NumericalChameleon 1.6.0

Description:

The NumericalChameleon is a free, open source, platform-independent and localized software to convert units. It converts numbers with a precision of up to 1000 significant figures. It supports more than 3200 units in 82 categories, including not only all important physical units of categories like length, area, volume, electricity, magnetism, force, power, energy, pressure, mass, temperature, velocity, acceleration, radioactivity and time, but also exchange rates, timezones, spoken numbers (literally and by audio*), roman numbers, 35 radixes, bits&bytes, screen resolutions, colorcodes, unicodes, international dial codes, calendar and holiday calculations, phonetic alphabets and more. It provides a modern, dynamic and graphical user interface.

You have unlimited access on all categories, units, icons, filters and themes. You can add, modify, hide or delete them. All configuration data are stored in flat files. You can update exchange rates from several webservices.

The NumericalChameleon is released under the terms of GNU GPL.

For detailed information see features and examples.

* At the moment, the audio feature is available for German, US English and the morse code only. A soundcard is required. Soundfiles must be downloaded separately.
 

Features:

Absolute free software

• This software is OSI Certified Open Source Software
• Free of charge
• Free of registration
• Free of any limitations
• Free of advertisement

• The application is platform independent, because it is written entirely in Java. You can run it on all common operating systems with a Java Runtime Environment (JRE), such as Windows (95/98/ME/2000/2003/NT/XP/Vista), Linux (GNU/Debian, Red Hat, SUSE, Mandriva, etc.), Unix (BSD, Mac OS X on PPC, Mac OS X on x86, Solaris on SPARC, Solaris on x86) or OS/2, etc. Get the latest JRE from www.java.com
• Runs also without an internet connection
• Runs not only on 32 bit architectures, but also on 64-bit
• Can not only be run in single user environments, but also in multi-user-environments and network environments
• You don't need an internet connection to run it, but it also runs also over the internet
• It keeps compatibility with J2SE 1.3, but takes all the advantages of 1.4.2, 5.0 or Java SE 6 if available
• The installer creates shortcuts under Windows
• A desktop file is available for Gnome and KDE users
• Behaves like a native Apple application under Mac OS X

• Interactive, graphical Installer which doesn't touch your registry
• Batch-Installer (with xml config) for the command line to automatize the installation on many clients or for installing the program on a headless server in a network for example

• Unlimited precision before the comma (e. g. 1 Yottabyte = 9671406556917033397649408 Bit)
• Decimal precision up to 1000 after the comma (e. g. 1 m = 39.370078740157480314960629921259842519685039... inches)
• Optional scientific notation for results

• Supports more than 3200 units in 81 categories:
• Standard physical units of all popular categories (A-Z) are supported (angle, counting, length, area, volume, time, temperatures, forces, pressure, frequency, velocity, acceleration, loudness, refraction, si prefixes, data storage, data transfer, screen resolution, electric current, electric density, electric voltage, electric field strength, electric flux density, agility of electrons, electric resistance, electric charge, conductance, capacitance, energy, irradiation, energy density per volume, energy density, heat capacity, entropy, luminous intensity, luminance, luminous flux, illuminance, exposure, luminous flux per radiant flux, power, power per area, power per volume, power per mass, mass, mass per time, mass proportion, mass concentration, density, mass density, magnetic flux, magnetic field strength, magnetic flux density, inductance, ionizing radiations, specific activity, stereo angle, absorbed dose, exposure, amount of substance, proportion of substance, dynamic viscosity, kinematic viscosity, proportion of volume, volumetric flow, specific volume, hardness of water)
• Roman numerals
• 35 radixes (radix 2 - 36), including dual, octal and hex
• Exchange rates, update them over the net
• Historic Euroland conversions
• Converts Timezones from all over the world for any given date or time
• It speaks numbers in 22 languages literally and by audio*
• International dial codes to and from all countries
• Alphanumerical phonenumbers
• Calendar-Calculations (Day of week, week of year, Sun signes, etc., more than 90 international federal and non federal holidays from the US, Germany and Switzerland)
• Colorcodes
• Unicodes
• Static Tables (cloth sizes, natural tables)
• Phonetic alphabets, including both international and national alphabets, NATO/ICAO and Morse

