VPNBody: Changes in Version 2.1
Home > Changes in version 2.1
The most important change is that the syntax for input files is different: input files that worked with version 1.0 will not work with version 2.1. Follow this link for an overview of the new-style input file.
Other important changes:
- Version 2.1 works with any unit system in which G = 1. (Version 1.0 used SI units only.)
- Version 2.1 combines the visual and numerical codes into a single package that works in either a visual mode (producing a 3D animation) or a data mode (producing numerical output). (Version 1.0 produced only a visual output. A separate program, PNBody, was needed to produce numerical output.)
- When running in data mode, Version 2.1 creates a subdirectory for the data files. A copy of the input file is placed in the subdirectory. The subdirectory and all data files are named with a time stamp so that no two runs will produce identically-named subdirectories or file names. (PNBody would place data files in the same directory as the program itself, and would overwrite files from previous runs unless the user manually changed the file names from previous runs.)
- The underlying code is more "pythonic" and less like Fortran than in version 1.0.
- The introductory label that appears at the beginning of an animation is now fixed. (In Version 1.0 you could create a brief message to go in the label.)
- The radii of the display objects (spheres) are now fixed. (In version 1.0 you could specify the radii in terms of the smallest semi-major axis in the system.)