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TNT Products V6.8
April 2003

Table of Contents

Introduction

Editorial and Associated News [by Dr. Lee D. Miller, President]

Dichotomies in Geospatial Analysis.

“Spatial Logic?”
PDAs versus Tablet PCs.
Error Management.

New Error Management System

Easier Patching.

Product Licenses

Linux

Mac OS X

Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar).
X11 Public Beta 3.
Printer Control.

Equipment

Evolution of Software Distribution Media.
Mounting Multiple Monitors.
Tablet PCs.
Graphics Cards.

X Server (alias MI/X 4.0)

Rootless (which means, Windows Desktop) Mode.
OpenGL.
Render Extension.
Font Server.
X11R6.6.

TNTlite® RV6.8

Required Activation Code.

TNTsim3D™ for Windows

Introduction.
Distributing a Geosimulation.
Smaller Landscape Files.
Combine Different Kinds of Terrains.
Billboard and Stalk Overlays.
Volumes-of-Interest.
3D Polygons.
Layer Controls.
Map View Locator Gadgets.
Miscellaneous.
Patching.
Landscape Builder.
Available Now in TNT Development Version.
Sample Landscape Files.

TNTatlas® RV6.8

TNTatlas.
No Logo.
Miscellaneous.

TNTserver 3.0

Using JP2 Compression.
Serving JP2 Views.
JPEG Versus JPEG2000 Views.

TNTclients

TNTview® RV6.8

New Feature Summary.
Upgrading TNTview.
Installed Sizes.

TNTedit™ RV6.8

Oracle Spatial Import and Export.
Periodic Automatic Backups.
Interoperation of Tools.
Miscellaneous.
Inherited New Features.
Upgrading TNTedit.
Installed Sizes.

Tutorial and Reference Booklets

New Booklets Available.
Expanded Booklets.
Translated Booklets.
Tutorial Revision Plans.

New TNTmips Features

System Level Changes.
2D Geospatial Display.
3D Geospatial Display.
Management of Vector Styles.
Virtual (Computed) Database Fields.
* Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC).
Landscape Builder.
Map Projections and Coordinate Systems.
Raster Extract/Copy.
Raster Import.
Raster Export.
Vector Import/Export.
Automatic Import/Export Testing.
* Oracle Spatial Layer Import and Export.
Vector to Raster Conversion.
Vector Warping.
Convert Regions to Vector Polygons.
Directional Analysis.
Georeferencing.
Fourier Frequency Filtering.
Mosaicking.
Map Calculator.
Transfer Attributes.
* Spatial Data Editor.
Vector Filters.
* Text Layer Controls.
Map Layouts.
Spatial Manipulation Language (SML).
Upgrading TNTmips.
Installed Sizes.

Internationalization and Localization

Operating Languages.

MicroImages Authorized Resellers

Pakistan.
Spain.
USA.
Zimbabwe.

Discontinued Resellers

Australia.
Canada.
Ecuador.
Germany.
Latvia.
Nigeria.
Panama.
Peru.
USA, CA.
USA, CO.
USA, SC.
USA, WA.

Appendix: Abbreviations

Attached Color Plates

Introduction

MicroImages in its 17th year in business is pleased to distribute RV6.8 of the TNT products. This is the 53rd release of TNTmips and adds 190 new features submitted by clients and MicroImages. What follows is a brief introduction of the most significant of these new capabilities.

The interface components used throughout the TNT products to create and assign styles for vector elements have been rewritten to streamline them and add requested features. The design for a new, faster and higher quality 3D rendering model is being introduced. Cartographic features continue to be added to create professionally designed maps and image maps. Import and export of Oracle Spatial tables now permit TNTmips and TNTedit to be used to prepare or alter these tabular graphics. ODBC support has been improved and permits easier and faster access and exchange of tabular data with Oracle, SQL Server 2000, Access, and other external database systems. The Spatial Data Editor has received much attention but represents a very complex piece of software. It now provides auto-backup features to protect your work. The free TNTsim3D geopublishing tool has many new features to improve the real time presentation/publishing of your geospatial results. You asked for a means to connect actions in TNTview to Visual Basic programs, and this is available via SML. And, to keep all this running smoothly, the error management and patching scheme suggested by several has been instigated.

In this release several subtle refinements are being released, such as line densification for scale and projection changes with corresponding changes in vector sizes. Virtual fields can now be defined between element types for routing and monitoring dynamic systems and bringing GIS topology to bear where CAD data structures do not work.

