To FootAstronomy and Astronautics, Batch Files in DOS, Computer Usage, Date and Time, Delphi, Internet, JavaScript, and Pascal; see below for index and details.
| General | Copying | Citation | Links |
| Topics | Changes | Index | Site |
| Framed | Double Framed | Less Framed | Not Framed |
Much of this Web site was written for those who are already active or knowledgeable in the relevant field. I would be pleased to be E-Mailed about any specific points of difficulty for other visitors.
Pages should be generally satisfactory at 640×480 pixels or better, medium font, though at least some of the tables will need scrolling at that resolution. Users of WebTV should upgrade to a proper computer.
This fixed-pitch and proportional text is at the default size set by your browser; if not conveniently-sized, adjust your browser.
Revise?
This begins a test paragraph in sans-serif 16px. The font in this single sentence is set to '16px Times New Roman' which is what I normally use for displaying ordinary text when writing pages. The font in this single sentence should be set to '16px Courier New, smaller' which is what I normally use for displaying code when writing pages. And this represents a normal code fragment. This ends the test paragraph.
I'm not a skilful typist; so, if something doesn't make sense, consider replacing letters by ones nearby on a UK keyboard.
Please do not fetch this page, or any other pages or files of mine, by automated subscription; that wastes my limited resources.
This site is not Merlin (but long ago I had an E-mail address with that in it); it is Merlyn.
No public copying or re-publication of this site or of any of its text or any other content is allowed, electronically, on paper, or otherwise, except as in Continuation below.
Occasional private copying for reference is encouraged, if it is not automated. Excess downloading wastes limited resources.
Computer code here is presented for execution by others, without formality. Where a non-trivial amount is used, the source should be acknowledged in comment.
For general information, see Copyright and links there.
Before citing any of these pages either in public print-on-paper or in Internet mass-media, please contact me to discuss bandwidth issues. Other linking is welcome without formality.
I neither accept requests from strangers to link to their sites nor do I make such requests.
I do not host advertisements. Don't ask.
Some links in this site point to elsewhere in the same page or to another page within this site; other links point to sites elsewhere. The presence of a link to a different site should be taken as a suggestion, rather than as an endorsement; sites can change their nature.
On this page, links within the page are italic, and links outside my site are bold; links to other pages on my site are not specially decorated.
Hovering on links on this page, and on most pages on this site that use JavaScript, can indicate (in IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari at least) whether the destination of a link is within the current page [.], or relative and so in this Web site [+], or of external Web form [#], or of other form [*]. That requires JavaScript to be enabled.
Short and/or non-alphabetic links, like $ & (g), are for private use in my local master copy.
As others have linked to my pages, an AltaVista or Google citation search will lead to many more-or-less related pages, of differing natures and qualities.
One should not bookmark a framed page; No-Frame it first.
| Summer 2007 | Many pages removed or disabled because of reduced server
provision; ALL CURRENT ONES ARE NOW RESTORED. |
||
| 2007-09-27 | JavaScript Debugging created | ||
| 2007-11-15 | Astron 4 created, for page size reasons | ||
| Continual | Minor Changes | ||
| 2008-01-04 | Start of also using Safari. | ||
| 2008-03-27 | Server Side Includes created | ||
| 2008-04-09 | robots.txt created | ||
| 2008-04-28 | estralgs.txt created |
The major sections are alphabetically ordered :-
Anyone, acting corporately or privately, who finds information on this Web site useful enough to deserve recompense is invited to contribute support to the work of my Godson, his sisters, and his mother (see at Just Giving) for the Third World, directly or through local organisations.
In order to reduce mistaken hits by simple-minded searchers (there is a person of my name from UT who seems to have been talented at the public competitive insertion of spherical objects into nominally wicker receptacles), I have largely removed my first name from these pages; it is a common anagram of "hJno".
I am not a Medic, and have never been a Parliamentary Candidate
Merlyn 3 is my current Internet machine, used from 2006-10-19.
It is a P4D/3GHz PC with Windows XP pro sp2, IE 7, Firefox 2, Opera 9, Turnpike 6.05, etc.; I also have access to Safari 3, in XP pro.
Merlyn 2 died on 2006-10-14; it was a PII/300 PC with Windows 98, MSIE 4, Turnpike 4, etc., etc., used from Summer 1998.
I also sometimes run what remains of old Merlyn 1, which is a Tandon PacII 486/33 PC with MS-DOS 6.20, BP7, etc.; and I also have an Amstrad PPC640.
Merlyn connects to the Internet via Demon dial-up two or three times a day, usually, for E-Mail and Usenet News; but rarely in BT prime time.
2007-01-18 : Broadband was installed today, and works well for Web and FTP; but, for the moment at least, dial-up is still used for most Mail and News.
Please note that BT charges for connection time; so do not E-Mail me large, useless, unexpected items. Do not E-Mail duplicates of News articles. Do not send duplicate E-Mails; physics.org is a permanent redirecting address. True Net Abusers may get reported.
This Web site is hosted at Demon Internet Limited; access, unlike normal update, does not depend on my personal systems.
Pages may be cached, either at Demon or by your browser; reload as appropriate.
Demon's Web hosting was migrated around 2007 June 14-17.