• Modern GUI
• It's both internationalized and localized, language support for English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish and Portuguese
• It supports Unicode
• The GUI  is resizable and positionable to save space on your screen
• Five views are supported, so you can hide GUI components you don't want to see to save space on your screen
• Several Look and Feels and themes are supported, just a real chameleon
• There are images for both categories and units (there are pixmaps available for 241 countries!)
• Right click popup-menus for faster navigation
• Tooltips for all important components
• Disable tooltips if you don't like them
• Online-Help
• The best: you have unlimited permission for adding, modifying, hiding and deleting ALL categories, units, icons, filters and themes

 
• Easy input
• While typing values you see the result of the calculation immediately
• Increase or decrease input values with one mouseclick
• There is a graphical user interfaces to pick a Color, supporting the mit HSB- and RBG-model
• There is a graphical user interfaces to pick a Date easily
• Build-in editor with undo and redo functions for making notices and save conversions in several formats

 
• Easy navigation
• Filter for categories are supported, so you can hide categories you don't want to see
• Favorites/Bookmarks are supported for accessing units much quicker

(in May 2004, the NC was the first application that introduced this feature in an unit converter)
• Search for units and categories

 
• Customizable output
• You can choose the format for the results
• You can define your own formats
• A step controlled unit list can be generated for one, a few or all targets

• Update exchange rates for any date with the graphical user interface or at the command line with cronjobs (filter for 12 webservices are supported), and you can create your own exchange rate filters
• Export calculated data to your favorite Spreadsheet or word processing application, like OpenOffice, StarOffice, Word, Excel, etc.
• Export international holidays to calendar formats for dtcm, Outlook or iCalendar-compatible applications
• Load and save calculations in several formats (Text, HTML, Unicode UTF-8, UTF-16 little endian, UTF-16 big endian are supported)
• Cut/copy/paste are supported to allow importing/exporting data to and from other applications

Developer support

• All source codes are available (installation required)
• Ant-Script for developers
• The NumericalChameleon has been created with Netbeans

Copyright:

NumericalChameleon v1.6.0 Copyright (C) 2001-2007
Dipl.-Inf. (FH) Johann Nepomuk Loefflmann

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.
 

Requirements:

To run the NumericalChameleon, you need a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). You can obtain it for free. It is required to have at least the JRE version 1.3.1, but it is recommended to install JRE 1.4.2 or even better the JRE 5 or 6 to get all features. Download a suitable JRE for your operating system.

Download:
Read the sections Requirements and Copyright . You have to read and accept the GNU General Public License if you want download "NumericalChameleon".

The Application (required):
The application package contains an interactive installer which installs the application, the sourcecode can be selected during the installation. A Java Runtime environment must be downloaded separately.

Download the NumericalChameleon 1.6.0 Filename: nc-1.6.0-install.zip MD5:      5743e45cd7f2d937276f547ee0f29240 SHA-1:    e5f7b5bb4ba60d550d141c9bb08d92750e6fcf4a Size:     2,540,198 bytes

All versions of the NumericalChameleon are listed here.

Update (recommended)
You need to install the NumericalChameleon 1.6.0 before you are going to apply the patch. To install the patch, extract the zip file to the installation directory, and overwrite any existing files. For details see the readme file which is included in the patch.

Download the latest patch Filename: nc-1.6.0-patch-20070225.zip MD5:      e25523c13a606b1044f5df9c238aa716 SHA-1:    61c879dbfdff2ad762c02a9f94d997fb7d9ffb37 Size:     362693 bytes Date:     Feb 25, 2007

If you are using the NC categories called Calendar (year) or Timezones, you should also update your Java Runtime Environment to the latest version, run also the time zone updater if applicable.

Plugins (optional)
Download the plugins if you would like to use the feature "Speak a number". It is a separate download, because the files are huge; a soundcard is required. To install a plugin, simply copy the jar file(s) to the NumericalChameleon's folder called "lib", restart the NC and select the conversion "Spoken Numbers".