• 2D Displays: Multiple views can be geolocked at different view scales so that zooming in one auto zooms the others by the same amount (for example, use synoptic and detailed views). During panning the smaller scale synoptic view will auto pan to recenter on the larger detailed view if any part of it is panned outside the synoptic view.
• 3D Displays: A third and high quality static perspective model is being released for rendering poster sized 3D rasters or in layouts. It renders a composite multi-layer 3D as fast as the other available models (ray tracing and dense triangulation, which also have minor improvements). It uses a game oriented triangulation server to compute the terrain from the DEM and render it using either the DirectX or OpenGL via the display board’s graphics chip. The surface layers or textures are also draped over this model using DirectX or OpenGL.
  A new texture server is used to resample all the texture layers selected with a choice of 6 different optional antialiasing and smoothing methods. Choose nearest neighbor or bilinear convolution for maximum rendering speed. Choose full anisotropic mipmapping for maximum quality. It computes the distance and perspective angle to the surface for each texel (which means, screen pixel). It then locates and computes the color of each screen pixel using its distance to interpolate between the average of multiple cells in two small linear arrays each oriented in the direction of view in the two bracketing pyramid layers.
• Style Editor: The Style Editor and its interface have been rewritten to improve their ease of use and add a variety of new style features. Point symbols can now contain embedded characters (glyphs) from any language or symbol font. CAD blocks can be converted to point symbols. A design scale can be specified for scaling all elements and styles in a group.
• Style Assignment: Style assignment has a new dialog design. Styles can be assigned to elements with a single mouse selection click. Style assignments can be undone. Samples are shown for each available style. Styles that have been changed are highlighted.
• Interactive Styling Text Layer Controls: The TNT Text Layer Controls used in all processes including the creation and editing of text blocks for maps now integrates text editing into a single dialog and shows the text elements in the assigned styles. Using markup codes is no longer necessary but still available. All languages are supported including 2-byte Unicode languages, such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. Even cursive-like languages, such as Arabic, can be styled and viewed in this fashion and mixed in the text. All characters, especially special characters and glyphs, in the 2-byte font can be viewed in a scrolling window and selected by the mouse for insertion into the text stream in the editor.
• Personal Color Palettes: As many personal color palettes as required can now be defined in simple XML documents. Several samples of personal color palettes are provided as XML documents such as the 1024 color USGS palette. Choose personal color palettes anywhere that palettes are used.
• Map Marginalia: Many new refinements for designing map grid and marginalia features have been added to improve the appearance of a map. Considerable flexibility is needed in this area to meet national or other map standards, which are quite specific, but highly variable between organizations. For example, new controls are provided for grids and margin tick marks and priorities in cases of conflict. UTM and Lat/Lon label appearance can be selected and multi-label/grid conflicts resolved especially at map corners.
• Converting to PDF, SVG, and Illustrator: Conversion of map and other layouts can be controlled by selecting these file types as your “printer.” Hatch patterns can be converted. An Additional Options button on the Page Setup window lets you set certain parameters for PDF and SVG files. Fonts can be embedded, linked, or rendered into rasters. Raster objects in a layout can be converted to PNG, compressed or not, and embedded in the SVG or linked to it.
• Importing Oracle Spatial: All Oracle officially supported graphical elements (called geometry types) and their attribute tables can be imported from an Oracle Spatial structure (called a layer) into elements in a TNT vector object. An Oracle Spatial layer is a collection of geometries all having the same attributes set in associated tables. The attributes in these tables are converted into TNT attribute tables. If the Oracle Spatial layer is geocoded, then the TNT object will be georeferenced. The topology of this vector object will be created as your choice of polygonal, planar, or network during this import even though the Oracle Spatial layer has none.
• Exporting Oracle Spatial: A vector object can be exported to an Oracle Spatial layer. The proper tabular structure will be created in Oracle to contain this Oracle Spatial layer. Its vector elements will become Oracle Spatial geometry types. Attributes will be placed in corresponding tables. The vector object’s georeference and associated information are added to the Oracle Spatial metadata tables that index geocoded layers. Note, TNT topology will be retained in the export but may be quickly lost by subsequent Oracle operations.
• Editing Spatial Data: Editing actions during the use of a tool are now only suspended when a different tool is selected to add a different element type. Incomplete editing activity suspended in this way can be automatically resumed from the last complete action when a tool is again selected. This provides for the more integrated use of the tools that act on different element types. XYZ vector lines can now be splined.
  A new backup object can be automatically created and is faster than saving an object when editing is complete. A sequence of these multiple backup objects can be saved on demand, at defined intervals, or when editing has been inactive for a designated number of seconds. The last backup object can be quickly reloaded to restore the edit session or any backup object can be reloaded by selection.
• Shapefile Styles: The styles of lines and polygon fills associated with a shapefile can be imported and exported.
• Real-Time 3D Simulations: TNTsim3D for Windows has many new features and improvements. Polygons can be extruded from a surface as solid shapes. Different kinds of terrain layers can be stacked or the same kind of terrains automatically mosaicked. Multiple surface textures can be associated with each separate terrain layer. Texture layers can be linked, highly compressed JP2 files. Billboard symbol layers can be displayed and controlled as layers. Transparent spherical surfaces can now be rendered from tables to denote Volumes-of-Interest.
• Landscape Builder: Many technical features have been added to increase the flexibility of this process and to support creating Landscape Files using the new TNTsim3D features noted above. It merges textures and terrains including those already processed into other Landscape Files. It trims textures to the area of the terrains involved. Rasters can be compressed into linked JP2 files as they are converted to textures. Select and set up layers of points and styles for billboard symbols from a vector object. Select and convert polygons from a vector object for extruded shapes. Define position, color, transparency, and portions of spherical volumes.
• Vector to Raster Conversion: Uses more accurate polygon fill and line conversion procedures. Select the elements to be converted as all, by attribute, by query, by attachment, or as selected in the view. The user interface has been improved and uses tabbed panels.
• Warping Vectors: Set the accuracy for line densification (vertex insertion) to improve the curvature represented when zooming. Automatically densify lines to maintain curvature when changing projections.
• Interacting with Visual Basic: SML now provides a means of communicating with Visual Basic (or other programs) via ActiveX. For example, an SML Tool Script can be used to directly select an element(s) from the current view since it has access to any of the current contents or objects used in a complex TNT view. This Tool Script runs from an icon and starts or connects to a running VB program. The SML script then allows the interactive selection of a vector element from the active layer in the TNT view and sends it to the VB program. The VB program finds a corresponding record in an external database. It then displays the information about the element, supports editing this information in a form or by other means, and then adds or changes it in the external table.
• XML Interfaces in SML: XML can now be used to layout all common user interface components for the user controls presented by SML scripts for Windows and X. XML support and example XML documents are provided for dialog, nested dialogs, tabbed panels, cascading menu bar with icons, menu button, label, push button, toggle button, color button, edit text, edit number, radio group, combo box, list box, item, and others.
• Advanced Virtual Fields: Virtual fields (formerly called computed fields) function just like real fields in TNT tables. Previously these virtual fields were restricted to combining real fields for nodes, points, lines, or polygons in a vector object. Now virtual fields can combine real fields between all these element types for a vector object. This is a powerful feature for analyzing and displaying information about these spatially different element types whose real data field might change at any time.
• Image Destripping: The portion of the Fourier Analysis process used for destripping images has been rewritten, updated, and equipped with a new user interface.
• TNTatlas: Open more than one view window and geolock these multiple views. Geolock multiple views at different view scales. Set an atlas to start up with these multiple view windows using these predefined positions and new interrelationships.
• TNTserver: JP2 files (using JPEG2000 compression) can be used as linked raster objects to drastically reduce the size of the TNTatlas. TNTserver also now can send its results out as the smaller JP2 file in addition to the JPG (JPEG) file.
• HTML-based TNTbrowser: The image viewed in this TNTclient can be in JP2 format (JPEG2000 compressed) and, thus, considerably smaller than the previous JPG format (JPEG compressed). This reduces the “fetch” time for those using phone modems.
• Tutorial Booklets: A selection of the most important tutorial booklets for getting started with the TNT products is now available in 15 languages.
• Mac OS X: Apple’s X11 X server is now used in place of XDarwin and Orobor-OSX for TNTmips, TNTedit, and TNTview. Now the TNT products use only Apple software and are easier to install and maintain and are somewhat faster in startup and interface actions.
• Improved Error Management: Errors in each new biannual official release will be corrected for the Release Version (designated RV6.8) kept for just for that purpose and provided for use in the Patch Version (designated PV6.8). A single patch will be available for download weekly containing all previous corrections to the official release. All post release development will be done in a separate copy of the official release called the Development Version (designated DV6.9).

Editorial and Associated News [by Dr. Lee D. Miller, President]

Dichotomies in Geospatial Analysis.

MicroImages has been focused for the last 10 years upon the development of a geospatial analysis product that contains a complex geographical information system with a fully integrated capability for analyzing remote sensing imagery. Recently the renaissance man or woman really into the idea of the integration in TNTmips has convinced us to integrate access to internal and external relational databases, direct use of other products’ geodata formats, surface modeling, GPS collection, and other data sources. At the other end of the analysis is the need for improved geopublishing tools, such as ever more complex visualization tools, advanced cartographic layouts and their conversion to other common publishing formats (PDF, SVG, and AI), distribution of atlases and real time simulations, and so on. Gradually these new capabilities have also been incorporated into the TNT products.

Alas, only a fraction of the newcomers involved in geospatial analysis are academically trained to use this wide range of features in a single personal system. This is still the fault of our universities, principally those in and modeled upon the US, whose academicians know only one of these subjects and will teach it that way until they retire. MicroImages has answered with a wide range of tutorials, which will give students and professionals a wide grasp of this integrated approach and an introduction into how to go about applying these tools. Students worldwide download TNTlite, comment they want to use an alternative to what is used in class, and figure out what they want to do with it. But, of course, we all know that students have unlimited time but no money. Unfortunately most professional staff hired to work with TNTmips are not required to spend the 2 to 4 weeks necessary to go through these tutorials. They are immediately given some specific task and only use these tutorials as reference materials. Under these circumstances, it may take them 2 years to get an overall grasp of TNTmips and the analysis tools it offers.

