bring up a form where you can enter new page names and URLs. Press the save button and the new settings are saved to "ineturls.ini" and displayed immediately on the Launch Browser screen. I'd recommend cut and paste for complex web addresses.
	I've added an ASCII delimited text import/export capability. You can export your element files into this type of file, and then load it into any spread sheet or database that accepts this type of input. Conversely, you can import ASCII delimited text files into Element Manager. However, imported files must EXACTLY match the convention of exported files. I'd recommend you export a sample file to see what each field in the ASCII format contains. The first line of the ASCII export has labels for each field. I've had requests for multi-level sorting. I'm not intending to add that capability, but for those of you who must do this, here is a way to accomplish your task. It's a little involved, but at least you can get the data into a form acceptable to a spreadsheet easily.
	I've added the capability to include the apogee/perigee data on Line0 as is done by Orbitel and others. This data begins in Column 50, starts with the apogee is followed by the perigee. The figures are in kilometers and a "km" is appended for clarity.

Version 1.3.3 - 6/August/1999

	Stephen Power, author of Satellite Hunting, has tipped me off to a few time saving tricks of VB. I've implemented them. This speeds up some processes by a tiny bit, with the exception of the new charting feature in which the tips really helped quite a bit.
	A NEW feature. The program has a few new parameters added to the Statistical Screen. And you can now CHART several variables. See the Statistics Screen for an overview of that module. This new feature requires a new DLL and so, a full download is required.
	Richard Hines has been having problems with the "Add Elements to External File" option under the utilities menu. He discovered that EM was in fact adding the elements however, it was doing so AFTER an EOF (end of file) character in that external file. Then, opening this file with EM, even EM became confused and wouldn't read past the EOF, thus not showing the newly added elements. This EOF character was being added by TLEMOP. Probably some other programs also add this character too, so I've redesigned how this process happens, (removed the EOF from the target file) and now this problem is fixed.
	Another long standing problem I couldn't duplicate has been fixed. Again Richard Hines came through with the necessary clues on how I might duplicate the errors. If you had either no satname.dat file or a zero-byte satname.dat file the program crashed when you attempted to add new satellite common names to the file. That's fixed.
	In a related matter Richard also discovered that the Open Archives option was crashing the program. This was tied directly to a satname.dat file that was either (again) non-existent or empty. That's now fixed.
	In the process of some changes, I inadvertantly disabled the updating of the element set data shown at the bottom of the main screen for element sets in logical positions 4 through 9. That's now fixed.
	The Utility/Update File option was corrupted by a change made to accommodate European Regional Settings. That's fixed.
	Another change messed up the Two Line display. The element sets would display properly but, the associated age, perigee and apogee were incorrect. That's fixed.
	The Warning that you are loading files with more than 2000 element sets has been changed. You can now set this Size alert level to any value you wish on the setup screen.

Version 1.3.2 - 24/July/1999

Lots of bug fixes to remedy my butchering of the code last time out. Some of these bugs aren't specifically mentioned because, I found them myself and was so busy fixing them, I forgot to keep track of exactly what I was changing. Many of you are reporting and I appreciate each report. The more detail the better.

Unfortunately, this data format change seems to have wrought real havoc. My apologies for not detecting these bugs before the program snuck out of the door. Hopefully most of them have been fixed, but I may have to do another release soon if I keep getting reports after this version. Well, if you scan the version history, that will come as no surprise regardless.

