S. Thomas has just sent me the X, Y and Z family, so now,this new version of JSesh has a complete coverage of the Manuel de Codage (save a few signs which will be added later).

I deemed the event noteworthy enough to warrant an increase in the version number, so this is JSesh 3.0.

Windows Seven user : please have a look at http://jsesh.qenherkhopeshef.org/download for informations about installing JSesh.

Version 2.13.7 replaces version 2.13.5. It fixes a small (but annoying, especially for people involved in the late period :)) bug in the rendering of the W1 sign.

About 2.13.5:

It fixes a problem in 2.13 for "old" Mac OS X machines (in this particular instance of reality, "old" means something like two years old).

I had accidentally used features of Java 1.6, which is only supported by Mac OS X Leopard, and JSesh would not start on the older systems. I have corrected the problem - and JSesh should run on Mac from Panther to Leopard again.

I have taken advantage of this release to include new signs:

• S. J. P. Thomas has sent me the complete Aa family. So the only incomplete families now are X, Y and Z.

• I had made a poor choice for sign D45 (ḏsr). The new sign is closer to the usual shape of the hieroglyph:

General 2.13 version features (already in 2.13.3 and 2.13.0)

• S. J. P. Thomas have sent me a nice complement for the "K" family, which is now complete.

• Ff4 sign : the "hear with hair" variant of F21 is available.

• huge improvement in the rendering of editorial parenthesis ([..], {..}, etc...) The size of the parenthesis is now computed from their environment. That is, [[*p*]]*t:pt should display reasonably well. There might be a number of small problems with old Tksesh files. I'll fix this later.

• features to support the MacScribe-to-JSesh converter: short bits of texts can be manipulated as glyphs. They are encoded between ".." in the Manuel de Codage encoding (there is no user interface for this feature yet).

  Individual signs can be shaded with the \shading modifier. Example : t:A\shading12 will have the top of the aleph sign shaded, but not the "t". There is no user interface for this feature yet.

• a few bug fixes (quarter-shading symbols where incorrectly saved, for instance).

• PDF cut and paste on mac is now much faster (I have removed a large bunch of useless slow code there)

Version 2.13.3 of JSesh is out!

(bug fix for 2.13.2)

New features:

• S. J. P. Thomas have sent me a nice complement for the "K" family, which is now complete.

• Ff4 sign : the "hear with hair" variant of F21 is available.

• huge improvement in the rendering of editorial parenthesis ([..], {..}, etc...) The size of the parenthesis is now computed from their environment. That is, [[*p*]]*t:pt should display reasonably well. There might be a number of small problems with old Tksesh files. I'll fix this later.

• features to support the MacScribe-to-JSesh converter: short bits of texts can be manipulated as glyphs. They are encoded between ".." in the Manuel de Codage encoding (there is no user interface for this feature yet).

  Individual signs can be shaded with the \shading modifier. Example : t:A\shading12 will have the top of the aleph sign shaded, but not the "t". There is no user interface for this feature yet.

• a few bug fixes (quarter-shading symbols where incorrectly saved, for instance).

• PDF cut and paste on mac is now much faster (I have removed a large bunch of useless slow code there)

This version corrects a bug which appeared on a particular Mac. JSesh refused to lauch, displaying the "owl" icon forever. If you haven't problems, you can keep using 2.12.0.

In general, users who experience problems with JSesh are warmly invited to send a mail to the author.
Bug reports are very useful for me, and I get very few of them (it might be that JSesh has few bugs, of course :-)).

Oh, still in the mac realm, I have reverted to the old menu system (menus are integrated in the application
window, and not in the mac menubar). Older macintoshes (especially those with little memory) have difficulties displaying the hieroglyphic menu when it's a real mac menu. Eventually, I will allow the user to choose between the two menu systems, but for now, I keep using the one which runs well on all machines.

A few days after 2.11, comes 2.12.

• This new release offers a feature many people have asked for : shading made with lines. This is, of course, optional and it can be turned off.

• Plus, you will get the complete "W" family for glyphs.

Shading/Hatching with lines

• a small remark : the problem when shading with lines is to avoid gaps and leaps between two quadrant. Normally, all shadings made by my current systems are aligned. Now, this only work if the whole text is seen as a single picture. So, you will currently see imperfections in shading with :

  • the screen output (except at large sizes). To speed up screen drawing, I store the drawing of individual groups, and copy them. It's rather efficient, but it makes it a bit difficult to get the right alignment then (I used to suppose that two groups like A#1234 look exactly the same, which is true with the old shading system, and false with the new).

  • Some copy and paste formats, if you chose "one picture per cadrat".