Those using the TNT products who were trained in remote sensing, where the TNT products began 17 years ago, are experimental in nature. They are tolerant in piecing and patching a solution together to get their often unique analysis completed. Those engaged in GIS are often involved in production work for some enterprise activity and much less tolerant of adjustments and errors in the path to the completion of their work. Cartographers require very precise and meticulous results often dictated by some large set of national level specifications. Those interested in simulation require realism and speed, speed, speed. Those in production work still want a command line approach or something like SML. Each specialized use of the TNT products imposes its own different set of priorities and goals. Choreographing them all is a challenge, especially in the area of the inevitable error management.

“Spatial Logic?”

During a recent national election, a CNN analyst used the term “spatial logic,” which was new to me. It was used in the context of how they predicted the outcome of the various election contests shortly after the polls close based upon the earliest returns from all the voting districts. Voting districts in this context are polygons that have attributes. One would assume that these attributes are such things as the stratification of the voters in that district into parties, pre-election polling results, even the past distribution curve for each parties’ voters by time of day (which means, counting order). One would assume that dynamically changing attributes are also attached such as weather information and the party breakdown of the earliest votes as the ballot boxes are opened, counted, and tabulated throughout the voting period.

From this, those of you from other nations can understand why our U.S. regulations prevent the prediction of the outcome of elections before the polls actually close. If this were not done, these premature predictions could be used to influence those who have not yet voted. However, election prediction is one of the few areas in which the predictive use of this spatial logic is well controlled. There are very few other regulations that prevent anyone from applying spatial logic to a myriad of other predictions. For example, this author and his students 25 years ago applied the then crude tools of geospatial analysis (using a mainframe) and “spatial logic” to study, forecast, and display the future land use evolution in the Denver metropolitan area and in shifting cultivation patterns in Northern Thailand.

Spatial Land-Use Inventory, Modeling, and Projection / Denver Metropolitan Area, with Inputs from Existing Maps, Airphotos, and Satellite Imagery. NASA [Goddard Space Flight Center] Technical Memorandum 79710. by Dr. Craig Tom, Dr. Lee D. Miller, and Jerold W. Christenson. August 1978. 210 pages.
Analysis of the Dynamics of Shifting Cultivation in the Tropical Forest of Northern Thailand Using Landscape Modeling and Classification of Landsat Imagery. NASA [Goddard Space Flight Center] Technical Memorandum 79545. by Dr. Lee D. Miller, Dr. Kaew Nualchawee, and Dr. Craig Tom. May 1978. 256 pages.

However, if you reflect on it, outside of mass marketing, most GIS and remote sensing applications focus on how things are today and, perhaps, how they came to be. They are still geared toward preparing static results from geodata and then presenting them in electronic or paper form.

The application of geospatial analysis in our spatial logic is changing for the better but not always for the best of reasons. The Internet has at least gotten us focused on the spatial nature of how things are today. A recently updated map is more valuable than an old one (this year in our car for locating the nearest open gas station or this moment for rerouting around construction sites or accidents). Recent satellite images in 3D on CNN tell us where things were yesterday in the invasion of Iraq and we used these to make our own predictions. Unfortunately, data mining with spatial logic has gotten associated with extracting information from the ever larger body of map, image, and attribute data already in our possession so its human user can tune, or adjust, the related system. We are still not very good at extracting patterns of activity, such as worldwide terrorism threats, from tabular data with possible point coordinates attached. Predicting the spread of disease is one of the few areas in which we are trying to apply spatial logic to spatial geodata for spatial predictive results.

Applying spatial logic requires spatial geodata, which is why we have been using CAD and GIS systems to move from simple tabular databases to new feature oriented data structures that combine tabular data, coordinates, and graphics. However, using spatially oriented feature structures for most predictive purposes will require that these structures provide historic and dynamically updated tabular and graphical data, eventually leading to 4D geodata structures (XYZ and time). For many applications it will also require that this data, at least temporally, possesses some well defined level of topology, which may be 2D, 2.5D, 3D, or 4D depending upon the application.

Where are we collectively in the evolution of geospatial analysis into using our spatial logic? Microsoft is just getting going in convincing us to use its .NET and XML concepts as a possible mechanism for sharing our information. Wireless networking, or at least cell phones, permit mandatory input of spatial information (immediate filing of a police accident report from the car) or tracking vehicles or people by cell phone or wireless GPS.

The best benchmark I know of for the “state of the art” in all of this from a geo viewpoint is where Oracle, a dominant relational database system, is in this evolution. In the Oracle Spatial User Guide and Reference for Release 9.0.1 published in June of 2001 (see complete reference below), it is stated on page 5 3:

“With Oracle 9i, Spatial provides a rational and complete treatment of geodetic coordinates. Before Oracle 9i, Spatial computations were based solely on flat (Cartesian) coordinates, regardless of the coordinate system specified for the layer of geometries. Consequently, computations for data in geodetic coordinate systems were inaccurate, because they always treated the coordinates as if they were on a flat surface, and they did not consider the curvature of the surface.”

From this, one assumes that as late as 2 year ago the use of Oracle Spatial was primarily focused upon the storage and use of engineering drawings and similar CAD derived materials. In fact, Oracle is only now about to release a new product called MapViewer that will permit its end-user clients to view and directly use the spatial layers in Oracle Spatial Release 9i. For more information and complete references to these Oracle product manuals see the detailed TNTmips section below entitled Oracle Spatial Layer Import and Export.

PDAs versus Tablet PCs.

Personal Assistants Wanted.

Personal Data Assists (PDAs) are mobile data collection and communication devices. However, Tablet PCs will become the housing for our personal assistants, or agents, (PA)—ebooks, maps and image uses, data collection, email, personal mobile video entertainment center (in the car kids will still argue over which video to watch on the rear screen). How long before we snap an image with our camera equipped PA and pull up a map and send the location of a pothole in the street or accident to the proper location. Or, we run the long edge of it over a document page and it’s scanned. Only this morning while sitting here and writing this, a truck driver called who was lost 5 miles away trying to make a delivery to me. He had a cell phone and I gave him verbal instructions, but I would have preferred to have sent him a map for his PA in his truck if he had one. This alone is a huge PA application in many nations that have not developed the kind of street address, grid streets, and local maps we use in the US where it easy to locate where the party is or to deliver milk. As delivery services starting with DHL and FedEx and expanding to the cement trucks and mail services will expand in these nations using wireless PA map applications to save huge amounts of wasted gas, time, and money.

PDAs are Tabular Collection Devices.

PDAs and, soon, cell phones are very useful for creating or editing point data in the field or factory, and this is even better if it is overlaid upon a map or image. The downside of this is that most of the software to do this ultimately, like all other software for these devices, is either free or very cheap. This is not a particularly effective component of a business plan unless you are in a position to be the dominant player. I will acknowledge that there is another level of software for these same kinds of applications that involves a company, government agency, or consultant to develop a specific approach to using these devices to solve a specific data collection requirement of that organization. These are still areas of activity where cheap and widely available tools will be developed and most of the cost will be in the labor to develop that specific application. As a result, MicroImages has not created this kind of product even though some of you have requested it. There are already many good, useful, and progressively cheaper products available for this data collection application.

