STEM version 7.2c was released on Monday 31 January 2011, and is the first Implied
Logic branded issue of the software. This is an unprecedented mandatory update
for all current soft-licence users as the legacy soft-licensing server at Analysys
Mason will be switched off at the end of March.
Appearance
The most immediately apparent difference from previous versions is that there is
a new about box which matches the style of our new website and all of our document
templates.
All of the application titles, dialog and error-message captions have been updated,
and all contact details now refer to Implied Logic. (Please email Support
if you spot any oversights!)
This is not all about asserting our independence, it is also an attempt to remove
any further ambiguity about who is ‘behind STEM’. In the first six months since
the spin-out from Analysys Mason (AM), we have received more than a few support
calls via the old office switchboard, simply because AM contact details were all
over the software. We hope that the swift adoption of STEM 7.2c will soon put
an end to such diversions.
New soft-licensing server
There are several non-cosmetic changes in this update, but the central and critical
difference is that it requests soft licences from Implied Logic’s own servers. This
is quickly evident in that new licence-key emails are received from Implied Logic
Support. While we have had to rely on AM’s goodwill in maintaining a legacy system,
it has been a fundamental priority for us to remove this dependence at the earliest
opportunity, now achieved by the release of STEM 7.2c.
Although we cannot expect all users to change overnight, we have made this a mandatory update
for all current soft-licence users as the legacy soft-licensing server at
Analysys Mason will be switched off at the end of March. This means that it will
not be possible to refresh a soft licence for any earlier version of STEM after
31 March 2011. Although this cut-off date is rather arbitrary, we have had to draw
a ‘line in the sand’ to ensure that this mission-critical system will shortly become
firmly under our sole control and repair.
Because of the significance of this particular release, we have had a small group
of external testers try-out an early release candidate and we are confident that
7.2c will not cause any new problems in the field. However, it should be noted that,
while 7.2c will read models created with any earlier version of STEM, 7.2b is the
only earlier version which will read a 7.2c model without modification of the .DTL
file. Therefore team users should take care to synchronise their respective updates
to avoid any possible compatibility issues. (This disconnect arose when we increased
the number of parameters available for templates and dimensions from 120 to 240
in STEM 7.2b.)
New or changed functionality
As a maintenance release, 7.2c does not have any major new features, but we have
taken the opportunity to make some useful tweaks, mostly based on user-observation
and feedback during expert-advisory or training projects in the last twelve months:
- various refinements for the export of results to Excel, including matching the consolidation
to that selected in the Results program when results are first exported
- removing the ‘results workspace merge’ message which has confused so many students
when progressing from one STEM training exercise to the next
- adding an option to suppress the (mostly superfluous) model name from chart titles.
The full release notes are available within the
support area.