	Lots of operations involving checkmarks were corrupted because of a data type change. Richard Hines discovered that importing Select files and running the selections failed. Some other selection procedures that had to deal with check marks (in the background) failed. I've scanned the file several times looking for any instances where this might occur and believe I've fixed all checkmark problems. These errors would show up as "runtime error 13, type-mismatch".
	Jan Gestel was having problems entering in Latitude and Longitude information and having the program save it and restore it properly from the INI file. I believe this was a problem centering on the use of different Regional Settings within Windows. I believe this is now fixed.
	A new and actually long standing bug was discovered by Jan Gestel. While in the setup screen, if you load a new INI file, the values from that INI file would not update on the form. They were, in fact, working in the program, they just didn't update the Setup Display. That's fixed.
	If you were cutting element sets and finally removed the last element set leaving the program empty of element sets the program got confused and crashed issuing a "runtime 9 error, subscript out of range" message. That's fixed.
	I was finding lots of element sets that contained NO common name on the internet. So, I've added in the satname.dat name substitution routines to the paste from clipboard procedures. Now, if the line immediately preceding LINE1 is blank or longer than 67 characters, EM opens satname.dat and finds a common name for the element set and substitutes it. If no name exists in the satname.dat file, the International Launch designation is used. If that isn't present in the element set then the Norad catalog number is used.
	In a related matter, if you copied just two lines (Line1 and Line2) to the clip board, the program wouldn't find the element set as it wants to find a Line0. I've fixed that.
	Peter Kirk has reported a problem with the "SaveAs" routines. He copies elements out of email, pastes them into EM. Then tries to "SaveAs" and the program reports "File Not Found"! Are any others experiencing similar errors here? His problem also uncovered another problem. If you set a folder in the Setup Screen that was empty, shutdown EM and restarted it, the program would not properly validate that empty folder. I've fixed that. EM now only checks for the presence of a directory. Previously it was searching for any file in a directory to prove the directory existed (bad programming on my part but I couldn't, at that time, figure out how to validate a directory only.

Version 1.3.1 - 24/July/1999

Minor bug fixes discovered immediately after upload of 1.3.0

Version 1.3.0 - 24/July/1999

	Felix sent an element set to SeeSat-L asking if its checksums were correct. I wanted to check this set but found it daunting to have to save his message to a text file and load that file so ... From this request the need for another feature for EM became apparent. You can now cut, copy and paste element sets into and out of Element Manager. When you select Cut or Copy to clipboard ALL element sets with checkmarks are sent to the clipboard unless NO element sets have checkmarks. In that case, the currently selected satellite's elements will be sent to the clipboard. Element sets undergo standard checks on import, without a checksum verification. But, you can easily run the checksum routines once the element sets are in the program. Element Sets exported to the clipboard undergo NO verification. EM assumes you've got good element sets active in the program.
	The clipboard routine prompted me to add the capability to select a range of satellites using the mouse. Now you can click on one satellite, Shift click on another satellite and all satellites between the two will have check marks added to them. You click on the satellite's common name to do this, NOT its associated checkbox. This leaves the ability to check and uncheck within the block of checked satellites. You can clear a range of checkmarks by clicking on the first satellite in the range and ALT-Clicking on the last satellite. All checkmarks in the range will be cleared. Or, you can toggle an individual satellite by CTRL-Clicking on its name (same as clicking on its associated check box). A satellite with a check mark will be cleared, one without a check mark will have one added. Checked satellites are now also highlighted in a different color for easier identification.
	Added a CLEAR command to the main screen file menu. This removes all active satellites from memory. I found it was needed as I was cutting and pasting from Web Sites and wanted to start numerous New Files.
	Richard Hines discovered that the Satname.dat file continues to have problems. It was cutting off the first 5 characters of the sat name when used to rename satellites. Fixed.
	You can now view the element set as it exists at the epoch of display. This is available on the Tracking Screen. I don't use SGP4 to propagate elements so, this element set is not going to be that accurate. If anyone knows of a BASIC source code of the full SGP4/SDP4 implementation let me know. I've found it in Fortran and Pascal but am uneducated in those languages and have found it very tough to translate. Perhaps I'll have to learn the rudiments of Pascal but I'd prefer not to have to go to that trouble.
	Numerous internal changes to speed processing. These changes will only yield minor speed improvements. They may have introduced bugs, so all reports are, as always, welcome.
	The program should now write a "*.bak" file each time you save active elements.

Version 1.2.9 - 17/July/1999

Ron Lee was having problems importing element sets with bad checksums while using checksum verification. Essentially, I designed that part of the program pretty badly. In previous versions, when you elected to do checksum verification, the program would find and skip any element sets that failed these checks. The problem, the user wasn't really made aware what was happening. If you had a file of 1000 element sets and one set failed, the program would load 999 element sets. But EM would NOT inform you what it had done. You would only know it had tossed an element set if you opened the input file without checksum verification, saw that it actually had 1000 elements, then tried to reload it with checksum verification on.

Well, that's all changed. Ron and others PURPOSELY load element sets with bad checksums so that they might use the program to fix them. So, now when you opt to open a file with checksum verification, the program starts to load Elements. When it first encounters a checksum failure, it opens a dialog box showing the failed set, indicating which line in the set failed and also indicating the element set's number from the input file (1st, 15th whatever). In this window there are 5 options.

