NMRViewJ 8.0 (alpha 1) is now available

[Bruce Johnson <nmrview@xxxxxxx>]

So many improvements and some strategic changes, I've decided to bump  
the major version number all the way to 8.  In brief changes are:

A new version of Swank, our GUI toolkit.
	We've gone over it with a fine-tooth comb and eliminated, as far as  
we can tell, all funky threading issues where we were doing bad,  
things (that's all technical talk for "we've made it much better, and  
I'm very happy with it now").   (There remains one potential  
threading issue with the "Datasets Table" in 8.0a1, we'll fix that  
soon).
	We've (as far as we can tell) dramatically improved Swank's  
performance.  Windows pop up much more snappily now.
	It now supports "always on top", so we can specify certain windows  
to remain above others.  In NvJ 8.0a1, we've made, as a test, the  
spectrum attributes and cross-hair monitor windows stay on top  
(feedback welcomed on whether having the spec attributes window .
	

Performance improvements (aside from Swank improvements mentioned  
above).
     Contouring is about 2X faster, Peak Picking is about 4X  
faster.  8.0a1 picks (on my MacBook Proc) a 64Mb hncacb in about 300  
ms, which seems pretty fast to me.  Drawing the same dataset takes  
about 700 ms.  These will get even faster as we a) take advantage of  
multi-core, multi-processor computers,  b) enable drawing via OpenGL,  
and c) do further code optimization.

      We now precompile some of the Tcl scripts in nvtclJ (like ones  
for peak analysis). These get compiled to Java, and then compiled to  
Java byte codes.  Sounds complex (and it is) but it's easy to do now,  
seems to work flawlessly, and the scripts should often run as fast or  
faster than Tcl in C.  We'll be providing more details on how users  
can do this themselves  later.

More preconfigured key bindings.
	Control-Up, Control-Down, now raise lower contour levels.
	Shift-Up, Shift-Down, Shift-Left, Shift-Right flip the orientation  
of 3D, 4D plots.  This allows you to rapidly see a peak from all sides.
        8.0a2 will have many of the bindings that people commonly  
set up ("e" for expand, "f" full).  I meant to put these in 8.0a1,  
but somehow I forgot.
        Hold down the Alt button, click the mouse to position the  
crosshair at a peak.  The window will zoom in to the area around the  
cursor (it does this by positioning the crosshairs and doing an  
"nv_win expand" so you can use "Previous" to jump back.

Help System:
	We've now enabled Swank to display help info using "JavaHelp".  This  
will allow us to provide an integratd help system a built-in browser,  
searching, context sensitive help (click the help key on a window and  
get help on that window, click a "?" cursor on an individual button,  
menu, label etc and get help on it).  We've got the technology all in  
place, and 8.0a1 now uses (from the Help Menu) JavaHelp to display  
the help.  As we continue work on the actual documentation we'll be  
adding appropriate customized sections for the context sensitive  
help, and generate distinct versions of the documentation appropriate  
to the online and print formats.

New Bug Tracking System:
    We've switched from our own home-grown system to FogBugz, a  
commercial system.  You can submit bugs, we can track them, you'll  
get email notifications, we can integrate it with our source code  
control system etc.  It also has an integrated discussion system that  
allows you to add and discuss bugs and feature request, we can then  
shift discussion items into our tracking system so we don't lose  
track of them.  From now on, if you email me a bug or feature  
request, I will probably email you back and tell you to submit it to  
FogBugz.  This seems the only way we'll be able to reliably keep  
track of bugs/feature requests (that said, I still like to get email  
about NvJ, it's just that if it is a specific bug/feature request,  
please do it through FogBugz)

	You can enter a bug/feature request at:
    		https://onemoonsci.fogbugz.com/default.asp?pg=pgPublicEdit
        You can email bugs to:
               cases@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
         You can post bugs/feature requests and discuss them at:  (I  
think that generally this will be the best way)
               https://onemoonsci.fogbugz.com/default.asp? 
pg=pgDiscussGroups

        Note:  the existing NMRView Forum site ( http:// 
www.onemoonscientific.com:3455/2/37 ), will still be active as a  
place for users to contribute scripts and tips:


Version Numbering
	You'll now see numbers like:
                 8.0a1, 8.0a2 (alpha versions, no testing by anyone  
but ourselves, features will be added/changed, probably shouldn't be  
released, but you all always want new things yesterday.
                8.0b1, 8.0b2 ... (beta versions, more testing done  
by external users, no more features to be added for this version(8.0).
                8.0  Final release.

New features that are in progress for 8.0 are side chain assignments  
in RunAbout and improved NOE assignment tools (possibly integrated  
into RunAbout).

There's more new stuff and bug fixes that I'll be detailing shortly,  
but my fingers are tiring, and Orin (our Seeing Eye puppy) wants a walk.

Finally, with the transition to 8.0 we'll be making a push to get  
sites that are able, to contribute financially to NvJ development.   
This has been strongly encouraged by the NMRView Scientific Advisory  
Board.  More details on this, and our incentives for those who  
contribute, will be coming soon.

cheers,

Bruce