Tablet PCs are Geodata Collection Devices.

Early Opinions.

The emerging Tablet PCs, which run XP, offer an entirely different scenario. First of all, they already run the TNT products, such as TNTatlas and TNTview, used for direct field viewing and for sketching of meaningful graphic elements and their attributing (try drawing a larger polygon on a PDA screen). You could even move up to TNTedit on a Tablet, but how much topology reconciliation and advanced geospatial analyses do you want to do in the hot sun? Better to maximize field data collection (drawing, image interpretation, form completion) in the field and do quality control and work (snapping lines, boundary refinement, …) in the motel and analysis in the office. The very first article I came across relating Tablet PCs to GIS stated these ideas quite clearly and I quote.

“Finally -- the Tablet PC has arrived. No more trying to read a map and the miniscule fonts on a 3 X 2-inch PDA screen. No more awkwardly fumbling with a clamshell laptop trying to enter attribute data in the field via the keyboard. No more hot-syncing PDAs once back in the office. No more paper maps (well . . . not quite).

“Despite all the hype and doubting counter-claims, the Tablet PC will revolutionize mobile GIS. Think about it. We wanted mobility so bad that when PDAs hit the market, GIS users were one of the fastest growing markets for handhelds. As Jim Skog, manager of Hewlett-Packard’s GIS Division noted, ‘I was surprised at the speed of the adoption of the iPAQ and Jornada handhelds. I didn't really expect tens of thousands of those to get snapped up in GIS usage so quickly.’

“GIS users made extraneous efforts to shrink data and maps to fit on PDAs and create pick-list interfaces for stylus-based data entry. We modified our software to work with PDA operating systems. We were even willing to endure the 3–4-hour battery life.”

[Clearly many were desperate to get images and maps coupled to GPS units to support collection and correction of geodata.]

“Thankfully, with the Tablet PC, mobile GIS users will no longer have to work around the limitations of PDAs (and laptops for that matter). Basically a hybrid between a laptop and a PDA, the Tablet PC incorporates the best features of both -- the mobility and handwriting recognition of PDAs with the larger screen size, full-featured operating system, and high-end computing power provided by laptops. And, thanks to new processor technology and low power consuming components, most models offer battery lives of 4–5 hours -- equivalent to, if not more then, a PDA.

“Regardless of the model type, all Tablet PCs run on Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. The operating system is identical to Windows XP except for handwriting recognition components and the ability to use the stylus as a mouse. The operating system also permits users to transition seamlessly from a docked (plugged-in) state to battery operation without shutting down or restarting.”

Quoted from Tablet PCs for Mobile GIS. Geospatial Solutions. 1 February 2003. Vol. 13 no. 2 Jim Englehardt. pp. 40–43 The complete article containing the specifications of most first generation Tablet PCs can be read at http://www.geospatial-online.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=45442.

Another early article on this topic was in a PDA magazine: How to Selct a Tablet PC. by Geoff Walker. December 2002. Pen Computing. Vol. 9, No. 47. pp. 14–18. www.pencomputing.com/frames/tpc_how_to_select.html. Clearly they will reposition their magazine content relative to the fact that we can now carry around a full computer, albeit form improvements are needed.

Short Term Reservations.

I do have some short term problems with the first generation of XP supported Tablet PCs (recall the first primitive, hulky, limited power PDAs). In my opinion, the first generation of Tablet PC devices is made-over portable computers. They are hurried releases that are simply reactions to Microsoft’s first release of Windows XP for Tablets. As their designs evolve and other new manufacturers enter the market, they will become truly mobile computing and display devices. Devices that, if low enough in cost, will be kept in many convenient locations (1 in the car, in the office, in the kitchen, and so on). At a low enough price, convenience rules and not price. Even before PDAs, portable computers could be used in multiple locations and some field applications, but their price, form factor, and the ease with which they were lost, stolen, or damaged prohibited their wide adoption.

At the moment these established portable computer manufacturers are in the position of trying to protect their expensive portables by merely retooling their form factor and adding lots of unnecessary “stay at home” features to drive up the price of these first devices to match portables. Few of these companies have much past experience with a truly portable, walking around, wireless equipped form factor. We need a screen we can see in the sunlight, and we do not need a hardware keyboard (except as a cheap USB plug in) or many add-on features all of which hog power. Fujitsu is one of the few companies who have been building and improving portable field Tablet PC-like computers for many years.

If you need to use first generation Tablet PCs now, it is important that you review: Tablet PCs: Ready for Prime Time. by Cade Metz. PC Magazine. April 8, 2003. pp. 100-112. at www.pcmag.com/tabletpctips.

Error Management.

I take errors personally!

Those of you who know me personally know that as a professional I take errors in something that I am responsible for very personally. Others like to tell me that I should not take such things so personally, as its just business. However, going out and “beating up on the software engineers” also doesn’t seem to change the reality that, by its very nature, all software has errors. Realizing this, I have managed MicroImages since its founding on the principle that “all software has errors, it is how we work together to fix these errors that really counts.” Alas, more and more complex software just seems to have more complex errors. To keep up with this complexity in the TNT products, MicroImages is altering its error correction and patching procedures. Corrections of errors will now be made in a separate code base kept isolated from the code base used to develop the next version of the TNT products. The technical details of this new approach are described in detail in the section below entitled New Error Management System.

What took you so long?

The Big Picture.

Some of you have previously suggested that MicroImages adopt a dual code base approach. Others may have thought of it or experienced it with other software developers. So, now you are asking why it took MicroImages so long to come to this conclusion. Often the perception of how MicroImages should proceed is evaluated only in terms of your own objectives. MicroImages has always, since incorporation, taken a very international outlook in our products even though almost all our staff speak only English. This has greatly influenced our software development, marketing, and product support. Serving the entire world with a software product can be a very vague goal and difficult objective and requires a conservative approach in some activities and radical procedures in others. In making each decision, I must place myself in the position of all our clients in all nations, including those of you using older versions of Windows or other operating systems on older computers with low web access.

To summarize, dual development systems were difficult due to MicroImages commitment to international users, cross platform availability, uniform geodata structure, and our short release cycle.

The Strategies of Others.

Other software developers operate with different guidelines with regard to their software releases and subsequent error management. For example, many do not hesitate to quickly and prematurely drop their product’s support for an older, aging operating system. However, due to economic constraints, that operating system might still be in common use in some nations (for example, W95 is still widely used in some locations). MicroImages tries to deal fairly with clients, language, and the technology that are in place throughout the world in widely varying economic situations. Ethiopia, where MicroImages has professional clients, certainly does not approach the upgrading of computer technology in the same way as the United States.

