Analytica 4.0 beta Release Notes

Revision as of 17:11, 15 May 2007 by Lchrisman (talk | contribs)

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The following Release Notes apply to Build 4.0.0.42.

Installation Notes

  • You can install Analytica 4.0 beta while retaining an existing Analytica 3.1. Both can co-exist. After installing 4.0, the .ana file extension and OLE linking will use Analytica 4.0. So, a double-click on a model will run it in 4.0. If you want to run a model with 3.1, start up Analytica 3.1, and use the Open Model.. option from the File menu to select the model.
  • After installing 4.0, if you uninstall Analytica 3.0 or 3.1 it will wipe out the 4.0 registry tree. So, you will need to re-run the 4.0 installer.

Using Models from Analytica 3.1

Most models created in Analyica 3.1 should load and evaluate fine in 4.0. We hope beta testers will check that 4.0 works and gives the same results as 3.1 (unless there is a good reason why they should be different). There are two areas where you should expect results to be different:

  • Graphing: Some Graph Setup settings will not transfer to 4.0, because 4.0 offers different (and much richer) graphing options. For example, settings for axis ranges in 4.0 may attach to the Index rather than the graph. So, expect to do some tweaking of graphs -- and to enjoy the newoptions.
  • Multiplication of 0*NaN and 0*INF: Analytica 4.0 supports the IEEE 754 Binary Floating Point Arithmetic standard, so that 0*NaN or 0*INF return NaN. In 3.1, the result was zero. If your model took advantage of the old behavior to zero out NaNs or INFs, you may find many NaNs or Nulls in downstream results that were not there in 3.1. If you check Show result warnings in the Preference dialog, it will give a warning if your model relies on the old behavior, and help pinpoint where this occurrs.

See Changes in 4.0 that could impact 3.x models for a more comprehensive list.

Not Working

  • Printing and Print Preview are not working well. We advise not printing for now, and we do not need you to report bugs related to printing or previewing at this time.
  • There may be some problems saving models in XML format, especially related to system variable settings. For important stuff, it is safest to stick with the default Analytica file format for now.
  • Crash-recovery does not correctly recover "Add Linked Module" actions. Some problems after "Add Module". OLE links are not re-established. In the later two cases, saving the model after crash recovery, then reloading should fix. It is best to save after adding module or adding library, rather than relying on crash recovery.


Changes in 4.0.0.43

(since 4.0.0.42)

Refer to the links at the bottom for notes on previously released beta builds.

User-Interface

  • Fixed a critical GDI leak present in 4.0.0.42 that would cause windows (in all applications) to stop fully rendering after using Analytica for a period of time.
  • Added accelerator keys for Diagram->Align and Diagram->Make Same Size actions, and exposed these on the mouse right button menu.
  • Fields on the object window (like description, definition) now adjust to the width of the window when the window is resized (rather than having a fixed width). This makes it possible to view wider definitions more conveniently.
  • Values of inputs show up in object window's input list when Object->Show with Values is checked.

Typescript

  • Several fixes/extensions to "Open [Diagram | Object | Definition | Result | Table ] ident". For example, Open Object Mo1 can now be used to open the object window for module, which wasn't allowed before.

Engine

  • CumDist(P,R,I): We recommend you use the third index parameter, even though it is optional. Some cases where I is omitted are not backward compatible with with 4.0.0.42 or 4.0.0.43. I few of these were remedied in 4.0.0.43, but the full backward compatible fix will be in 4.0.0.44. If you run into this, add the third parameter (which is recommended anyway, since without it, your expression might not array abstract if you add a dimension to your model later).

Previous Beta Builds

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