Download the German syllables file (female voice, human) Filename:  ncsound-german.jar MD5:       3d0f9b25886d6cfdd60da48552db2d8e SHA-1:     18c1f72ed1a7de0ad0c2106e8b7ac01ef23d4dcf Size:      16,609,312 bytes Update:    May 4, 2003 (version 1.0.0)

Download the US English syllables file (male voice, computer generated) Filename:  ncsound-us_english.jar MD5:       44cb3e1d779c002129295f9d3ab96ce9 SHA-1:     f38d48dfee57efcda158b55478a61cee82e84d88 Size:      1,122,150 bytes Update:    May 23, 2005 (version 1.0.1)

To verify the MD5 or SHA-1 digest, you can use the free program Jacksum.
The high precision values for the NumericalChameleon have been calculated by BigAl.
 

Contact:

Keep updated - the announcement-mail-alias:
Are you interested in hearing the latest from the NumericalChameleon? If so, it is easy to stay informed. Just subscribe to the announcement alias. It's just only me who can post messages to the list. Expect a maximum of 12 emails per year.

   To subscribe to the list, send a message to:  announce-subscribe@numericalchameleon.dev.java.net
   To remove your address from the list, send a message to: announce-unsubscribe@numericalchameleon.dev.java.net
   View the announcements list archive: https://numericalchameleon.dev.java.net/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=announce
 

Discuss with other users - the user-mail-alias:
If you have something for the wish list or if you have trouble with the NC, write to this mailing list. The mailing list is a good place to discuss new ideas, features and bugs.

   To subscribe to the list, send a message to:  users-subscribe@numericalchameleon.dev.java.net
   To remove your address from the list, send a message to: users-unsubscribe@numericalchameleon.dev.java.net
   To write to the list, send a message to:  users@numericalchameleon.dev.java.net
 

Private eMail:
Just drop me an email. Please be patient if you don't receive an eMail on the same day, because I take some time for each request.
 

What's new in 1.6.0 ?

• The NC supports
• More than 3200 units in 82 categories and 10 exchange rate filters
• This is more than 900 new units and 4 new categories
• The graphical user interface has been localized in 7 languages
• New modules/categories
• Convert timezones from all over the wold, the calculation take the summer time as well as date and time into account
• 19 interactive phonetic alphabets are supported (international, morse, NATO/ICAO, American and British English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Hebrew and a few historic alphabets)
• The category "Screen resolutions" is new
• The category "Performance of the FPU" is new
• The category "Calendar (year)" is new and it is aware of more then 90 international holidays from the US, Germany and Switzerland
• The category "Calendar (date)" is aware of the sun signs and the "age in days"
• The category "Color" has been expanded to the HSB-colormodel
• The category "Unicode" is able to take strings
• It speaks numbers in "Morsecode" literally and by audio
• For all Star Trek fans: Klingon spoken numbers (up to 10³⁰-1)
• New features
• The graphical user interface has been optimized for faster navigation
• Additional language support for Greek and Hebrew
• English has been separated into US and UK English
• The country descriptions (ISO-3166) are not only available in English and German, but also in French, Portuguese and Hebrew
• The currency descriptions (ISO-4217) are not only available in English, but also in German and Hebrew
• You can bookmark favorites for a faster navigation
• You can filter categories
• If you filter categories the GUI shows an appropriate icon
• Category filter are stored in flat files and it is easy to create your own
• You can search for units and categories
• All available international holidays can be exported to dtcm, Outlook or any vCalendar-compatible application
• You can easily select a date with the date picker dialog, you can select the week of the year or just add or subtract days or weeks to find the date you want.
• If you select the category spoken numbers, calendar or color, the GUI shows additional buttons for an appropriate context
• Undo- and redo-functions are available for the inputs
• The build-in editor can save text in ISO-8855-1
• if available, more Look&Feel-Standards are choosable (Aqua on Mac OS X, GTK+ 2.0, plastic, squareness and Ocean which comes with J2SE 1.5)
• The configuration items has been joined into one menu
• The navigation items has been joined into one menu
• You can disable tooltips
• The feature "native or java decorated windows" (introduced in NC 1.5) can be enabled or disabled with the GUI
• You can set both default unit and default value
• If you restart the application you will be informed that the window will disappear for a while
• Tables and help have been separated
• A few nicer images
• New tables
• NOAA-Scales
• Bugs fixed
• Improved internationalization
• The function "cut" copies the content before
• Too many "and" at the English spoken number module (already in Patch nc-1.5.1-patch-20040126.zip)
• There is no "and" if you just use integer values - bug at the US English spoken number module
• All exchange rate filters have been updated
• updated ISO-3166 list (AX:Åland Islands and CS:Serbia and Montenegro are new)
• Latest modules and libraries
• JavaHelp 2.0_01 (already in Patch nc-1.5.1-patch-20040126.zip)

