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XTide 2.15.5 (libxtide.so.1.0.4) 2022-05-11

   XTide 2.15.5 restored compatibility with recent gpsd.  XTide 2.15.4
   fixed a FTB with libXaw 1.0.14 and assorted minor issues.  Get the
   latest from [3]https://flaterco.com/xtide/files.html and see the
   [4]changelog for details.

Data refresh 2022-01-09

   The data refresh available from
   [5]https://flaterco.com/xtide/files.html#harmonicsfiles includes new
   tide stations for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

   A corresponding update of the harmonic constants management package is
   available from [6]https://flaterco.com/xtide/files.html#experts.

ftp is dead

   The archive is at [7]https://flaterco.com/files/xtide/.  Old links
   pointing to ftp://ftp.flaterco.com/xtide/... should be redirected to
   https://flaterco.com/files/xtide/....

End of maintenance for non-free data

   For [8]various reasons, I have ended maintenance of the non-free data
   set.  Anyone interested in generating new harmonic constants from
   published data can find information and a list of data sources [9]here.

Mailing list

   There is an announce-only mailing list to which I send notices of each
   update to XTide or the harmonics data.  You can subscribe or read the
   archives at
   [10]https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/xtide-announce.

   Please note:  If an announcement to you gets bounced by your mail
   server, you fall off the list.  Some long-time contributors have fallen
   off because, unbeknownst to them, their ISPs subscribed to a spam
   blackholing service that blackholed all pair.com-hosted domains after
   one of them sent out spam.

To do list

   XTide
     * Support [11]QGIS integration as a substitute for the builtin
       location chooser.
     * Support m/s as a unit for currents.  NOAA default is now cm/s.
     * If libxtide is changed, consider merging some accommodations from
       XTideMac.
          + Opting out of LibPNG, RGBGraph, Settings, and codeset support.
          + Compiler was opinionated about character encoding and int
            types.
          + Configure for dirent.h, syslog.h.
     * Purge antique portability workarounds.
     * Make xttpd use https.
     * Support lookup by station ID instead of only name.
     * The XML parser should be bundled under the libxtide namespace but
       isn't.

   Major things to do in XTide 3 if life turns out not to be too short
   after all:
     * Support minor axes for currents; yield speed and direction at any
       time; plot as a cylinder.
     * Find a way to put an end to the infinite number of customization
       settings for graph mode, such as by dumping ALL of the data,
       metadata, and events to a single-file format that an external
       graphing app will read.
     * Renovate programming practices again (exceptions, checked and const
       operations, strings).
     * On exceptions:  get the application-specific error messages OUT of
       libxtide.
     * Move from Latin-1 to UTF-8 (requires libtcd revision).
     * Harmonize the globe location chooser with the way that Google Earth
       operates.  Use OpenGL of course.
     * Support Wayland in non-X11 mode.
     * Hydraulic current support is obsolete.

   harmbase2

   All the cheap and nasty reverse geocoding for the purpose of improving
   station descriptions is stupid and should be punted to [12]QGIS.

   harmgen

   It should be possible to [13]link directly with liboctave to avoid the
   very inefficient conversion of input data from binary to text and back
   again that currently is done.  However, this would be fixing something
   that is not broken, and is neither important nor urgent.

   libtcd

   Purge antique portability workarounds from configure.ac.  Always just
   include stdint not inttypes.

   In signed_bit_unpack, extend_mask << numbits uses undefined behavior.

   In the documentation section on inference, cite NOAA SP NOS CO-OPS 3
   Sec. 4.2.3 explaining how bogus it is.

   Things to do in the next major revision, if there ever is one:
     * Purge COMPAT114 code and documentation.
     * UTF-8.
     * Move station ID to header.
     * Add header field to flag tides versus currents.
     * Add depth field for currents.
     * Support minor axes for currents.
     * Get rid of internal state; fix inability to have more than one
       database open.
     * Remove gratuitous complexity in the encoding of speeds, equilibrium
       arguments, and node factors; make speeds 32-bit unsigned with no
       offset.
     * Possibly permit node factors to be specified for intervals shorter
       than 1 year and/or support apps that use libcongen to generate the
       node factors themselves.
     __________________________________________________________________

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References

   1. https://flaterco.com/xtide/changelog.html
   2. https://flaterco.com/xtide/xtide.html#contents
   3. https://flaterco.com/xtide/files.html
   4. https://flaterco.com/xtide/changelog.html
   5. https://flaterco.com/xtide/files.html#harmonicsfiles
   6. https://flaterco.com/xtide/files.html#experts
   7. https://flaterco.com/files/xtide/
   8. https://flaterco.com/xtide/faq.html#renaissance
   9. https://flaterco.com/xtide/harmonics.html#harmgen
  10. https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/xtide-announce
  11. https://qgis.org/en/site/
  12. https://qgis.org/en/site/
  13. https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Standalone-Programs.html
  14. https://flaterco.com/xtide/changelog.html
  15. https://flaterco.com/xtide/xtide.html#contents