Fix that one bad line only
Fix that one bad line and all subsequent checksum failures automatically.
Skip this element set (no fix, no load)
Skip ALL element sets that fail (no fixes, no loads)
Cancel Verification, stops all checking, imports this and any remaining element sets regardless of their pass/fail status regarding checksum.

Whichever option you select with the exception of cancel verification, EM keeps track of the number of failures and the number of fixes. It pops up a message box after the file has loaded indicating how many sets failed, and how many were fixed (Fixed sets do not count as failed sets). All this works from within the program too if you select checksums from the utility menu.

	Myrton Smith discovered a bug. Actually it was not a bug but bad program packaging and distribution on my part. Version 1.2.6 was compiled with VB6 Service Pack 3. I didn't realize it until recently, but that service pack came with many new DLLs and OCX files. So folks downloading 1.2.6 through 1.2.8 lite versions without downloading the full installation package may have encountered numerous behavior oddities. See the download page for instructions to bring your installation up to current specs.
	Myrton had a request. Move the Search Dialog Box so it would NOT cover up the satellites at the top of the main screen where it occasionally would obscure a satellite match. That's done. Now, that dialog box opens towards the bottom of the main screen. I also changed the default button from Find, to Find Next. This is nice because you can open the dialog (ctrl-F) type in a name, and hit the enter key and find the first match. Hitting the enter key again finds the next match. So, no moving your hands away from the keyboard. Should be faster that way for keyboard aficionados.
	Mike Rietveld discovered a bug. If you checked a satellite in the main display with your mouse, then tried to use the cursor keys, they apparently didn't function. Actually they would if you just kept pressing them to cycle through every tabbed control on the form (about 6). But most folks would (normally) never think to do that. I've trapped that problem out. Now, regardless of how you checkmark a satellite (mouse, CTRL-Click or spacebar), the cursor keys remain immediately available and active. In a related matter, previously, if you were on the orbital screen you could cursor your way forward and backward through the element. Or you could click the Next and Previous buttons. But when you clicked either the next or previous button, the cursor keys would go inactive as described above. Thanks to Mike's getting me to look into this behavior, I've mastered it and now the cursor keys remain active and immediately available on the Orbital Screen too.
	Mike Rietveld had some requests. He wanted to see more accuracy in the text output for tracked satellites. I've increased the display accuracy to 4 decimal places. He also wanted the ability to specify a fixed time (not system time) to view a satellite's location. That's added. There is a menu choice on the Tracking Screen now (Time Mode) where you can select either Real Time or Static Time. If you select Static Time a dialog opens where you can enter any date and time you wish. When you hit Set on that dialog box, EM will return to the tracking screen and plot the currently selected satellite for that time. I've called this the Static Time mode because, the program only shows a snapshot at that instant of the satellites position. It does NOT start tracking at that time. You can move your windows around, make the main screen active and cursor/click your way through the satellite list and each newly selected satellite's position will be displayed on the tracking screen at the static time selected .

Version 1.2.8 - 15/July/1999

	Ron Lee was creating some future element sets and discovered some problems with properly displaying ages of element sets. This was primarily related to near future element sets, but turned up a couple of Y2K issues. Now the program will correctly report ages of future element sets in the immediate future and across the Y2K boundary.
	Ron was also having problems with the program crashing regarding a reported invalid file or path. We haven't really resolved this fully, but it led me to incorporate an error checking routine when the "weleman.ini" file loads. Now, if there are pointers to invalid folders, the program recovers by substituting the Element Manager Folder for the bad folders and presenting a message indicating it has done so.
	New Selection criteria added - You can now select satellites by their common names. For instance, you can enter "cos", select partial match and the program will cull out all cosmos satellites.
	Previously, Control-S opened the Statistics Screen. I've changed that to now open the Selection Screen.
	The EpochTime of an element set used to be displayed in AM or PM format, now it is displayed in 24 hour format. But, this necessitated a hand written routine (there's no Windows API function to do this properly, so the format of the data in that field may conflict with other regional settings. Hover your cursor over that field and a tooltip will pop up indicating the format of the data.
	BUG - If you made selections, then cleared selections reverting to the entire file, the program would crash if you navigated around the main screen element display with cursor keys or the mouse. Fixed

