Version 0.99.8 beta Released - Thu, 13 May 2010

Finally, and it’s taken too long to get this one out, a new beta of Behold. Please upgrade if you are using an older version.

This one fixes up a lot of niggly things, and I think the the virtualization of the Everything Report is finally rock-solid. I can’t seem to break it any more. Just about every abend I’ve been able to find has been eliminated. And the abend error display no longer attempts to email a message, but instead will connect you to Behold’s Feedback page with instructions.

Of significance, I’ve segmented the internal structure to separate the data loading from the organizing. Now if you only do some sort of reorganize function, the data is not reloaded. I’ve eliminated memory leaks and have again reduced memory use, although it’s still about 7 times the GEDCOM size for large files. That will go down significantly once I implement saving and create an on-disk database file format for Behold to save its information.

Then I’ve put back in a new and improved version the log file that I once had many versions ago. So now Behold reports data problems and incorrect GEDCOM syntax into a log file named the same as the .ged file but with a .log added on the end. There is a “log file” icon on the toolbar, which will open the log files for you. Behold actually does quite comprehensive checks on the family connections and it’s log file information can help you fix data problems that your program allowed you to add. It even detects people-loops (e.g. I am my own grandpa) and will include in the log file, a very clear message showing you the problematic links so you can fix it. Behold doesn’t do logic checks on dates yet, but that will come.

A complete list of changes this version is available on the Behold Version History page.

This last set of changes took longer than I expected. I’m now scheduling Version 1.0 to be out in July. I’m leaving the price at $20 for the rest of the beta, but will raise it to $40 when Version 1.0 is out.