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What is New in RaceMate 8.0

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Database Engine Upgrade

The database engine of RaceMate 8.0 has been upgraded to Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 Service Pack 1. Microsoft has fixed many significant bugs in this Service Pack 1 making this release of Visual FoxPro the most stable version.

 

 

Record Tree

The Record Tree is an innovative design which combines features of the Calendar, Race, Horse, Jockey and Stable forms into an expandable and collapsible data tree. Both backward (past) and forward (future) records can be shown in the tree. You can follow detailed history of each horse, jockey and stable by expanding the nodes (unlimited levels) of the tree. Opening two Record Trees side by side is an excellent way to compare two different records scenarios. You can even configure the numbers of past and future records shown in the tree to meet you own requirements.

The Record Tree is actually a data navigator for opening different data forms. For example, clicking on a race record will open the Race Data form, clicking on a horse record will open the Horse Data form, and so on.

 

 

 

Deferred-Calculation of View Columns

RaceMate carries out view calculations row by row. The calculation result of a cell may be wrong if it is a function referencing other rows which are yet to be updated. In order to get correct results, you need to recalculate the view by clicking on the [Recalc] button. For some complicated views, you may need to recalculate even more than once. In RaceMate 8.0, you can now selectively set a number of columns carry out calculations only after the base calculation is finished. We call such a new feature Deferred-Calculations. Deferred-Calculations is much more efficient than doing simple recalculations in the following ways:

1.Each column of the view will carry out calculation only once. Deferred-calculating columns will not be updated in the initial base calculation.
2.If there is more than one deferred-calculating column, you may define the calculation order of each deferred-calculating column

 

With this sophisticated new feature, you will no longer bother about recalculations and will always get the results that you want.

 

 

Form Docking

In RaceMate 8.0, main data forms can be made dockable. When a form is made dockable, You may stick (dock) the form to a border of the RaceMate application window. A docked form will won't be blocked by another maximized form.

 

Moving a Form Out of RaceMate's Application Window

When a form is made dockable, you can not only dock the form at a RaceMate border, but also move it out our RaceMate's application window. Nowadays many computer users are equipped with dual (or even triple) monitors. In RaceMate 8.0 you can place data forms in different monitors. The work space for RaceMate will dramatically be enlarged.

 

 

Export Data of All Grids to Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is renowned for its powerful data analysis power and is the favourite tool for many computer users. In previous versions of RaceMate, only a couple of forms are equipped with the "export to Microsoft Excel" feature. In RaceMate 8.0 all data grids are exportable to Excel. If you have never tried to create charts and pivot tables in Excel for data analysis, you are seriously recommended to investing your time to learn these wonderful data tools.

 

 

Version Details of Program Files

Double-clicking on the version label of the status bar will show a List of Program Files with detailed version information. By sorting on the Version column, you can know which program files are recently get updated. The [Export to MS Excel] button lets you export this information into an Excel spreadsheet. In case your RaceMate show irregular behaviours, this file will be helpful to RaceMate developers in Welkin to locate the problems in your RaceMate installation.

 

 

Sectional Times Statistics Form

A new Sectional Times Statistics form is added into RaceMate 8.0. The form shows average sectional times of all races in all combinations of distance, course, track, and class. You may carry out multiple columns sorts or filter a particular distance in the form.

 

 

 

Course Standard Time Form

A new Course Standard Times form is added into RaceMate 8.0. The form shows the average standard running time of all races in all combinations of distance, course, track, and class. You may carry out multiple columns sorts.

 

 

New MCL Functions

HrCountBy( ), JrCountBy( ), SrCountBy

HrSumBy( ), JrSumBy( ), SrSumBy( )

HrAverageBy( ), JrAverageBy( ), SrAverageBy( )

 

This series of new functions magically empowers the already strong MCL statistical functions. The functions do statistical calculations and break down calculation results in a single function call. Results are composed of indefinite number of statistical items and returned as character strings. The following screen capture shows a view with 3 statistical columns which break down the number of runs and wins of each horse. Please see corresponding help topics for the detailed usages of these new functions.

 

StdTime( )

The new StdTime( ) function returns the standard running time of races of a particular combinations of distance, course, track, and class.

Argument for Future Records

The nBackRace argument of most MCL functions now supports negative numbers for retrieving data of future races. For example, HrFp(-1) will return the finishing position of next race (relative to the underlying race) while HrFp(1) returns the finishing position of last race.

 

Miscellaneous

There are many improvements, in terms of both functionality and efficiency, and bug fixing in the MCL language in the RaceMate 8.0.

 

 

2007-02-01

1.A new built-in column "W,Q,P Numbers - Same Jockey" is added. You may insert this new column into any views.
2.The following columns are added into the "WQP Statistics" view:
oJockey
oWQPU(Tot)-Jockey

In order to see this new change, you must reset the view by clicking on [Modify]-[Reset]. Please note that resetting a view will wipe out all your prior change made to the view.

3.A new filter "Same jockey" is added into the filter list of the Starter Views page.

