PoloramaG


The above post has become outdated and its 'end-of-the-post-link' points to the latest version, not the oldest version (1.0.π) as mentioned there. PoloramaG has been through many evolutionary changes and this page will be a continuation of the above post as I enumerate / elaborate those changes below:

v1.0 Release 1 had a very simple GUI:

v1.1 Release 2 got a toolbar added:

v1.3 Release 3 got some algo & GUI improvements:

v1.4 Release 4 got algo optimization & GUI enhancements:

v1.5(.1) Release 5(B) got more algo & GUI enhancements:

v2.0(.1/2) Release 6(B/C) got more awesome with a splash screen:

v2.1 Release 7 streamlined the Java wrapper for the MATLAB executable, introduced a new icon & splash screen:
A new beginning was made in this release by providing separate 32-bit & 64-bit programs, which would be updated accordingly. In the program itself, only some minor tweaks were incorporated that hopefully led to less issues while generating poloramas.

v2.2 Release 8 introduced a new option called 'Fill Void' in the right click menu. This option 'completes' the Polorama for 180° & 90°. Check it out for yourself! The bug of not remembering the path of the previously loaded file was squashed. Other minor tweaks here & there were made including not repeating that annoying 'Please Wait...' (& other such messages) after every other click and / or task completion.

v2.3 Release 9 was compiled and packaged entirely from within MATLAB R2014a so that there would be only one executable file to run. This choice was made because the new compiler adds splash screen to the program itself and not just the installer.
This also sadly meant that the Java wrapper was not used anymore to display the startup time on the welcome screen. No other (minor) tweaks were made in the code.

v2.5 Release 10 was a major overhaul of the GUI (so why only a minor increase in the version number you ask? Well, according to my Superpartner, v2.5 has a nice ring to it than v3.0!) so that resizing of the window was possible! It was compiled using MATLAB R2015a which sadly meant one had to deal with a new (and larger than before) MCR. The overhauled GUI included (among other things) a 'tabbed' interface and the right-click context menu of yesteryears was incorporated directly in the GUI. Also the holy trinity of buttons (Update, Help & About) were moved to the toolbar. Different GUI elements involved in rotating a Polorama were no longer scattered all over the place! The crop options were re-work(d)ed and (in my opinion) made more sense than before. Other minor bugs might also have been squashed or introduced.

v2.7 Release 11 was another overhaul of the GUI (so as to be consistent with other programs listed above) including a new welcome screen and a preview of the final form of panorama. The source image was no longer flipped in response to selection of the "edge to be centered". (How did that make sense in the first place, anyway?) A progress bar was shown during startup again for consistency. Along the same veins, (all) the errors were 'caught' (instead of the program just sounding off an annoying 'ding') and all the gory details were displayed so that debugging could be facilitated. This version was compiled with the new MATLAB R2016a and no reference to 'x64' was made anywhere.

v3.0 Release 12 migrates the GUI based on GUIDE to AppDesigner. This means a slightly tweaked GUI with more or less the same functionality. Most visible tweaks are that the figure toolbar has been split into an axes toolbar (for zoom and pan buttons) & a menubar (for rest of the buttons), the old-fashioned selectors for the three parameters have been updated to new ones, the polorama preview has changed its background colour, and the two buttons for tweaking polorama now look square. Less visible tweaks would be that the crop options get re-spaced properly upon resizing of the window and a scrollbar appears in the right panel (when necessary) so that GUI controls don't get cropped. [A couple of features involving flexible grids and setting of minimum widths for grids had to be removed as they are not (yet) supported in AppDesigner.] No progress bar shows up during startup as it doesn't fit with the overall design of the AppDesigner apps. This version is compiled with MATLAB R2019a so new MCR needs to be downloaded again!

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