You probably operate a single version of Windows. However, the many historical versions of Windows in use impose a wide variety of constraints on software developers, especially in the assembly, installation and subsequent patching of their software products. To be responsive to an international client base with vastly different economies, MicroImages must contend with W95, W98, ME, NT, W2000, XP, XP Home, XP Tablet and all the various patches for each version. Some of these older Windows products are running on slower, older PCs with real memory of 128 Mb. Add to this all the same kind of gyrations on the Mac (9.x, 10.x), UNIXs, and many different vendors differing versions of Linux and their various kernels. Mac OS X Jaguar (10.2) was released 2 weeks after V6.70 was shipped. Since that time, we have had to deal with the changes from 10.1.5 to 10.2, 10.2.1, 10.2.2, 10.2.3, 10.2.4, 10.2.5 and the switch from XDarwin and OroborOSX to Apple’s X11 v.1, v.2, and Public Beta 3. It is a wonder that anyone’s application software runs at all!

How do other software companies deal with these issues?

• They delay the release for older operating systems or totally drop support for a new or old operating system.
• They abruptly cease development and stop releasing for an operating system that has low market penetration.
• They do not respond directly to client input on errors at all or do so by indicating that you should wait for the next version (for example, Microsoft has set up its current interim patch system to respond to this criticism).
• They deal with a stable application that is not continuing to rapidly change (for example, constant introduction of new format types, alterations, and issues).
• Or the company is not prudent and conservative in this matter and simply disappears.

The long run objective of operating system developers like Microsoft and Apple is to achieve steady revenue by charging you rent to keep your operating system current or even to run it on their computers where it is kept patched. Application developers also are headed in this same direction as you can clearly see in Microsoft agreements with larger businesses soon to be imposed on smaller businesses by a literal army of salesmen. In the short run, I see a negative trend in all of this. Because of the ease of patching, it is not as necessary for any developers to test a release as thoroughly as if it were going to have to last without patches for a year. However, I believe that moving to isolate the current release and apply cumulative patches to the TNT products will be an improvement over our previous approach. On the other hand, it may also have a negative impact as fewer of you will be involved in the design of new features and error testing for the next release of our products. In either case, you will need to be patient, as it will take a few months to get all aspects of this new approach running smoothly.

Why Can We Change Now?

A number of improvements are now in place and more are planned that have permitted MicroImages to convert to a dual code base while continuing to serve our divergent international objectives and clients. I also feel this new approach will permit us to continue to rapidly innovate while periodically releasing new product versions that are reliable or at least reliably repaired. New versions become progressively more reliable and easier to access as we work together to correct the inevitable errors in this very complex software.

These are some of the more important technical reasons MicroImages can now change to a dual development approach.

• InstallShield and similar products for other operating systems are available for packaging Windows applications for installation and use in any version of Windows—with all the components needed for the various historical Windows versions. These kinds of software provide for easy installation but are much more important for product version management. They insure that all the correct libraries and product elements are put in the right places and provide for revised software component installation from a subsequent comprehensive patch file.
• You can now download a larger comprehensive patch file via your faster Internet access bandwidth that you have had to acquire to keep up with your operating system’s ever larger and more frequent patches.
• MicroImages has gradually improved its intranet (LAN) system and associated internal version build and error management tools to allow management and coordination of our developments in several versions.
• Automated overnight testing procedures have been initiated and are expanding for some batch aspects of the operation of the TNT products (for example, daily map layout and vector topology validation testing prior to V6.70 and for import/export for RV6.8). Implementation of automated testing of aspects of more interactive processes, such as spatial data editing, is currently being studied.
• • The TNT product release cycle has been lengthened over the past several years from 4 per annum to 3 and now to 2 per annum. This has been possible as the Internet and its increasing bandwidth to your desktop has enabled you to get direct access to error corrections. You no longer have to depend upon MicroImages to fix your errors and get them in the next release sent to you via air express on CD.

Impact on Official Release.

Even with a dual development system, it is impossible to eliminate error propagation—this results from correcting an error in a specific application that causes an error in some totally unanticipated and heretofore reliable application. It is impossible for MicroImages each time we correct an error in the official release patch to check the literally millions of ways you might string together your interactive solution through our millions of lines of code. However, with a dual development system, each correction or patch you apply to the official release will improve that version’s overall reliability. Thus, the number of errors you encounter in your patched version of the official release will decay asymptotically with time.

My selfish goal is to reduce the time MicroImages expends dealing with the errors you report by reducing the number of errors and the number of times each must be reported. As you know, your free MicroImages support is provided by professional computer scientists as it often involves complex technical issues. They are not specialists in any discipline to which you plan to apply your TNT product. However, more and more of our independent resellers are able to offer you assistance in how to design a geospatial application in your discipline, provide local training in your language, and immediate application support by phone or email. It is my hope that under this new error management system, our software support engineers will now have more time to devote to putting computer systems into place to catch errors in our nightly builds of all the TNT software and manage your error identification and correction more efficiently. They can then put more of their time into working with those of you working with us on the Development Version for the next release.

New Error Management System

Two Code Bases.

A new TNT error management and associated patching system has been established for use with the Release Version of 6.8 (designated as RV6.8) of the TNT products.

Patches obtained and applied to correct the errors in RV6.8 do not include any features added for the next version of the TNT products.

Prior to RV6.8, a single source code base was maintained by MicroImages and all error corrections were made in that code base. Immediately after a new release was shipped on CD, changes to that code base began for the next version. Typically, the most complex changes to core features (for example, to the geospatial rendering engine (GRE), RVC file structure, topology management, …) are begun immediately after release. This is necessary since these core items impact many other aspects of the operation of all the TNT products. Their early alteration provides the maximum amount of time to mitigate the impact of these basic changes on the next release. Changes are also initiated in specific applications. Using a single code base resulted in errors being introduced into the new version you were just beginning to work with if you applied any patches.

These early changes to the code base of the newly released version of our TNT product conflicted with your need to obtain reliable fixes for errors in that release. The patches you obtained usually fixed your specific error but might add another new error somewhere else. It is not possible for MicroImages to determine how the correction of a specific error might impact on a huge interrelated system such as TNTmips. Obviously, this is even harder to monitor when spurious errors are coming and going because that same system is in effect “torn apart.”

Two versions for the TNT code base are now supported at MicroImages. These code bases were identical on the day of the release of the master CD for RV6.8 for reproduction. One is being used only to correct errors that you or MicroImages locate in RV6.8. This is the version you are installing from your official release CD and that you will patch as needed for your production work. The second code base immediately became the Development Version (hereafter called DV6.9) in which new features are being implemented. Anyone authorized to run RV6.9 can still download and install the latest DV6.9 weekly, and simply install it as a second TNT system to test and use all its new features as they enter this version. Errors you report will be corrected in both versions if they occur in RV6.8 or only in DV6.9 if they are caused only by new activities in that code base.

DV6.9 is constantly evolving toward the final official release of RV6.9. If you have not purchased RV6.9 via annual maintenance or some other means, you can still download the DV6.9 and use any product in it in TNTlite mode.

Note: Using the Development Version (DV6.9) in professional mode requires that your key be authorized for the use of the next Release Version (RV6.9) previously referred to as V6.90.

Easier Patching.

Patching the Release Version (RV6.8).

You will no longer be required to download your error corrections in pieces as you did with previous TNT versions. Once each week a single Patched Version (PV6.8) will be provided for you to download from microimages.com. This PV6.8 will contain all the corrections to RV6.8 since its official release on CD. Installing PV6.8 does not change any of your preferences and does not contain the tutorials, manual, or sample datasets. It will not alter any of your Project Files.