  • PDF files when "respect text layout" is not checked.

JSesh version 2.11.5 brings a number of new features :

• S. Thomas has sent me complete families for T, U, V... only five more, and JSesh will have an (almost) complete coverage of the manuel de codage.

• Better menus for complex shadings (does not change JSesh capabilities, but makes them easier to use)..

  Press the '#' key, and you will get a contextual menu offering shading options. Partial shading can be applied to a whole selection.

• In some cases, you can not only copy data from JSesh, but also paste data to JSesh !

  This means you can type a text in Mellel or openoffice, and paste back some hieroglyphic texts into JSesh.

  Now, this only works with some picture formats and some word processors. A conspicuous absentee is MS/Word (at least Word 2008 on mac). The reason for this is that I hide the Manuel de codage encoding for the pictures in a comment. Now, Word transforms the pictures and the comment is lost. Mellel or Neooffice keep the picture intact.

You can read some documentation on this release.

Linux users I suggest you download version 2.11.6 instead. It contains a fix for a bug in OpenOffice on linux. In every other aspects, 2.11.6 is the same as 2.11.5, so Mac and Window users can keep downloading 2.11.5.

• new families from S. Thomas : P, Q, R and S families are now complete
• use of the Quaqua library on the mac : better look and feel (and, at last, a sensible folder selector).
• lots of work done for the IFAO :
  • PDF copy/paste now available on the Mac. As far as I know, works with Word 2008 but not with Word 2004, nor with Openoffice/NeoOffice.
  • Wysiwyg PDF option for PDF file save. Note that currently, the available layout options are a bit limited. The JSesh layout algorithm has no idea of the page size, and hence the result might not be what you want. I'll fix this, but meanwhile I would suggest using SVG when a fine and controlled output is needed.
  • The PDF files use correct CMYK black colour (important for printing workshop)
  • Document preferences are now saved: line, column, small signs centered...
  • cartouche line width is also saved as a software option.
  • JSesh can use a separate set of signs for small glyphs drawn in a small scale
  • shading symbols are available as signs from the menus (they were understood by JSesh from day one, but I didn't think it was interesting to use them. However, If used in conjunction with groups, they allow specific shading to be edited.
  • Square brackets and shading signs are now selectable in the group editor (note that in the future, I indend bracket to scale automatically according to their surrounding, and I will also add sign shading).
  • new drawings for ecdotic marks

Improvements in the Group Editor

• New families from S. Thomas : "M" and "O" families are now complete.

• Improved palette. I need to write a documentation, but you can now combine searches, e.g:

  • you can find signs in the "A" family which are both "armed" and "seated"
  • you can filter the displayed signs to find one which contains a given glyph.

• I have entered some data about glyphs to ease searches for some families. Basic information is now available for "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F" and "G" families. Families "B" and "C" are fully functionnal as far as the "palette" is concerned.

• It is now possible to use Window's "Enhanced Metafile" format for exporting graphics from JSesh, both as a files and in cut and paste. Beware: Mac OS X has only a partial support of EMF, so EMF exports are probably not a good idea on the Mac, nor if you want to send a word file to a mac user.

* IMPORTANT BUG FIX: the scale used in "edited groups" was wrong since august 2008 (I typed 10000 instead of 1000 when cleaning up the drawingSpecification system). Old groups did not print well as a result of this. Of course, with this bug fix,
you will need to re-arrange groups in text written with the faulty systems.
* Usability improvement: cut and paste of right-to-left text or text in column did give strange results with the default settings. I have fixed this, and introduced a new option in the preferences: "respect layout", which is "on" by default. When it's "off", JSesh uses left-to-right text. A new "copy" mode has been introduced: wysiwyg. Note that right-to-left cut and paste will probably be improved at some time, because the left-to-right default is not very "international" (it doesn't mix well with arabic or hebrew texts, for instance).
* And, once more, a whole new family of font have been updated. JSesh has now a complete "N" family from S. Thomas. I have also worked on the glyphs description, and the "man and its occupation" family is on its way. More to come

While I'm saying this, I will add that JSesh includes a tool to describe glyphs, which can be found in the "bin" folder. Anyone with a reasonable knowledge of hieroglyphs can help... The glyph description data can only be created "by hand", and it takes time. It's also a task that can be easily shared by many people. So, consider this as a call to volunteers :)

This version fixes a problem with cut and paste which occurred at least in the latest updates of Word for Mac 2004: the hieroglyphs ended up way too large.

Besides, there is again a number of new families from S. Thomas: The "D" and "I" families are complete now.
(Hence JSesh has now an almost complete coverage for the families : A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L).