HAL's Race Results Bulletin 6 of 2009
After the summer lull, it is time to issue another bulletin to keep you up
to date on developments in HAL's Race Results.
The latest version (9.20) of HAL Mk.2 has been on the web site for some time.
If you have not already done so, you can download it
here.
There are no new features, but it does seem finally to
have fixed the bug that occurred when you altered a level race result. This
manifested itself as other places sometimes being swapped when you moved a boat
from one finishing place to another. (The bug never affected handicap races,
where you enter a finishing time.)
If you currently use any version less than 9.20 (you can see the version on
the Help / About screen) I advise you to upgrade to 9.20 now.
I now have
a beta distribution of version 9.21 ready for you to test, if you wish. The
new features are:
- Race officers need to log in before entering results.
No password is required, but they are asked to give their name and the wind
conditions. These are copied into the details of the races they select.
- I have changed the green popup that appears on the
result entry screen when a race officer types a sail number (or bow
number, or any other means of identifying a boat). The current popup
appears for a fraction of a second and then disappears, but some users
fail to notice
it in time and continue to type
the remaining digits of the sail number, which are then treated by the
program as the beginning of the time or place. The new popup requires the
user to acknowledge it by pressing enter, or by clicking an OK button, before
entering the result.
- I have added a progress bar to the Race Schedule page
so that you can step through the series in their starting order, as well
as selecting them by class and series name.
I would greatly appreciate feedback on these new features before I release them
officially. You can download the beta version of 9.21
here.
There has been no change to HAL Mk.1, which is
still available
and which I will continue to support for at least another year.
I am also working on a
revised web
site and would welcome comments.
Happy sailing,
Peter Hopford
HAL's Race Results