Sugar 1.2.0

Installation:

1. Go to www.java.com and install the latest free Java Runtime Environment, see also Requirements. The istallation is pretty easy and should be straight forward.

2. Download and unzip the file called nc-1.6.0-install.zip.

   cd installdirectory
   unzip nc-1.6.0-install.zip

3. Start the installer by entering the following commands in a shell. If you are a Windows, Solaris 8+ or Mac OS X-user, just double-click on nc-install.jar If the installer doesn't start with a doubleclick ...

   cd downloaddirectory
   java -jar nc-install.jar

4. Just follow the install instructions. The installpackage was created with IzPack , it will copy all files to the installation directory. Under Windows it creates also shortcuts for the Start-Menu.

5. If you don't like the graphical installer or if you have a headless server, please download nc-install.xml, modify that file (it is the value between the tags <installpath>and </installpath>) and run the installer at the commandline:

   cd downloaddirectory
   java -jar nc-install.jar nc-install.xml

6. Run the NumericalChameleon. If you are a Windows, Solaris 8+ or a Mac OS X user, just double-click on nc.jar located in the bin subdirectory. Otherwise start the NC as follows on the commandline. If the program doesn't start with a doubleclick ...

   cd installationdirectory/bin
   java -jar nc.jar

7. The NC is able to speak numbers by audio. All you need is a soundcard and a .jar file containing sounds. To enable this feature, just download a .jar file which contains sounds. Copy the .jar file to the NumericalChameleon's folder called "lib" and restart the NumericalChameleon. For example, let a german number speak by selecting the following menu items: Conversion/Spoken Numbers, Target/german, Target/speak number
 

Java Web Start

Launch it:
Just click on the image below to launch the program.

Alternatively, click on http://numchameleon.sourceforge.net/javawebstart/nc.jnlp

For starting the NumericalChameleon through the web, Java Web Start (JWS) must have been installed. A suitable JWS comes with the Java Runtime Environment 1.4.2 or any newer release (see also requirements).

What is Java Web Start?
Java Web Start (JWS) is a component of your Java Runtime Environment (JRE).  The JWS is launched automatically when you click on the icon for the first time. JWS caches NumericalChameleon locally on your computer. Thus, any subsequent launches are almost instantaneous as all the required resources are already available locally. Every time you start NumericalChameleon, JWS checks the application's website to see if a new version is available, and if so, automatically downloads and launches it.

Restrictions:
The Java Web Start release of the NumericalChameleon is the same release you can download and install manually, except the following:
- an Internet-connection is required, a fast Internet-connection is recommended
- you must give the NC full permissions for accessing your computer, because the NC would like to read and write program preferences
- categories, units, themes, filters and icons are read only, you can't modify them (they have been packed in jar files for JWS deployment)
- the service for updating the exchange rates manually is disabled
- exchange rates will be updated occasionally, but not regular (jar files must be signed by myself)

Recommendation:
The JWS release of the NC is useful, if you don't want to go through the installation process or if you just want to have a quick look at the program. But, only the manually installed version provides all the fredom the NC can offer. If possible, I recommend a manual installation of the NumericalChameleon, because it hasn't all the restrictions the Java Web Start release has.
 

