What's New Spring 2009

In Spring 2009 Web Hexrod is being "rehosted" from a web server at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where I work to a private web hosting site. It's hard to believe Hexrod has been running on the same web server since December 1996.

There are not really too many changes, at least on the surface. Most of them are "under the hood" in the way that user's private libraries work and how data is stored and passed around.

These are the changes that will affect users:

• At the request of our Italian friends, there is now an option to use the comma as the decimal separator. This affects both input of dimensions and other numbers, and output.

  When I transfer rods from the old site user library to the new, I am setting the decimal separator to what I think is the correct value based on each user's email name. So all those with email addresses ending in '.it' or '.fr', for instance, are set to 'Comma'.

  To change the decimal separator on rods saved in your library, if they are not correct, you will have to open them up, then change the setting on the Modify Fundamentals screen.

• Design reports, planing form settings etc. now report rod dimensions at the ferrule stations two ways : flat-to-flat (or flat-to-apex for pentas), as before, and outside the apexes. What geometry books call the "incircle" and the "circumcircle".
• The name of your private library can include any characters. As before, library names are case-sensitive.
• The name of rods saved in your private library can include any characters. As before, rod names are case-sensitive.
• There is no more option for a 3-day save of a rod. If you want to save a rod you have to use a library.
• There is an option when saving to make the rod available in a library called Commons. Rods in Commons are can be called up by anyone. This is how Commons works:
  • Rods saved to Commons can be accessed by anyone by entering the rod library "Commons" (with a capital-C) on the Retrieve box. All rods in Commons will be displayed sorted by date, with the rod's owner and a retrieve button.
  • You cannot modify a rod in Commons (unless you are the owner) but you can make a copy in your own library for your own use or modification.
• Cookies will retain your rod library name and decimal separator options if you work on the same computer.
• A rod you are working on will expire and disappear after 3 days if your web browser session is inactive.

Under the hood, all rods are now being stored in MySQL database tables. This allows more flexibility for future upgrades.