The most recent weekly Patched Version (PV6.8) of the TNT products contains all the previous patches to the Release Version (RV6.8) found on your CD.

You will no longer be able to download the smaller patches needed to correct a single application in RV6.8. To obtain a patch for a specific feature you will always need to download the larger, latest PV6.8.

When you have patched RV6.8 (replaced it with a PV6.8) the date of this total patch, and, thus, the identity of your current PV6.8 will be clearly displayed. This “Date of Patch” of your PV6.8 should always be provided to MicroImages’ software support to identify your PV6.8 with every communication from you for any technical assistance request or error report. You will find this date on the Help/About TNTmips window and it will be changed by each new PV6.8 you install.

What is the Development Version (DV6.9)?

MicroImages has many innovative and imaginative (and patient) clients who work closely with us to guide and test the development of the TNT products. If you are in this group, you already know that you have a direct role in the evolution of the TNT products. For meeting our short run goals you patiently work with the Development Version and provide both error identification and design feedback, especially when we are working on improvements in your particular area of interest in a TNT product. Sometimes your suggestions are easily and quickly incorporated in the Development Version. Sometimes implementing your request is complex even though it may not seem so to you. Or sometimes your need is very specialized and is judged to be of low interest to any other TNT client. In these cases, it goes on our big “new feature list” for consideration in the future or as part of the periodic redesign of the entire processes or its low-level core operations.

Windows is very resistant to the installation of multiple copies of any software product. This is very important to keep you from mixing old and new components. Everyone has had the experience of concluding something was not operating properly in an earlier Windows application only to find, after much frustration, that a path led to the wrong version of a component. However, this Windows one-and-only-one-version policy has made it difficult to set up 2 versions of a previous TNT product. This is now simple as the DV6.9 of the TNT products has a new and totally different identity in so far as Windows is concerned. Thus, DV6.9 can by automatically installed and managed separately from RV6.8 or its subsequent conversion to PV6.8, and Windows will treat each as a separate product.

Note: Windows will let you install and patch DV6.9 whenever you choose as it is a separate product from your RV6.8 or PV6.8

Using the Development Version (DV6.9).

Working with DV6.9 of the TNT products is now more or less equivalent to your past experience with working with a patched version of V6.70. However, to work with DV6.9 you will have to download it from microimages.com and install it. DV6.9 with alterations and corrections will be replaced weekly rather than the previous Tuesday/Thursday patch procedure.

There is not and will not be a DV6.8! The version of the TNT products providing access to the new features being added for the next official release (RV6.9) is designated DV6.9.

Some of you may choose to obtain DV6.9 to use its newest features on your latest time-critical project. Please do not count on these features working correctly if they are critical to the completion of your project. MicroImages will, as in the past, be releasing these features as early as possible in their development as part of DV6.9. This is so that our early innovators and adopters can get at them via DV6.9 and provide their suggestions and feedback as early as possible during their development. We will also be fixing errors and adding features in DV6.9 just as fast as before. Errors encountered in PV6.8 will usually be fixed concurrently in DV6.9.

Please do not request any documentation for any new feature added to DV6.9. It is likely that MicroImages’ first written reference to a new, usable feature in the DV will be announced by the addition of a color plate to illustrate it at microimages.com. This color plate can only be created and posted by MicroImages when the new feature is at least usable by our writing staff. These new plates introduce new, visually-oriented features to you and often provide an overview of its operation. However, there are also new features being added, such as in the area of database management or at the systems level, which are not readily illustrated. We encourage and appreciate your continuing to work with us in the Development Version as in the past for a better TNT product and a better next release.

Patching the Development Version (DV6.9)

The patch for DV6.9 will be the entire set of TNT products to replace the DV6.9 you already have. New patched versions of DV6.9 will be provided for you at weekly intervals. You should remove your current DV6.9 before installing a new DV6.9. This is the most reliable way of ensuring that previous DV installations don’t affect the latest DV installation. In some cases, the installer may remove the previous DV. Just as with PV6.8, DV6.9 will not provide any tutorials, manual, or sample datasets. Since this will be an entirely separate version of your TNT products, a newly acquired DV6.9 will be easily installed and kept isolated from the RV6.8 or PV6.8 on your hard drive. However, it will automatically share your sample data and Project Files.

Patching TNTlite.

Prior to RV6.8, TNTlite was not updated between versions. As you know, TNTlite uses exactly the same code base (now 2 code bases) and executables as the TNT professional products. Used in either mode, the RV6.8 on the official release CDs, any downloaded PV6.8 or DV6.9, and the associated installation and management procedures are identical. As a result, those downloading TNTlite from microimages.com will now always get only the latest PV6.8. Those who initially obtain TNTlite RV6.8 by CD can also update it to the latest PV6.8 by downloading it from microimages.com. Regardless of the route you choose to obtain PV6.8 from microimages.com, you will be downloading the same PV6.8 files. All TNT products simply use the presence or absence of a Software Authorization Key to determine how to start up, lite or pro.

Product Licenses

A PCMCIA Software License Key is available on special order. This type of key can be used for convenient portable computer operations. Unlike a USB or parallel key, it slides into the PCMCIA slot and does not project out where it can be lost or knocked off. A ruggedized portable computer has internal PCMCIA slots where this key can even be sealed inside the unit. You can see a picture of this and other TNT Software License Keys at http://www.microimages.com/products/keys.htm.

Linux

If you are using a variant of Linux that supports 64-bit file addressing (for example, RedHat 7.3), you can now create Project Files and other TNT files greater than 2 Gb.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar).

The TNT products now operate under Mac OS X 10.2.5 or later. There is no logical reason for any user of Mac OS X to continue using a version earlier than 10.2, such as 10.1.5. If you are continuing to use these older versions, your TNT product may or may not run correctly as MicroImages is no longer maintaining test machines that use anything but the Jaguar version of Mac OS X. If you are using an earlier version of Jaguar (which means, 10.2, 10.2.1, 10.2.2, 10.2.3, or 10.2.4) please install your free upgrade to v10.2.5 before using your TNT product.

X11 Public Beta 3.

At Macworld in January 2003, Apple released their free X11 Window System for Mac OS X 10.2. Apple’s X11 is a complete X Window System, which requires that you use Mac OS X 10.2. RV6.8 of the TNT products uses this Apple-supplied X11 system. Originally X11 was released as a beta v.1, then beta v.2, and is now at Public Beta 3. MicroImages has found Public Beta 3 to be stable and suitable for the operation of the TNT products. Please do not use beta v.1 or v.2. A color plate for possible promotional use by Mac aficionados is attached and is entitled Geospatial Analysis now with X11 for Mac OS X.

X11 eliminates the use of the XDarwin X Server and the OroborOSX window manager for the TNT products. These are both excellent products and V6.70 worked well with them. However, their use required that you and MicroImages install, manage, and maintain 4 different software environments (Mac OS X, TNT, XDarwin, and Orobor-OSX). At a minimum, this meant that each time Apple upgraded Mac OS X delays were encountered waiting for upgrades to XDarwin and OroborOSX before the TNT products could be operated.