FAQ
I don't find a setup.exe file to execute, where is it?
The NumericalChameleon can be installed by a platform independent installer called nc-install.jar. See also Installation.

I double click on nc-install.jar, but it doesn't install
An program has hijacked the .jar file type on your computer, but don't worry, you can fix the problem with the jarfix program which is also available on my website: http://www.jonelo.de/java/jarfix

The installation starts, but exits with an error
This happens on Windows Vista only. Please extract the files from this zip file rather than using the installer. Note that if you going that route, there will be no icons created on the desktop. Please double click on the nc.jar file in the subdirectory called "bin". The problem with the Installer under Windows Vista will be fixed in the next release.

The exchange rate update does not find any rates, what's wrong?
Save a webpage to a single file. If you use the Internet Explorer (IE), select the option "Save as type: Web Page, HTML only" at the dialog called "Save Web Page", otherwise the IE rewrites (destroys) the original HTML of the exchange rate provider and the exchange rate filter (which is based on regular expressions) won't work anymore!

However, I recommend to use an alternate browser like Firefox, because it doesn't cause those problems.

Does the NumericalChameleon run as Portable App as well ?
Yes. Simply start the NumericalChameleon with a User Homedirectory that points to the Program Homedirectory of the NC. With this trick, you can run the NC also from an USB-Stick with all your personal Settings and Favorites. Example (if E: is the drive of the USB-Stick and if nc160 is the directory where you have stored the NC):
E:\nc160\bin> java -Duser.home=.. -jar nc.jar

Does the NC also run on my mobile device?
It depends what mobile device you mean. The NC also runs on small mobile devices like Asus' EeePC, Intel's Classmate or Quanta's XO "One Laptop Per Child PC". Any device that supports the Java Standard Edition can run the NC, and you can run it even if you don't have an online connection. Note that PDAs and cell phones are usually using the Java Micro Edition which is a only subset of the standard.

Where is the sourcecode?
During the installation all source code is automatically copied to the subdirectory called "source" by default.

Timezones: It seems that the Daylight Saving Time (DST) rules are not up to date
Update to the latest Java Runtime Environment. Also use the tzupdater tool for Java Platforms from Sun Microsystems (Linux, Solaris, Windows). Mac OS X users can also use the tzupdater tool from Sun if they specifying an appropriate system property to make the tzupdater happy. For details see my post on the Apple mail alias.

I cannot move the scrollbar at the menu with JRE 5, with JRE 1.4.2 there was no problem.
This is regression bug 5036146 in the JRE 5.0. A workaround is to use the mouse wheel rather than clicking on the arrows of the scrollbars. My recommendation is: upgrade to JRE 5 update 12 or JRE 6.

Java Webstart: Why is it required to allow the NC to access my computer?
The NC will only read and write files in the directory called ".NumericalChameleon" which you can find under your homedirectory. In this directory you find your personal preferences and favorites for the program. Granting permissions is also necessary to store the data you have generated with the NC and for being able to print out files. If you don't grant permissions, the NC will not start by Java Webstart. If you don't want the NC to access your computer through Java Webstart, download and install the NC manually.

I have a problem with the NC. Can you help me?
Select Help/Manual and check if you can solve your problem with the documentation. If you still can't find an answer for your problem, just send me an email or use the mail aliases. Describe your problem as precise as you can (operating system, Java version, probelm description). Select Help/Support from the NC. Lines will be printed to the textarea of the program. Attach those lines to your email as well. Note: it can take up to 4 weeks for a reply.
 

Highlights/Press:

For program history details please have a look in the on line help of the program.
 

