Changelog

What changed in Term Planner, newest first. This page holds versions 1.38 back to 1.22; versions 1.21 back to 0.1 are on Older versions. It is a static page: nothing is saved between visits.

Version 1.38

A way back to a fresh form. Until now the only way to clear a term you had finished with was to reload the page, and anything typed after that reload was gone with it — fine when you remembered, awkward when you were midway through checking a second term against the first. There is now a “Start a new term” button at the end of the row of buttons under the topics box.

It takes two clicks. The first changes the button to “Click again to clear the form” and says what clearing does; the second click clears it. Leave the button alone for about eight seconds, click it once by accident and walk away, and it goes back to its own label and says that nothing was cleared, so a single stray click cannot empty a term you have just typed.

A confirmed click puts every field back to the values the page loads with — the first teaching date blank, Mon and Wed ticked, 12 sessions, 1 to start numbering at, 60 minutes, date wording on the short form, the week-number, revision-week and spread options unticked, and the units, last-teaching-date, skip-dates, topics and notes boxes empty — throws away the plan on screen along with the summary, the copy box and every message under the buttons, and then asks the planner to rebuild from those blank fields, so the planner reports the blank term in its usual words rather than this button inventing a plan or a rule of its own. Nothing was ever saved, so the only thing lost is what was on screen, and the button says so before it clears anything.

The button and its status line are made by a new, small script, reset.js, so no other file was touched and the planner's own rules stay where they were. It builds a plan through the same “Build schedule” button a person presses, and it reads every default straight off the page it is on rather than keeping a second copy of them. Like the rest of this tool, it was checked in a browser only.

Known limits: the print layout, the repeating heading row and the sheet estimate have been checked in a browser's print preview only, not on a real printer, and the saved CSV has been checked in a browser only.

Version 1.37

One more long paragraph on the help page is shorter. Under “Getting the plan out”, the paragraph describing the line that estimates the printed sheets ran to about ten lines on a phone: the two example sentences, then what the count is measured from, the amber tint, and a rule-of-thumb caveat that made the same point about the print preview twice. Nothing in it was wrong, but it was the longest block left on the page and easier to skim past than to read.

The paragraph is now about two-thirds of the words, in the same order and with no fact dropped: both example sentences quoted in full, what the count is measured from (the rows and how far each wraps, plus the summary above the table and the warning box under it, since both of those print), the amber tint and the “Heads-up” that keeps colour from being the only sign, that the line is for the screen only, that it is a rule of thumb for A4 with ordinary margins and 12pt text, and that the print preview is the true count.

Nothing on the planner changed: no field, no rule, no wording of any result, and the same table, summary, copied text, CSV, saved file and printed sheet. Docs only, like versions 1.20, 1.21, 1.23, 1.24, 1.25, 1.26, 1.29, 1.31, 1.32, 1.33, 1.35 and 1.36.

Version 1.36

The longest paragraph left on the help page is shorter. Under “Setting up the term”, the paragraph on “Last teaching date” ran to about ten lines on a phone and padded out its own point: it said the same rules the plan uses twice, put the whole 60-session case in a sentence of its own, and ended on a second sentence about a blank box.

The same facts are now in one place each, in about three-fifths of the words: what the field is for, what “Work out sessions” counts (teaching days from the first teaching date to that date, minus skip dates, the same rules the plan uses), that the answer lands in “Number of sessions” and the plan rebuilds to end on that last teaching day, what happens above the 60-session ceiling, that nonsense dates get a message rather than a guess, and that a blank box leaves the count you typed alone. No rule or behaviour changed.

Version 1.35

This changelog page was getting long to scroll. Versions 1.21 and 1.20 have moved to Older versions, so this page now runs 1.35 back to 1.22 and the older page runs 1.21 back to 0.1. Neither entry was rewritten or shortened: both read there exactly as they read here, in the same order.

The lead line on each page and the link at the foot of each page now name the right ranges, so neither page says it holds a version the other one holds. Nothing on the planner changed: no field, no rule, no wording of any result, and the same table, summary, copied text, CSV, saved file and printed sheet. Docs and pages only, like versions 1.20, 1.21, 1.23, 1.24, 1.25, 1.26, 1.29, 1.31, 1.32 and 1.33.

Version 1.34

One wrong sentence in the printed-sheet estimate. A plan long enough to reach three sheets or more was still told it “runs over onto a second sheet”: the line under the buttons said, for example, “Heads-up: this plan needs about 3 printed sheets, so it runs over onto a second sheet for 34 sessions on A4”. That second half was written in version 1.27 for a two-sheet plan and reused unchanged for every longer one, so it named a sheet the plan would not finish on.

