I am excited to introduce version 2.00 of Model Railroad Switch List And Manifest Formatter (MR SLAM Formatter). The continued development of this program is driven by user feedback. Version 2.00 makes the sixth program release of 2023, with most program changes based on feedback from users. On April 10, 2023 I posted version 1.14-beta of MR SLAM Formatter to the website, a minor update based on requests from users. I didn’t advertise the release as I considered it a test release, hence the -beta name. I notified 19 users that I had their email info so that they could test it. The plan was to release a final version of 1.14 once I got feedback from the testers.
I got some good responses from the testers (many thanks to them), but while incorporating their ideas, I came up with some additional ideas of my own. One thing lead to another and here we are with a much larger release than originally intended. Because of the scope of this update I decided to jump the version number up to 2.00. As version 1.13 is the last full release, the list below highlights changes since that release.
New Features in version 2.00
- Implemented an option called “Auto Fit Field Text” in the car and locomotive preferences windows. When enabled the program reads your csv file, determines the maximum width of each car and/or locomotive field to be displayed and sets the width of the displayed column to support the data. This setting overrides the user selected column widths. See manual section IX – N Auto Fit Field Text for details of this exciting new option.
- Modified the code to optimize use of the space on a line by using the actual width of the text to be displayed instead of the number of characters. Even without using the Auto Fit Field Text option this results in less wasted space, meaning you can display more information on a line.
- Implemented the JMRI “TRUN” option that suppresses car data on a manifest when a switch list has been created for a location. I extended the TRUN functionality to include 3 modes; JMRI equivalent, suppress PU lines only, & completely suppress printing car data on the manifest. For more information see manual section VIII – AG.
- Added the option for manifest & switch lists to be printed with borders. See manual sections VIII-AH and VIII – AP. Note in version 1.14.08-beta this option was called “tabulate”. It is now called “Borders”
- Added new coding to detect and flag duplicate train entries in a switch list to flag switch lists built in consolidation mode without resetting the switch list prior to building trains. See manual section VI – JMRI Operations Tips for more information.
- Added an announcement window that opens the first time the program launches. This window will contain information about the new program version. See manual section VII – MR SLAM Formatter Operation for more information.
- The program on startup checks the age of the program file on your computer and, if it is older than 90 days, prompts you to check the website for an updated version. See the end of manual section VII – MR SLAM Formatter Operation for more information.
- At the request of user Michael P, added option in the car preferences window to suppress the “util. Car” message printed in the number field for utility cars. See manual section IX – M Suppress Utility Car Message for more information.
- At the request of user Mats H, I extended the range of usable characters to include extended characters like Æ, Ø, Å, and ä .
- At the request of user Michael G. I added an option to select the number of blank lines between consecutive no work locations in a manifest. See manual section VIII-AF for more information.
Bug Fixes
- The general preference setting “truncate text on -(“ has been renamed “Enable JMRI OperationsPro hyphen text”. The coding that manages field names containing a hyphen has been revised to more closely mimic JMRI OperationsPro. See manual section VIII S Enable JMRI OperationsPro hyphen text for more information.
- For international users, I fixed a bug where the program reads the file version from the preferences files and expected a period as the decimal separator. Now the program should handle the comma decimal separator without issue. International users are urged to email me at mrslamf21@gmail.com to report both good and poor behavior by the program.
I hope you enjoy this new version of MR SLAM Formatter. I look forward to hearing form users about their experiences with the program and suggestions for improvement. Email me at mrslamf21@gmail.com.
Tim
May 31, 2023