Apple’s X11 provides the following advantages for RV6.8 of the TNT products relative to V6.70.

• Fast startup and operation as X11 is optimized by Apple for use with Mac OS X.
• Single environment for use with the TNT products and your other X applications.
• Apple supplied integration between X and non-X products operating concurrently under Mac OS X (for example, cut, paste, ...).
• Easier installation and upgrading.

X11, together with the necessary window manager and the Motif libraries, can be installed in one operation directly from your RV6.8 CD or from the TNTlite product folder you download from microimages.com. If you have already been using V6.70 with XDarwin and OroborOSX, please remove these products before installing X11. Information on how to purge these products from your Mac OS X system can be found in the same folder as the installation file for X11.

Printer Control.

V6.70 did not present the printer manufacturers’ set up window and changes had to be manually set in the printer. RV6.8 now presents the specific printer’s Page Setup window for your setting each time you print.

Equipment

Evolution of Software Distribution Media.

MicroImages earliest releases of our commercial product predated DOS and Windows (COM anyone?) and were on 8" floppy disks. Next came DOS and Windows using 5.25" floppies. Then we got the then marvelous little 3.5" floppy. Eventually, because of our varied international client base, MicroImages had to keep releasing on these floppies until everyone in the world had a CD reader. The number of 3.5" floppies for each TNT release was well over 50 before the official release was switched to CDs. MicroImages only recently discarded the 3.5" floppy duplication equipment.

TNTmips RV6.8 fits nicely on a CD for one platform (OS) only, and with sample data and tutorials would have required more than 400 of those 3.5" floppies. But now, MicroImages is hoping you will all have a DVD reader real soon. In fact, MicroImages will soon be shipping two world data sets (GTOPO30 and DCW) in RVC Project File format with each new TNT product order on DVD only. These worldwide reference datasets are simply too large to provide on CD as they would span 7 CDs and require dividing this world data into 7 weird subdivisions.

The only way those buying our separate MI/X product for the past 2 years has been via a download. In fact, a month earlier some of you downloaded and installed your TNTmips RV6.8 and reviewed the associated online color plates and tutorials. Some of you have even moved on to the most recent patched version TNTmips PV6.8. Obviously, software like TNTmips continues to expand in scope requiring new distribution media, methods of installation, and error detection and management.

Mounting Multiple Monitors.

MicroImages has promoted the concept for years that geospatial analysis (image analysis, GIS, map layout, …) benefits greatly from a system using multiple monitors. The TNT products have been carefully checked for efficient operation on multiple monitors with special gadgets added for this propose. Many good quality display boards now provide direct support of dual monitors. High quality, flat panel displays are available at ever lower and lower prices. By the end of 2003, it is likely that most computer monitors will be flat panel. There are now appearing mechanical mounting systems for convenient assembly or multiple monitors for convenient desktop and other uses. You can review all the interesting possibilities for assembling multiple monitors at www.9xmedia.com. This site also provides information about various graphics boards suitable for use with 2, 3, or many monitors.

Tablet PCs.

The use of these new Windows XP supported systems is discussed in detail above. For a thorough and up to date review of what is available in the first generation Tablet PCs see www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,925249,00.asp for:

Tablet PCs: Ready for Prime Time. by Cade Metz. PC Magazine. April 8, 2003. pp. 100-112.

Graphics Cards.

Graphics chip and associated board developments continue at a rapid pace compared to all other workstation components, and these rapid improvements have a direct impact in geospatial analysis. TNTsim3D makes direct use of these advances by using their hardware implementation of DirectX and OpenGL. MicroImages X server for Windows now directly supplies builtin support for OpenGL [see section MI/X Server below], however, use of this and/or DirectX will only gradually be implemented in existing TNT processes, for example, the rendering of 3D displays.

Current Leader.

At the moment, the lead in the graphics cards goes to the ATI’s Radeon 9800 Pro over nVIDIA’s BFG Asylum GeForce FX 5800 Ultra. As seems to be a very standard continuing practice, both of these boards are being introduced at the US$400 price point. The nVIDIA board is not shipping as of yet. For comparison tests please see www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,980836,00.asp for

ATI Maintains a Rad Lead. PC Magazine. by Konstantinos Karagiannis, 22 April 2003. p. 38

Some interesting points made in this comparison are:

“Both cards feature support for DirectX 9 [9 is already tested with TNTsim3D] and OpenGL, as well as 8X AGP.”

“These differences give the 9800 Pro a memory bandwidth of 21.8 GBps compared with only 16 GBps in the 5800 Ultra”.

“Indeed, our tests showed—at worst—only a tolerable performance drop when 4X anti-aliasing was activated [for the ATI 9800].” [Anti-aliasing is important in improving the appearance of TNTsim3D and 3D game operations. Activating it caused a frame rate decease before this chip. ]

“The new GeForce FX architecture comes in a new form factor. We are not thrilled with the card’s thickness—it eats up two card slots because its fan assembly – nor with its huge power draw (you’ll need at least a 300-watt power supply). And when the fan kicks in, it’s loud.” [Another reviewer pointed out that the FX consumes 180 watts and if it were positioned just inside the top of the PC, it could be used as a coffee warmer as well. Certainly this is an impractical power draw.]

Future Orientation.

Can graphics chips continue their advance? Some insight can be gained from an excerpt from an article reviewing ATI’s lead and where graphics chip design is headed.
The startup that saved ATI. Armed with management and engineering prowess for ArtX, No. 2 player in 3-D graphics is positioned for the next round of pixel wars. Electronic Engineering Times. Issue 1266. Rick Merritt. 21 April 2003. pp. 18-20.

“The DirectX Spec was driving a new architectural direction in PC graphics. Rather than delivering fixed functions based on approximations using integer math and a graphics pipeline pioneered by SGI, DirectX 8.1 had taken a new course: toward more general-purpose programmable vector processors based on more-exacting floating point calculations.

“Ultimately, it is thought that the DirectX evolution will lead chip makers to create devices based on dozens of computing elements that can calculate polygon vertices and run pixel-shading programs for a variety of graphics and video applications. Sony, IBM and Toshiba apparently share that vision. Their Cell architecture – announced in March 2001, though not yet released – could someday use hundreds of cores in a parallel array to power future PlayStation consoles and a wide variety of other broadband products.

“ ‘It’s all about programming now. That’s the new battleground.’ said Peter Glaskowsky, editor of the Microprocessor Report. ‘These chips [nVIDIA and ATI] are not distinguished by the number of parallel pipelines or clock rates anymore. The key issue is how much can you do to each pixel you draw, how many programmable instructions you can run per pixel.’ ”

From these kinds of statements it is apparent that graphics chip advances will continue at a rapid rate.

Transistors	Internal Speed	Memory Speed	Average	Price
	(in millions)	(in MHz)	(in MHz)	(in US$)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro	110	380	340 DDR	$18
nVIDIA GeForce FX 5800	125	500	500 DDR	$18
Intel Pentium 4	55	3070	133*	$170
* external speed but has four data cycles per clock cycle

This table from the same article is particularly revealing when you compare the rapid advance in graphics design driven by the game industry with Intel’s progress. What is particularly revealing is the almost 10 to 1 price difference in these two kinds of chips. This reflects in some part what happens when you have aggressive competition versus a virtual monopoly.