The line now gives the number of sheets it guessed and stops there: “Heads-up: this plan needs about 3 printed sheets for 34 sessions on A4. The heading repeats at the top of each sheet, and a shorter session count or fewer long notes brings it back to one.” Everything else about the line is as it was: the same rough A4 count, the same two facts after it, the same amber tint and border at two sheets or more, the same quiet grey at one sheet, the same “build a plan” prompt when there is nothing to print, and the same place on screen only, never on the printed sheet. A one-sheet estimate reads exactly as before, and no field, rule, table, summary, copied text, CSV or saved file changed.

The help page quoted that sentence in “Getting the plan out”, so it carries the new wording; nothing else on that page was touched. Fixing this took one line of print.js and one quoted sentence on the help page.

Version 1.33

The sheet estimate on the help page was the longest paragraph left. Under “Getting the plan out”, the paragraph describing the line under the buttons had grown to about eleven lines on a phone and said several things twice: that the count covers the summary and the warning box, that a multi-sheet line takes the amber tint, that the tint is an extra sign rather than the only one, and twice over that the estimate is a rule of thumb with the print preview as the true count. Every fact in it was true and none was new — the estimate itself, its wording, the tint and the printed sheet are all as they were.

The same facts are now written once each, in about three-fifths of the words, and in the same order: the two example sentences quoted in full, what the count is measured from, the tint and the “Heads-up” that keeps colour from being the only sign, the note that the line is for the screen only, and the A4-with-ordinary-margins guess whose real answer is the print preview.

Version 1.32

Two long paragraphs in “Writing the topics” are shorter. Both sat under the cheat sheet and both had grown by accretion: the first explained when the plan rebuilds itself of its own accord — every field, the moment you leave it, and the Copy, Save and Print buttons — and ended by saying that “Build schedule” is still there for a deliberate rebuild, after already saying the same thing two sentences earlier. The second explained what happens when a field cannot be read at all: nothing is built, the problem is reported under the buttons, the last plan stays on the screen, and the line at the top of the plan panel names the reason and clears itself once a build works. Neither paragraph was wrong, but each was about eight lines on a phone and repeated its own point.

The same facts are now written once each, in about half the words: which fields rebuild on their own, what the buttons do, what “Build schedule” is for, and what you see when a field cannot be read, including that the line above the plan stays off the printed sheet and changes nothing else. A reader gets there sooner.

Version 1.31

One fewer restatement on the help page. The topic-line cheat sheet in “Writing the topics” already says, in three bullets, that a slash and a dash each need a space on each side, and the paragraph under the list said the same thing once more — “Only a mark with a space on each side counts” — before getting to the part that was actually new to a reader. That sentence is gone. The paragraph now opens with the two worked lines that combine the marks and goes straight to the case worth guarding (“Chapter 3-4” keeps its hyphen, “and/or” keeps its slash, and a dash with nothing on one side changes nothing), so the section states the rule once and then shows what it does not catch.

Nothing on the planner changed: no field, no rule, no wording on the main page, and the same table, summary, copied text, CSV, saved file and printed sheet. Docs only, like versions 1.20, 1.21, 1.23, 1.24, 1.25, 1.26 and 1.29.

Version 1.30

The quick term-length buttons were out of order. Under “Number of sessions” the four buttons read 6, 12, 10, 24, so the two middle ones were the wrong way round — the help page and every version since 0.4 describe them as 6, 10, 12, 24. A later rewrite of the main page's hints had moved the 12 button in front of the 10. The four buttons are back in order, 6, 10, 12, 24, and each one still writes its number into “Number of sessions” and rebuilds the plan.

Nothing else changed: the same fields, the same rules, and the same table, summary, copied text, CSV, saved file and printed sheet. The order of the buttons never affected what they did, only how the row read on screen.

Version 1.29

The help page caught up with the amber tint. Version 1.28 gave the printed-sheet estimate the same amber tint and border as the leftover-topics box whenever a plan comes out at two sheets or more, and “Getting the plan out” never mentioned it, so the page was telling a slightly older story than the tool. That section's estimate paragraph now says the multi-sheet heads-up takes the tint, that the tint is an extra sign rather than the only one — the sentence still begins “Heads-up” — and that the line stays on screen only, so the one-sheet estimate, the “build a plan” prompt and the printed sheet are untouched.

Second, the “Notes” section explained the dash mark all over again, in the same words as the cheat sheet above it: the two kinds of dash and the rule that only a dash with a space on each side counts. That opening paragraph now says what a topic-line note does and points at “Writing the topics” for the mark itself, then keeps the parts that belong to notes alone — where the note sits after a topic's own parts, that a multi-session topic keeps its note on the first row only, and the 120-character cap. The paragraph is shorter and no rule was lost.

Version 1.28

The multi-sheet heads-up now stands out. Version 1.27 made the printed-sheet estimate count the summary block as well, and had it say plainly when a plan will run onto a second sheet — but that sentence sat in the same quiet grey line as the “one sheet” estimate and the “build a plan” prompt, so the one case worth noticing looked like every other line. The estimate now takes the same amber tint and border as the leftover-topics box whenever it comes out at two sheets or more, so a warning reads like a warning. A one-sheet estimate and the prompt are untouched and stay quiet grey. Its wording was written into the help page in version 1.29, and the part of that wording that named a sheet was corrected in version 1.34.