Examples:
Here are some outputs, generated by the NumericalChameleon:

Length: 1 [meter (m)] = 100.00 [centimeter (cm)] 987654.321 [light year (ly)] = 9343733333450130000000000000000000000000 [Attometer (am)] Radix 2-36: 1234567890 [Radix 10 (Decimal)] = 1001001100101100000001011010010 [Radix 2 (Dual)] numericalchameleon [Radix 36] = 161486D88F0ACDCF55990397 [Radix 16 (Hexadecimal)] Roman Numbers: 1973 [Decimal] = MCMLXXIII [Roman] MMXXXVIII [Roman] = 2038 [Decimal] Euroland: 49699.99 [DEM (Deutsche Mark)] = 25411.20 [EUR (Euro)] 80000 [NLG (Niederländische Gulden)] = 499532.15 [ATS (Österreichische Schilling)] Spoken Numbers: 12345678901234567890 [Decimal] = twelve quintillion three hundred forty-five quadrillion six hundred seventy-eight trillion nine hundred one billion two hundred thirty-four million five hundred sixty-seven thousand eight hundred ninety [US English] 12345678901234567890 [Decimal] = zwölf Trillionen dreihundertfünfundvierzig Billiarden sechshundertachtundsiebzig Billionen neunhunderteine Millarden zweihundertvierunddreissig Millionen fünfhundertsiebenundsechzigtausendachthundertneunzig [German] Bits & Bytes: 1 [100 MB Zip] = 68.8991921321 [1.44 MB 3.5" HD floppy] 1 [Yottabyte (YB)] = 1152921504606846976 [Megabyte (MB)] 1 [Yottabyte (YB)] = 9671406556917033397649408 [Bit] Data Transfer: 700 [Megabyte/min, binary] = 20.39 [CD-ROM  4x] (a 4x speed CD-ROM will need about 20 minutes to burn 700 MB) 5 [Megabyte/min, binary] = 12.48 [Modem (56k, V.92, download)] (a 56k Modem will need more than 12 Minutes to download 5 MB) Temperature: 89.6 [Fahrenheit (°F)] = 32.00 [Centigrade (°C)] 100 [Kelvin (K)] = -138.52 [Réaumur (°R)] Color: 200, 63, 39 [R, G, B (dec)] = C83F27 [RRGGBB (hex)] Unicode: 20ac [Hexadecimal] = € [Unicode] @ [Unicode] = 40 [Hexadecimal] 169 [Decimal] = © [Unicode] Volume: 1 [m³] = 100000 [Centiliter (cl)] Calendar (date): 07/04/1776 [Date (MM/DD/YYYY)] = Thursday [Day of week] Calendar (year): 2005 [Jahr] = Mar 27, 2005 [DE: Ostersonntag (Ostern) [gesetzlich]] 2005 [Year] = Nov 24, 2005 [US: Thanksgiving Day [legal holiday]] 2005 [Year] = Sep 18, 2005 [CH: Eidgenössischer Dank-, Buss- und Bettag] Timezones: Mar 16, 2006 12:00:00 AM [Europe/Berlin (Germany)] = Mar 15, 2006 6:00:00 PM [America/New_York (United States)] Dialcodes:  [United States] = 011 49 [Germany] ...

Links where the NumericalChameleon is listed

• 
• https://sourceforge.net/projects/numchameleon/
• http://de.dir.yahoo.com
• http://directory.google.com/Top/
• http://dmoz.org
• http://freeware.de
• http://freewareportal.de
• http://freshmeat.net/projects/nc/
• http://scriptsearch.internet.com
• http://unihedron.com (partner link to gconvert)
• http://www.chip.de
• http://www.codebeach.com
• http://www.excite.de (dmoz mirror)
• http://www.freedownloadscenter.com
• http://www.freeware.de
• http://www.freeware-archiv.de/
• http://www.freewarepage.de
• http://www.gasketdata.org (Fachhochschule Münster, Forschungsbereich  Dichtungstechnik, Rubrik Umrechnungsprogramme)
• http://www.heise.de/ct
• http://www.hotscripts.com
• http://www.incors.org
• http://www.javashareware.com
• http://www.jonelo.de (en)
• http://www.jonelo.de (de)
• http://www.mathtools.net
• http://www.scriptdex.com
• http://www.shareware.de
• http://www.seul.org/edu/report59.html
• http://www.solaris4you.dk
• http://www.sunsteam.com
• http://www.winload.de
• https://numericalchameleon.dev.java.net/