NCLab 0.9.4 Released

We are excited to announce that NCLab was upgraded to version 0.9.4! Here is a brief overview of the most important changes:
 

• A major improvement is the upgrade of the underlying windows library from Ext JS 4.1 to Ext JS 4.2. This required a huge number of changes across the entire platform. Most of them are invisible to the user. But almost all of the annoying layout problems (broken windows, misplaced buttons, freezing desktop etc.) of Ext JS 4.1 are now gone.
• Textbook assignments for Karel and Python are now accessible directly in the File menu of these modules, under a new item Assignments:

  

• We found and fixed a problem related to accumulation of temporary files. This was slowing down file system operations for users who had many files.
• We improved the way PLaSM handles colors. There is a new function COLOR that assigns a color to an object. For example, to create a cylinder cyl of base radius 0.5 and height 2.0, and assign a red color to it, one types:

  

  Here, RED is simply a predefined RGB triplet [255, 0, 0]. Other available default colors include GREEN, BLUE, BLACK, GRAY, BROWN, CYAN, MAGENTA, PURPLE, YELLOW, WHITE, and ORANGE. Of course, one can also specify the RGB triplet directly:

  

  The PLaSM demo script has been updated to reflect these changes. Now it generates the following output:

  

• The LaTeX module underwent significant changes including an intelligent uploader and downloader of archives. More improvements are on the way.
• Web pages for NCLab modules (Math, Physics, Chemistry, etc.) were substantially improved. NCLab always will have more functionality than we are able to show, but we strive to make this difference smaller.