The available storage was significantly reduced by the inclusion of superfluous logging material. And the nominal bandwidth limit was reduced from 60 MB per day to a mere 1 GB per month.
2007-06-23 : It was necessary to remove almost all files from the programs/ directory, to keep within size quota.
2007-06-26 : To reduce bandwidth, some sets of pages were temporarily disabled.
2007-07-03 ff. : Provision of a little more storage has enabled restoration of many files in the root and programs/ directories.
2007-08-27 ff. : It has sometimes been necessary to disable more pages, or possible to enable them again.
2008-04-09 : I have introduced a robots.txt file, in the expectation of reducing access and the hope of then restoring pages. After a few days, it seems effective. All current pages are now restored.
Up to 2006-10-14, I used Win98 1st Edn IE 4.
From 2006-10-19, I used WinXP sp2 IE 6.
From 2007-01-18, I also had WinXP sp2 IE 7.
From 2007-03-31, I also have Firefox 2.
From 2007-04-25, I also have Opera 9.
From 2008-01-04, I also have Safari 3.
From 2008-03-18, I no longer have IE 6.
Most of this site was written in IE4, but was sometimes checked in later browsers. All will now have been adequately reviewed in IE6, and some in IE7, Firefox, Opera, and/or Safari.
The date at the top of each page should be the UK civil date of the last non-trivial change.
Site navigation does not need scripts to be enabled. No page absolutely requires script to run; but pages about JavaScript need it, pages about VBScript need it, forms need it, and about half of the other pages benefit to some extent by it.
In pages with JavaScript, common functions are generally defined in include files; see JavaScript Include Files.
My browser settings are default, more or less. My LOCAL homepage can set itself in MSIE to 640 px wide (screen is 1024 px), and by using it I keep my page-design window at that width. That gives a reasonable number of words of Times New Roman per line. The code-viewing boxes are sized to fill that, and luckily give me 70 characters per line. If PRE as sized by CSS gives a similar number of characters within the page width, I shall be happy.
I then hope that other systems will give a reasonable rendition with reasonable settings, using a "normal-size" screen but not necessarily a full-screen window.
This site uses CSS styling. For a different appearance, turn CSS off in your browser; or save the page locally without my CSS file. To retain styling, save also styles-a.css.
The main font face and size that you see are the defaults set in your browser.
I have been using mainly MSIE 4 and 6, with default fonts Medium size, Times New Roman and Courier New. In IE 6, the fixed-pitch font is broader, which presented minor problems before adjustment by CSS.
At present, except possibly by way of these links (which you are not invited to select), there are relatively few graphics and no sounds here; and frames are optional.
These Web pages were originally developed largely with the HTML editor DiDa v1.72; recently I have much more often used the general editor PFE, and other tools such as MiniTrue. Moving to Windows XP has caused some changes.
The HTML is routinely tested with a copy of Tidy (downloaded; from W3 or SourceForge); and local links and anchors are tested with my program cheklinx.
The pages are intermittently checked with Web validators such as those at w3.org, WebLint, and as far as I can are made to pass; and possibly with WebXACT, Cynthia and NetMechanic, and the worst faults removed; and maybe with WDG HTML Validator - Validate Me.
Most pages are now very largely compatible with HTML 4.01 Strict.
My HTML pages, redirectors apart, should all have "Merlyn Home Page" near the top and either "Surrey" or "near London" near the bottom. Therefore, asking a search engine for pages containing one or other of those, plus topic-selecting words, should find any relevant Web pages of mine, without finding partial quotes. It may be necessary to repeat the search with omitted results included.
To see Web pages in something resembling another language, try Google Translate or Babel Fish.
It has been suggested that some parts of this Web site may be useful. In the event of the unexpected demise of myself, my PC, my connection, or my ISP, these pages will either vanish or cease to change; I grant permission for the users of each set of these pages then to select one of their number to acquire, maintain, and update the set, for as long as the situation continues, provided that the head and foot of each page are suitably altered.
E-Mail services are much affected by malware and spam. Therefore, the simple old jrs@merlyn address will probably NOT work, and E-Mail to other addresses at Merlyn may also not be received. Other privately-notified addresses should work.
DO NOT send me
duplicates, overquotes, bottom-quotes, or attachments;
or HTML / multipart / binary / WP / DOC formats,
or unreasonably large messages,
unless given explicit permission to do so.
Plain-Text E-Mail Formatting
Configuring MSOE Correctly
for Plain-Text E-Mail
Coursework Questions
Link Requests
E-Mail must have a suitable Subject line in plain ISO-7
characters,
and must be clearly distinguishable from spam.
E-Mail should now be sent, in plain text, to
rather than to web at merlyn.
(At physics.org system now use J.R.Stockton)
If that fails, try
.
The addresses spam@... jrs@...
reply@... have been discontinued.
Addresses ending in four digits are short-term, changeing weekly.
** ALSO SEE ABOVE **
I do not accept E-Mail using Big5 or GB2312; any so marked is unlikely to be read.
E-Mail and News from Merlyn is Dated when it is queued for output; my clock is unlikely to be much in error. When I connect to the Net and upload, my ISP adds its own time-stamps. I do have other accounts.
Outbound E-Mail reported as undeliverable is sometimes referenced, with the given reason, in page FailMail.