announcement: breve 1.8 betas

Hello all,
I'm pleased to announce a beta release of breve version 1.8.  This 
version
fixes a large number of bugs and introduces many new features.  The new
version is available for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows.  Windows support 
has
been greatly enhanced in this new version.

All feedback on this new beta is greatly appreciated.

The beta is available for download from:
	http://www.spiderland.org/breve/breve_beta_1.8


A full list of changes is available below.


KNOWN PROBLEMS WITH THIS BETA:
	- rendering problems with shadows on some graphics cards
	- plugins do not work with Mac OS X 10.2

New Features:
	- New "Speed" menu allows simulations to be slowed down (OS X only)
	- Basic AppleScript functionality added for loading, starting and 
stoping simulations (OS X only)
	- New plugin samples
	- Mobile shapes can be set on-the-fly (method set-shape)
	- Mobile shapes are now set by default to a simple sphere
	- Link shapes can be set on-the-fly (method set-shape)
	- Link shapes are now set by default to a simple rectangular solid
	- Standardized use of method name "set-shape" for Link and Mobile 
objects
	- Joint rescaling now works even when there is no parent link
	- Added joint hard-limits to all joint types (method set-joint-limits)
	- Terrains can be scaled to other sizes (method set-scale)
	- Automatic stacktrace after runtime errors
	- Documentation updated
	- Improved responsiveness when draw-every-frame is disabled (as in the 
DLA demo)
	- Vector elements can now be assigned using the "::" notation 
(myVector::x = 10)
	- "{ }" is now parsed as an empty list
	- Transparency can now be used with all Real objects (method 
set-transparency)
	- Shadows on spheres are no longer hideous
	- Display text can be scaled; is scaled automatically when the window 
resizes
	- Display text is anti-aliased
	- Cubes, Spheres and other shapes are now independent subclasses of 
Shape
	- Object dependencies can now be removed (method remove-dependency)
	- All XML archive/object loading now searches the full file path
	- The File class now uses the user-specified output directory
	- The File class now searches the entire breve search path to locate 
files to open

Bug Fixes:
	- set-force (Link.tz) now adds persistent force
	- Added correct simulation time to dearchived simulations
	- Writing to an uninitialized File object no longer crashes
	- Bug fix in set-rotation method of Mobile.tz
	- The method "read-line" in class File now removes the terminating 
newline character
	- Fixed bug loading plugins with linux
	- Fixed a number of terrain related bugs
	- Fixed bug returning values from within for and while loops fixed
	- Fixed missing scheduled events for dearchived simulations
	- Fixed a potential crash while dearchiving multibody objects
	- Fixed a potential crash in "check-for-penetrations"
	- Fixed weirdness in syntax-coloring of strings
	- Fixed occasional incorrect line number in error reporting
	- Fixed bug reading image files on Windows platform
	- Fixed invisible/miscolored terrain bugs
	- Fixed terrain get-height bug



Thanks,
jon klein

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