 

2006-12-13

New MCL function:

HrRaceTime( ), JrRaceTime( ), SrRaceTime( )

 

2006-12-06

Three new buttons added into the Race Calendar form: [Prev Month], [Current Mtg], and [Next Month]

 

2006-11-20

New button [Go To Current Meeting] added on the Record Tree form

 

2006-11-20

New auto-hide feature for the Record Tree

 

2006-11-13

1.New columns in the History page of Horse, Jockey and Stable forms
2.Use the new HrDistTrack( ) function (for better sorting operation) for the distance column in the History page of Horse, Jockey and Stable forms

 

2006-11-09

1.New user interface in the Starter Views page of the Race Data form:

Dropdown list of filters and filter on/off checkbox

If you want to see only records which satisfies a criterion, you may set a filter on a starter view. In the past, filter is set by clicking on the "Filter" button on the RaceMate toolbar. Since filter setting is one of the most important steps of studying a race, we have put a filter dropdown list at the top of the Starter Views page together with a checkbox for turning on and off a filter. Setting a filter is now simply one or tow mouse clicks.

Relocation of controls for past records

The dropdown list for changing the track of history and the spinner for setting the number of history rows are now moved to the page top at the left of the filtering controls.

Balloon tips for view remarks

Now when you move your mouse over a view name in the view list, you will see a balloon tip showing the remark for the view. You may turn this tip on or off in the Edit View form.

Balloon tips for column remarks

Now when you move your mouse over the header of a column, you will see a balloon tip showing the remark for the column. You may turn this tip on or off in the Edit View form.

Newly added built-in view shown in red

In order to draw users' attention to newly added built-in views, whenever a new built-in view is added into RaceMate, its name will be shown in red in the view list. Once you have opened the view, its color will return to black.

2.Saving an existing view as a new view:

Now you can save an existing view as a new view. This is the fastest way of creating a new view from an existing view. You may then edit the newly created view without changing the structure of an existing view.

3.Read-only built-in views

In the past, all built-in views are editable. You can add or remove columns from a built-in view without any restriction. However, this was a problem for developers to update built-in views even if they found mistakes or improvement needs in the views. It is because any update to a built-in view may overwrite changes made by users or break the formulae added by users. A new type of built-in view, namely "ready-only built-in view", is therefore introduced. A read-only built-in view is not editable. However, users may save the view as a new editable view for their own customization needs.

4.New "Best Distance" view

The newly added "Best Distance" view is the first read-only view of RaceMate. It shows the winning percentage of horses, jockeys, and stables in different distances together with the date of their latest wins. Users can get an idea of which distance is best for a contestant. This view utilizes of the powerful new v8.0 functions HrCountBy( ), JrCountBy( ) and SrCountBy( ). Please see the help pages for these functions for details.

5.New built-in columns

* Horse Winning% with Dates by Distance

* Jokcey Winning% with Dates by Distance

* Stable Winning% with Dates by Distance

* Distance+Track

 

 

2006-11-06

The following functions now support "Enhanced Syntax":

HrCountBy( ),JrCountBy( ), SrCountBy( )
HrSumBy( ),JrSumBy( ), SrSumBy( )
HrAverageBy( ),JrAverageBy( ), SrAverageBy( )

 

The Enhanced Syntax addition makes the above functions the most powerful MCL functions of RaceMate. Now you can:

1.carry out multiple statistics in a single pass of past record scanning
2.customize the format of return strings
3.change the order of breakdown groups
4.define a summary session in the return string

Please read the help pages for the above functions for details.

 

2006-10-31

New MCL functions added: HrDistTrack( ), JrDistTrack( ), SrDistTrack( )

 

2006-10-16

New MCL functions added:

HrClassGroup( ),JrClassGroup( ), SrClassGroup( )

 

2006-10-13

Application status bar is updated back to version 8.0 style.

 

2006-10-03

In the Results page of the "Race Query and Comprehensive Statistics" form, a new column displaying time of the last section is added.
New function ListStdDev( ) for calculating Standard Deviation value is added.

 

2006-09-23

In the Allocation page of the Race Data form, horses not confirmed to start will be in brackets.

 

2006-09-20

New MCL functions HrDvd( ),JrDvd( ), SrDvd( ) added for retrieving all dividends data in RaceMate database.

 

2006-09-14

New MCL functions added:

Join( )
ListSort( )
ListSortVal( )
ListSortDesc( )
ListsortDescVal( )

New built-in columns added:

3 Fastest Times (Dist, Course, Going)
3 Fastest Times Average
Horse Wins by Draw
Horse Wins by Distance
Horse Wins by Jockey
Jockey Wins by Draw (12months)
Jockey Wins by Distance (12months)
Stable Wins by Draw (12months)
Stable Wins by Distance  (12months)
Stable Wins by Jockey  (12months)

 

2006-09-13

Application status bar is reverted to version 7.0 style.

 

2006-09-05

New columns added into the Race Search form
New columns added into the Index page of the Race Data form

 

2006-08-24

New built-in columns added:

Time Taken before Final Section

New comprehensive statistics item added:

Time Taken before Final Section

 

 


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