
                      THEONAV 2.0
		      
Tools, references, and utilities to aid in maritime navigation.

This document was last updated 4/24/2006

TheoNav is a PalmOS application written by Theodric Young.  It is a
"Swiss-Army Knife" of calculators for navigation.  

WARNING:  THEONAV SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR SAFE NAVIGTION.
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
-------------------

TheoNav currently requires Palm OS 4.0 or greater to run properly.
We may provide backwards compatibility to older systems in the
future, but for now, we are unable to provide an application that
works on older system software.

TheoNav 2.0.2 has been tested on the following hardware
configurations:

Palm m500 - system 4.0
Fossil Abacus WristPDA - system 4.1.2

TheoNav has also been successfully tested on a number of different
emulators and simulators, including:

Palm Emulator: Palm IIIx (OS 4.1.2)
Palm Emulator: Palm V    (OS 4.1.2)
Palm Emulator: Palm Vx   (OS 4.1.2)
Palm Emulator: Palm IIIc (OS 4.0)
Palm Emulator: Palm m505 (OS 4.0)

Palm Simulator: Tungsten C  (OS 5.2.0)
Palm Simulator: Tungsten E  (OS 5.2.1)
Palm Simulator: Tungsten E2 (OS 4.1)
Palm Simulator: Tungsten T  (OS 5.0)
Palm Simulator: Tungsten T3 (OS 5.2.1)
Palm Simulator: Zire 72     (OS 5.2.8)

Palm Simulator: Generic (OS 5.2)
Palm Simulator: Generic (OS 5.3)
Palm Simulator: Generic (OS 5.4)

Tungsten T5 (OS 5.4.8)
Tungsten E2 (OS 5.4.7)
Treo 600 (OS 5.2.1)
Treo 650 (OS 5.4.8)


INSTALLATION NOTES:
-------------------

The lastest version of TheoNav, zipped with all the necessary support
files, should be available at:

   http://www.theodric.com/theonav
  
The following files are part of the standard TheoNav distribution:

1. theonav201.prc
2. MathLib.prc
3. WMM-2005.pdb
3. us_cities_big2.pdb
4. us_cities_med2.pdb
5. us_cities_small2.pdb
6. world_ports2.pdb

theonav201.prc is the TheoNav application.  Install it as you would
any Palm application.

MathLib.prc is a PalmOS shared library file which is needed for the
many floating point calculations in TheoNav.  You may already have
this library installed on your handheld.  If you do not already have
MathLib installed on your device, you must install it for TheoNav to
work.  More information about MathLib can be found here:

  http://www.radiks.net/~rhuebner/mathlib.html

WMM-2005.pdb is a Palm database version of the WMM World Magnetic
Model for epoch 2005.0.  TheoNav can still be used without this
database, but you will be unable to calculate the magnetic variation
based on geographic coordinates.  More about the WMM and magnetic
models can be found here:

 http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/WMM/DoDWMM.shtml

The remaining files are location databases.  They contain names and
geographic coordinates of locations on the earth.  These can be used
to find the latitude and longitude of specific locations in the
Geographic Distance screen, and when determining magnetic variation.
These databases are optional and you can choose to install any or all
of these databases, depending upon how much space you have on your
device.

 us_cities_big2.pdb: 14,210 U.S. cities (population > 1000)
 us_cities_med2.pdb:   3556 U.S. cities (population > 10,000)
 us_cities_small2.pdb :  676 U.S. cities (population > 50,000)
 world_ports2.pdb:  4602 ports around the world
   (from the World Port Index database)

Note that there is no need to install more than one database of
U.S. cities as the cities in the smaller databases are also
included in the larger databases.
   
 
USAGE NOTES:
------------

TheoNav should be reasonably self-explanatory to persons already
familiar with navigation terms and techniques.  It may be less
intuitive for non-navigators.  There is a fair amount of online help.
If in doubt, try choosing Help from the Options menu, try clicking a
Help (?) button or a "Tips" button (i) if available.

Full documentation for TheoNav is available at www.theonav.com.

 
RELEASE NOTES:
--------------

4/24/2005:  Version 2.0.2

- Fixed a problem where some Treos and other devices using
  recent updates to the Garnet OS would crash during entry
  of compass deviation data.
- Added color icons
- Fixed a bug in the compass deviation screen that would
  sometimes occur after renaming a database.