X Server (alias MI/X 4.0)

A new version MI/X 4.0 of MicroImages stand-alone X server has been released for use with X programs other than the TNT products. Considerably more detail on MI/X can be found at www.microimages.com/mix/.
The most significant new features added in MI/X 4.0 are as follows.

Rootless (which means, Windows Desktop) Mode.

MI/X users can now also optionally choose the Windows Desktop mode. In this mode, the Microsoft Windows desktop is exposed. Each X window will appear and behave similarly to the other Microsoft Windows you have open on your desktop. This feature has been available to TNT product users since the release of V6.70 in August of 2002.

OpenGL.

OpenGL is now built into the X Server for direct use in your X client programs that can make use of it. TNT products do not yet make direct use of this built in OpenGL for rendering.

Render Extension.

The Render extension is now supported. This extension is used mainly to support anti-aliased text in X clients. The Render extension was invented by Keith Packard and has been used in the TNT products for some time.

Font Server.

X font servers are now supported. This allows a remote server to provide fonts not installed with MI/X. This is useful for remote systems like Solaris that use proprietary fonts. It has no direct use in the TNT products.

X11R6.6.

The core of MI/X 4.0 is based on XFree86 4.2.1. This latest upgrade to the X server is part of RV6.8 and solves several minor problems in X windows.

TNTlite® RV6.8

Many university students and interested professionals are downloading TNTlite. High school and grade school students and teachers occasionally download TNTlite. The number of TNTlites downloaded from microimages.com in 2002 was 33% greater than in 2001. Another measure of this increase in interest is the amount of bytes moved out from microimages.com each month. At this time about 300 gigabytes are transferred out (downloaded) monthly from microimages.com. The portion of this bandwidth used for patches is a small portion of that used for TNTlite. Furthermore, MicroImages general web site uses a separate web connection from those used to support the download of TNTlite. As a result, most of this outgoing traffic is from downloads of TNTlite.

Required Activation Code.

TNTmips, TNTedit, and TNTview used free as part of TNTlite RV6.8 (which means, without a Software Authorization Key) now require an activation code to start the first time. TNTatlas and TNTsim3D are freely distributed publication tools that have no lite limits and do not require a Software Authorization Key or this activation code to run.

Who Needs a Code?

An activation code is required no matter how TNTlite is installed: from an official RV6.8 CD, a duplicate of this CD, a download from microimages.com or a mirror site, or by other means. When TNTmips, TNTedit, or TNTview are started the first time without a Software Authorization Key, they present a dialog box for you to enter both your email address and the activation code. The product will then start and restart each time without the code. When any of these 3 TNT analysis products are activated in this fashion, they are all activated.

When Will I Need A New Code?

You only need to successfully activate TNTlite the first time you start one of the 3 products. You do not need to repeat this process for any subsequent use of TNTlite. Your activated version of the TNTlite products stays activated! You will only need to obtain a new code if you reinstall TNTlite or MicroImages releases a new version of TNTlite that you want to install.

How Do I Get One?

A user of the TNT analysis products provided as part of TNTlite can acquire an activation code by completing the TNTlite registration form located at http://www.microimages.com/tntlite/register.htm. Upon satisfactory completion of this form, the activation code is emailed to the email address entered into the form. This activation code can only be obtained from MicroImages by this automated return email. If you are going to install from a CD, you may want to acquire your activation code before proceeding with an installation.

If you download TNTlite from microimages.com or some other site, after your download starts you will be immediately presented with the registration form. When it is satisfactorily completed, you will be sent an email containing your activation code. Usually you will receive this email by the time your download is complete.

How Soon Must I Use a Code?

As noted, once activated TNTlite can be used forever. However, the activation code is only valid for 3 days (72 hours) from the time the code is issued. If you do not use it in that time period, it is voided and you must acquire a new code, but you do not need to acquire or reinstall TNTlite. You can acquire an activation code as many times as you like by completing the registration form at www.microimages.com/tntlite/register.htm. You can also use a single activation code to make as many separate installations of TNTlite as you wish (for example, on every classroom computer). However, all these installations will need to be completed within the 72 hours that the single code remains active.

What Happens to the Registration Information I Provide?

The email address you supply to acquire an activation code will be used to email you a notice when the next official version of TNTlite with important new features is available for downloading. All the information on the registration form is also compiled and supplied to the MicroImages Dealer who speaks your language or is nearby. They may or may not attempt to contact you. This information and your email address are not sold or provided to anyone else.

TNTlite Patches

With V6.70 and earlier, MicroImages provided only the official release version via TNTlite. It was not updated or changed. TNTlite users obtained and installed that release version and generally stayed with it. They had less motivation than you, as a professional client, to learn the previous TNT patching system. Periodically they would reappear to download TNTlite again but were still getting the same version. Now, with the new patching system, a downloaded TNTlite package will be PV6.8 providing all the accumulated patches to RV6.8. TNTlite DV6.9 will also be available for downloading by anyone for possible experimentation with its new features as they are added and tested.

 

TNTsim3D™ for Windows

Introduction.

TNTsim3D continues to expand to provide you with an even better FREE product to publish, distribute, and permit free use of your geospatial products. Many significant new features have been added. Some of these features are particularly useful and are probably unique, such as support of JPEG2000, multiple textures, virtual mosaicking, stacking multiple terrains, operation in your language, and others.

Are you Ambidextrous?

Previous MEMOs have stressed that TNTsim3D is not a flight simulator. It is designed to provide realistic interaction with your geodata and the results produced from it via your geospatial analysis. This can be emphasized by referring to it as a geosimulation, or geosim for short, as it is inherently geographical in nature. Movements within TNTsim3D in a geosim may often be described as flying even though no aircraft type performance envelope is enforced. For example, you can jerk around your views to a new orientation at any time with your control devices (for example, using the View-Center Locator gadget in the Map View). This is appropriate in the operation of a geosim since you do not want to slowly fly to each new viewpoint of interest or have to learn to bank to turn to your viewpoint.

TNTsim3D makes all your input devices (keyboard, mouse, and joystick) active at once. Perhaps you have already found that it operates best if you use both hands (or switch between devices). Your joystick is a convenient device to simulate realistic movement within a geosim. However, TNTsim3D also provides you with the mouse-controlled tools needed to occupy specific positions (for example, View-Center Locator gadget) and feature-specific actions, such as the readout of map coordinates of any point in any view.

Sometimes an action can be best controlled if assigned to two input devices. The joystick can be programmed to use a control to move the altitude up and down in a realistic fashion related to the setting used for its velocity and angular change controls. However, the mouse scroll wheel also changes your altitude for fast repositioning at any time or when used with the View-Center Locator gadget. For example, you can fly around over a realistic scene using the joystick. Once you, or your client, become familiarized with the realistic surface, you can use the mouse wheel to scroll up and down through a set of layers of other kinds of data stacked below that surface. These might be various processed image or maps layers overlaid on the same terrain but offset below the realistic reference surface. Or, using the new stacked terrain features in RV6.8, these could represent other kinds of non-geographic 3D surfaces of the same X-Y area but totally different Z layers and associated texture overlays.

 

Maximum utility of a simulation results if you carefully set up to operate it using more than 1 input device.