Version 1.2.7 - 8/July/1999

	Richard Hines requested I implement the space bar as a way to add or remove check marks from the satellites. It's done.
	In slightly related areas, hitting the Enter key on the main screen will open the tracking screen for the currently selected satellite.
	I've tried and tried to figure out how to create context sensitive menus using the API. No luck, so I created my own. Right Click on any satellite on the Main Screen and a popup menu with a few options will appear. The problem here is you must close the popup menu. You can do that by selecting any option, that activates the option and closes the menu, or you can click close or hit the escape key.
	I've changed the radar cross section data handling. To integrate with the available visible files, I've moved the radar cross section into columns 39 through 42 on line0. This means you can import Molczan files and EM will sort on the existing radar cross section data. The program now adheres to the conventions of a 4 character radar cross section. IE: xxx or xx.x or x.xx or .xxx . So, the smaller the object, the greater the precision, where it's needed. You can still import radar cross section data from the Satellite Situation Report, but the xxxx.xxxx formatted number will be truncated.
	In the process of making the above noted radar changes I discovered that the radar.dat file was not properly updating. I think I have this fixed. Now it always ADDs new data and should never remove existing data. Previously, if you wrote out data from a small file, that small subset would replace any pre- existing data in the file.
	Somehow a bug crept into the "Satname.dat" update routines. The program was not adding new names to the file, although it would update preexisting names. I've fixed that. It will now add new names.
	Those range circle adjustments discussed for version 1.2.6 were still a little off. I've tried to fine tune them a bit more. Also, there was a bug that would crash the program. If a satellite's altitude was calculated as a negative number (high drag LEO sats with a relatively old element set) some of the trig routines for the range circles would choke on that value. That's fixed.
	You can now close just about every screen the program displays with the escape key thus making it a little easier for keyboardists to cruise the program. The one exception, the Main Screen. Most screens have a Do Something button and a cancel. If you hit ESC you are essentially doing a cancel.
	I got tired of having to manually convert Unix files into DOS format. So, if you try to load a Unix text file of elements, Element Manager will detect this, offer to backup the original file, and rewrite it in DOS format suitable for use with EM. If you give the go ahead, then the conversion process is carried out and the "new" dos text file is loaded. If you say no, you get the old warning about not finding any element sets within the file.
	Tom Isenberg discovered a bug. This is an infrequent one, but, if somehow you pointed Element Manager at a Non-existent Folder or File when opening a file, the program just crashed. It now handles the error and informs you of a missing or bad filename or folder.

Version 1.2.6 - 2/July/1999

	Packaged with VB 6 Service Pack 3. This should fix the problem of an install of the full program incorrectly placing the executable "weleman.exe" file in the default directory instead of one selected by the user during the setup procedure.
	I've changed the behavior of double clicking on a satellite on the main screen. Previously, the program opened the Orbital display, now it opens the Tracking Screen. In conjunction with this change, the "Track" button on the Main Screen has been replaced with an "Orbit" button that will take you to the "Orbital" screen.
	A BIG improvement in the navigational capabilities on the main screen. Back in November of 1998, Jay Respler suggested implementing cursor navigation within the satellites displayed on the Main Screen. I've been clawing my way up the learning curve of VB and recently discovered my knowledge base was sufficient to implement this idea. The cursor keys as well as PgUp, PgDn, Home and End will now navigate around the active element sets as expected. No more having to mouse click the scroll bar. And keyboard input can really make the program fly, in navigational terms. A proviso, if you have the tracking screen open, the cursor will move about the main screen however, it is substantially slowed down by the requirement to calculate the orbit of each newly selected satellite for display on the tracking screen.
	Cursor keys will work on the Orbital screen too. But, if you mouse click one of the command buttons (Next, Previous, etc.), you'll have to press the cursor key several times to cycle through the other command buttons before cursor movement through the Active Sats will resume. Someday I'll figure out why this happens but in the meantime, it isn't too much of a bug to be suffered for the added convenience of using the cursor keys.
	Type Ctrl-F from the Main Screen and open the search dialog box.
	Type Ctrl-T from the Main Screen and open the Tracking Screen.
	Type Ctrl-S from the Main Screen and open the Statistics Screen
	Type Ctrl-O from the Main Screen and open the Orbital View screen.
	I'm open to suggestions regarding other shortcut key combinations.
	Range Circles, Observer Circles and the Terminator now draw with scaled line width when the screen is stretched to a larger size making them more visible.
	Range Circles and Observer Circles should be slightly more accurate. However, they are still computed for a perfect sphere and thus prone to some error.