[Geographiclib-announce] GeographicLib 1.44 (released 2015-08-14)

[Charles K. <cha...@sr...>]

Changes between 1.44 (released 2015-08-14) and 1.43 versions:

   * Various changes to improve accuracy, e.g., by minimizing round-off
     errors:
     + Add Math::sincosd, Math::sind, Math::cosd which take their
       arguments in degrees.  These functions do exact range reduction
       and thus they obey exactly the elementary properties of the
       trigonometric functions, e.g., sin 9d = cos 81d =
       - sin 123456789d.
     + Math::AngNormalize now works for any angles, instead of angles in
       the range [-540d, 540d); the function Math::AngNormalize2 is now
       deprecated.
     + This means that there is now no restriction on longitudes and
       azimuths; any values can be used.
     + Improve the accuracy of Math::atan2d.
     + DMS::Decode avoids unnecessary round-off errors; thus 7:33:36 and
       7.56 result in identical values.  DMS::Encode rounds ties to even.
       These changes have also been made to DMS.js.
     + More accurate rounding in MGRS::Reverse and mgrs_inv.m; this
       change only makes a difference at sub-meter precisions.
     + With MGRS::Forward and mgrs_fwd.m, ensure that digits in lower
       precision results match those at higher precision; as a result,
       strings of trailing 9s are less likely to be generated.  This
       change only makes a difference at sub-meter precisions.
     + Replace the series for A2 in the Geodesic class with one with
       smaller truncation errors.
     + Geodesic::Inverse sets s12 to zero for coincident points at pole
       (instead of returning a tiny quantity).
     + Math::LatFix returns its argument if it is in [-90d, 90d]; if not,
       it returns NaN.
     + Using Math::LatFix, routines which don't check their arguments now
       interpret a latitude outside the legal range of [-90d, 90d] as a
       NaN; such routines will return NaNs instead of finite but
       incorrect results; caution: code that (dangerously) relied on the
       "reasonable" results being returned for values of the latitude
       outside the allowed range will now malfunction.

   * All the utility programs accept the -w option to swap the
     latitude-longitude order on input and output (and where appropriate
     on the command-line arguments).  CartConvert now accepts the -p
     option to set the precision; now all of the utilities except
     GeoidEval accept -p.

   * Add classes for GARS, the Global Area Reference System, and for
     Georef, the World Geographic Reference System.

   * Changes to DMS::Decode and DMS.js:
     + tighten up the rules:
       o 30:70.0 and 30:60 are illegal (minutes and second must be
         strictly less than 60), however
       o 30:60.0 and 30:60. are legal (floating point 60 is OK, since it
         might have been generated by rounding 59.99...);
     + generalize a+b concept, introduced in version 1.42, to any number
       of pieces; thus 8+0:40-0:0:10 is interpreted as 8:39:50.

   * Documentation fixes:
     + update man pages to refer to GeoConvert(1) on handling of
       geographic coordinates;
     + document limitations of the series used for TransverseMercator;
     + hide the documentation of the computation of the gradient of the
       geoid height (now deprecated) in the Geoid class;
     + warn about the possible misinterpretation of 7.0E+1 by
       DMS::Decode;
     + swaplatlong optional argument of DMS::DecodeLatLon and various
       functions in the GeoCoords class is now called longfirst;
     + require Doxygen 1.8.7 or later.

   * More systematic treatment of version numbers:
     + Python: __init__.py defines __version__ and __version_info__;
     + JavaScript:
       o Math.js defines Constants.version and Constants.version_string;
       o version number included as comment in packed script
         geographiclib.js;
       o geod-calc.html and geod-google.html report the version number;
       o http://geographiclib.sourceforge.net/scripts/ gives access to
         earlier versions of geographiclib.js as geographiclib-m.nn.js;
     + Fortran: add geover subroutine to return version numbers;
     + Maxima: geodesic.mac defines geod_version;
     + CGI scripts: these report the version numbers of the utilities.

   * BUG FIXES:
     + NormalGravity now works properly for a sphere (omega = f = J2 =
       0), instead of returning NaNs (problem found by htallon);
     + CassiniSoldner::Forward and cassini_fwd.m now returns the correct
       azimuth for points at the pole.

   * MATLAB-specific fixes:
     + mgrs_fwd now treats treats prec > 11 as prec = 11;
     + illegal letter combinations are now correctly detected by
       mgrs_inv;
     + fixed bug where mgrs_inv returned the wrong results for prec = 0
       strings and center = 0;
     + mgrs_inv now decodes prec = 11 strings properly;
     + routines now return array results with the right shape;
     + routines now properly handle mixed scalar and array arguments.

   * Add Accumulator<T>::operator*=(T y).

   * Geohash uses "invalid" instead of "nan" when the latitude or
     longitude is a nan.