New release of VCAL

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Text COM:2384594 (179 lines)

Markandeya Rishi (das) HKS (Karlstad - S)

09-Jun-99 02:11

(Vaisnava) Calendar [21]

Comment: Text COM:2385972 by Sindhu-priya (das) BVS (Rijeka - HR)

Attached: vcal401.zip (199468 bytes) "It is important to download this

file"

New release of VCAL

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Dear devotees, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila

Prabhupada!

 

I have recieved reports of errors in the calendars that were produced by

VCAL 4.00. I have now found the problem.

 

The problem was that the town file, containing longitude and latitude etc.

had unfortunately become corrupted. Because of this some dates in the

calendars become wrong. I sincerely apologize for this mistake.

 

For this reason a new version is now released. I do not simply release a new

town file since then one can by mistake use the old town file. So instead I

made a new version of the program that does not accept old town files, to

avoid that problem.

 

Please download the new version from the file area of this "(Vaisnava)

Calendar" conference and make sure you do not use the old program (version

4.00).

 

The file to download is called vcal401.zip and it is also attached to this

text for your convenience.

 

The file is also available at the following two sites on the Internet:

 

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Cyprus/3108/

 

(also reachable through get.to/calendar )

 

and

 

http://www.iskcon.org/calendar

 

 

Plase also read the following Questions and Answers regarding this release.

 

Your humble servant,

Markandeya Rishi das

 

 

 

Questions and Answers for the release of

version 4.01 of the Vaisnava calendar program

 

 

Q: Do I have to change to the new version (4.01)?

 

A: Yes, you should definitely change to the new version. The town file

(vcal.tow, containing longitudes and latitudes etc.) that was included with

the previous release (version 4.00), was unfortunately corrupted. Because of

this some dates in the

calendars become wrong. I sincerely apologize for this

mistake.

 

To make sure that users do not by mistake use such an old town file, I had

to make this new release (version 4.01) of the program which refuses to use

old town files.

 

So if you use version 4.01 you know that the calendars

produced do not have this problem.

 

 

 

 

Q: The printout of my calendar produced by the old program

(version 4.00) shows the right longitude and latitude. Does it mean that my

calendar is correct after all? Can I use it?

 

A: No, unfortunately it is not that simple. Even if the calendar

shows the right longitude and latitude it most probably still

has this problem.

 

The reason is that inside the town file, the coordinates were

stored in two ways - in the ASCII and in the binary way. The

ASCII storage was intact and that is what you see printed on

the calendar. The binary storage was corrupted and that is

what the calculation of the calendar is based on. (The new

town file uses only one way, the binary way.)

 

 

 

 

Q: If I get the new version (4.01), is there then a risk that my

new proper town file can become corrupted in the same way as

the one which was released in version 4.00?

 

A: No. The corruption was not caused by the Vaisnava calendar

program. It was caused by another program which only I have

(and which has now been corrected).

 

 

 

 

Q: If I just look at the print out of a calendar, how do I know

if it is produced by the new version (4.01)?

 

A: The version number of the program will be written to the

calendars. The text "Vcal 4.01" will be found in the top right corner of

each page of the calendars produced by this version.

 

 

 

 

Q: Has this problem been there already earlier in previous years

in the calendars that you mailed out or that could be

downloaded from Com and the Internet?

 

A: No. This problem is limited to the calendars based on that

particular corrupted town file included in the version 4.00

release.

 

All calendars mailed out throughout the years, and all

calendars that could (and still can) be downloaded from Com

and from the Internet are based on proper town files and do

not have this problem.

 

 

 

 

Q: How often does the town file included in the previous version

(4.00) produce wrong dates? And what about the period for

breaking of ekadasi fast?

 

A: It depends on which town we speak about, but for an "average

town" approximately 4-5% of the dates will be wrong. Looking

at only ekadasis this means about 1 ekadasi per year.

 

The period for breaking of ekadasi fast is also affected by

this problem but I have not made a closer investigation of

that.

 

It may be interesting to compare the 1 ekadasi per year figure mentioned

above to the error rate of the old calendar that ISKCON used before the

computerized calendar was created. At

that time we used the Mayapur (actually Calcutta) calendar all over the

world.

 

That Calcutta calendar was calculated with old, not very

accurate formulas, so it had errors even if you only used it

in Calcutta, and even more "errors" if you used it in other

parts of the world, which we did.

 

The below text is a quote from the documentation of the

Vaisnava calendar program. It shows how the calcutta calendar

had 2 ekadasis wrong in the year 1989. I would say that it was a rather

typical error rate for that calendar.

 

 

"The computer calendar made for Calcutta has been compared to the calendar

provided by the Gaudiya Math. There where differences but after consulting

the Lahiris ephemeris it

was always clear that the computer calendar was right and

the Gaudiya Math calendar wrong in case of difference.

When comparing the ekadasis in the 1989 calendars, such

errors in the Gaudiya Math calendar were found at 11:th of September and

9:th of November. These two ekadasis should actually be observed the 12:th

of September and 10:th of

November respectively."

 

 

 

 

Q: Can a new town file be used together with the old version

(4.00) of the program?

 

A: Not really. But, yes, from a very technical point of view,

because the 4.00 version of the program does not check which

version of the town file it uses. This is because the system

of having a version number on the town file was introduced in

the new version (4.01).

 

But instead of the longitude and latitude being written to the calendar the

word Error and 02 will be written there. "Error" is used to indicate that

something is wrong, i.e. one should

not use the old version of the program, but instead change to

a newer version. "02" is the version number of the town file.

 

But technically speaking the dates in such a calendar will be

correct. There is no reason though to use the old version of

the program, it only increases the risk for mistakes.

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