4/23/2005:  Version 2.0.1

A few bug fixes in this version:

- Illegal database names are no longer allowed
- Better handling of the pop-up keyboard
- All numeric fields are now REALLY numeric fields
  which should make it easier to enter values on
  devices with a keyboard.
- Fixed a crash that can occur when you switch from the
  Speed/Time/Dist. screen to another screen then back again.
- Extensive testing has revealed that this version does NOT
  work on some newer devices, specifically Treo's :(


4/17/2005:  Version 2.0.0

New Features in version 2:

 - You can now save any locaton as a "Favorite"
 - Database management including renaming and beaming databases.
 - Locations can be searched by typing a few letters
 - Location databases are indexed for faster searching
 - Multiple formats for latitude and longitude
 - Full documentation available online
 - Numerous bug fixes (too numerous to mention)


1/26/2005:  Version 1.2.1

Many changes to this version.

TheoNav is now shareware.  To register TheoNav, visit
http://www.handango.com/ to obtain a registration code for your
Palm username.  Then choose "Register" under the "Options"
menu to register your copy of TheoNav.

It's my philosophy that shareware should be useful software, even for
unregistered users.  As such, almost all of the features of TheoNav
are available to all users.  Navigators who enjoy using TheoNav on a
regular basis are encouraged to register.  As more features are added to
TheoNav, some of them will be available to all users for free, some
will only be available for registered users.

The Compass Deviation screen has been returned.  This screen allows
you to enter the observed compass deviation values for your vessel and
calculate the predicted compass deviation at any heading (true,
magnetic, or compass).  The compass deviation data for your vessel can
be saved based on the name of your vessel, although unregistered users
may only save data for one vessel.

The Speed/Time/Distance screen has been modified, so the "Calc"
buttons only appear if one of the other two parameters has been
changed since the last calculation was performed.  A "Clear" button
has also been added to erase all the values on the screen.

The WMM-2000 magnetic model has now expired.  The file WMM-2005.pdb
contains data for the World Magnetic Model for the year 2005.  This
magnetic model is valid for five years.


12/23/2004:  Version 1.1.2

On the Geographic Distance screen, the "Calc" buttons now only appear
when a value in one of the fields has been modified.  If no Calc
buttons are visible, it means that the displayed speed, time, and
distance values are all valid with respect to each other.  A "Clear"
button was also added to erase the values from this screen.


12/17/2004:  Version 1.1.1

On the Geographic Distance screen, the "Calc" button was removed that
calculated the origin location, based on the other values on the
screen.  This calculation had bugs in it, but also there may be more
than one origin location on the earth that meets those criteria.


12/14/2004:  Version 1.1.0

Added support for location databases.  These can be used to find the
latitude and longitude of specific cities or ports.


12/10/2004:  Version 1.0.0

This is the first official release of this software.

The "Compass Deviation" screen has been temporarily removed
while it's being reworked.

A "Geographic Distance" screen has been added.  This can be
used to calculate great circle distances between two points,
or to calculate coordinates of a location, given a distance
and bearing from another point.

The magnetic variation may now be calculated from any screen
by choosing from the Options menu.  Note that entering the
variation manually, or chosing the "Set Variation" button
don't actually do anything right now because the Compass
Deviation feature has been removed.


2/12/2004:  Version 0.9.b3

Added support for more than 8 compass deviation values.  It should now
be able to fit a curve to up to 40 data points.

Fixed a bug where the magnetic variation wasn't always shown properly
at the bottom of the "full" deviation table.

Added a check for the user's system software.  TheoNav currently uses
features from SDK 3.5, so the application won't work properly on
devices that are using system software older than Palm OS 3.5.  We may
provide support for older systems in the future is demand is high
enough.


2/2/2004:  Version 0.9.b2

No real functional change in this version, but we are now
greeted with a sexy "splash" screen when the application
starts up.


1/30/2004:  Version 0.9.b1

This version tidies up the compass deviation table functionality.
After data points have been entered, a "Full Table", including
True, Magnetic, and Compass headings can be generated.  This table
can be normalized using integer values of True, Magnetic, or
Compass headings.

This version also allows entry of a magnetic variation value, either
directly, or by specifying a longitude and a latitude.


TO DO:
------

- Add labels to the graphic display of vector calculations and try
  to make it look a little nicer.

- Include the option of expressing headings and bearings as true,
  magnetic, or compass, based on the entered compass data.

- Allow saving of a variety of user preferences (formats, units, etc.).

- More location databases

- Provide support for allowing users to generate their own databases
  of locations.

- Fix handling of non-ASCII characters in location names.

- Figure out why the new color application icon is not centered in the
  Launcher :(

Theodric Young can be reached at:  theonav@theodric.com