The change is one class on that line, added by print.js, plus one rule in style.css. The colour is not the only sign: the sentence itself still starts “Heads-up”. The estimate's wording, the line's place under the buttons, the printed sheet, the table, the summary, the copied text, the CSV and the saved file are all unchanged, and the line is still kept off the printed sheet.

The changelog has also been split in two, so that neither page has to be scrolled forever: this page keeps the recent versions and Older versions holds the rest. Nothing was dropped or rewritten; every version is listed once, newest first. Two more of the oldest entries on this page were moved across in version 1.35.

Version 1.27

The printed-sheet estimate was counting less than the sheet holds. The summary at the top of the plan prints as well — style.css hides only the elements marked no-print — but the estimate never counted it, so a plan with several summary lines could be told it would fit one sheet when it needed two. The estimate now measures the summary block too: one line for each paragraph, plus a line for every 70 characters a paragraph holds, with a ceiling so a very long summary cannot push the guess somewhere silly. It also watches the summary box as well as the table, so the line keeps up with the plan it is describing.

A plan that needs more than one sheet now says so plainly instead of in passing: “Heads-up: this plan needs about 2 printed sheets, so it runs over onto a second sheet for 34 sessions on A4”, with the two facts that matter after it — the heading repeats at the top of each sheet, and a shorter session count or fewer long notes brings it back to one. A plan that fits one sheet reads exactly as before. Nothing else changed: the same plan, the same rows, the same copied text, CSV, saved file and printed heading. The example sentence above was itself corrected in version 1.34, which dropped the “runs over onto a second sheet” clause for plans of three sheets or more.

Known limits: the estimate is still a rule of thumb against A4 with ordinary margins and 12pt table text, and it has been checked in a browser's print preview only, not on a real printer. Browsers differ in their default margins and fonts, so the print preview is the true count, and a plan of very long topics or notes can still be out by a sheet. The printed layout itself, the repeating heading row and the saved CSV remain browser-checked only.

Version 1.26

One copy of the topic rules on the help page. The topic-line cheat sheet added in version 1.24 explained the three marks on a topic line, and the two long paragraphs sitting under it explained the same three again — the bracket number for a multi-session topic, the slash for two topics in one session and the rule about the space on each side all appeared twice, in different words, so “Writing the topics” read like two versions of the same section. Those two paragraphs are now one short one, holding only what the cheat sheet did not: that the topics become sessions in the order you typed them, that a session's second topic is joined back with “ / ” in the copied text and the CSV, that the summary and the status line count the sessions carrying one, and that a topic the plan runs out of sessions for takes what is left and is reported above the table. The dash that writes a note is left to the Notes section, with a link to it.

Version 1.25

Shorter hints on the main page. The setup form had grown a paragraph under nearly every field, and the topics box carried two of them that said the same things twice: the marks a topic line takes, the catch-up sessions and the rebuild-on-click-away rule all appeared in both. Those two are now one short paragraph — the three marks with a worked line each, the catch-up and rebuild sentences, and the link into the help page — and the longest of the other hints (“Last teaching date”, “What the plan covers”, “Show a week number column”, “Spread catch-up sessions evenly”, “Notes, one line per session” and the copy box) were tightened to the facts they were carrying. The form is quicker to scan and shorter to scroll on a phone.

Nothing the planner does changed: no field, no rule, no option, and the same table, summary, copied text, CSV, saved file and printed sheet. The full wording of every one of those fields is still in How the planner works, which was not touched this time.

Version 1.24

A topic-line cheat sheet, at the top of “Writing the topics” in How the planner works. The marks a topic line takes — a number in brackets for several sessions, a slash with a space on each side for two topics in one session, a dash with a space on each side for a note on that session — were each explained in a paragraph of their own, so a reader had to assemble the whole syntax from four places. A short list now shows each one in a worked line (“Mock exam (2)”, “Grammar drill / Reading check”, “Writing task 1 — bring your draft”), says two of them written together work (“Mock exam (2) — no calculators”), and repeats the one rule that keeps them apart: only a mark with a space on each side counts, so “Chapter 3-4” and “and/or” are left alone. The paragraphs below it were not rewritten.

Nothing on the planner changed: no field, no rule, no wording on the main page, and the same table, summary, copied text, CSV, saved file and printed sheet. This is a docs-only version, like 1.20, 1.21 and 1.23. The wording that repeated the space rule once too often was trimmed in version 1.31, and the prose under the cheat sheet was shortened in version 1.32.

Version 1.23

Catch-up on the help page. Version 1.22 added a short line above the plan saying whether the plan on screen still matches the fields above it — the older plan and the reason when a field cannot be read, or “No plan yet” with the reason when nothing is built — and How the planner works never described it. The “Writing the topics” section now has a paragraph on it: when a field cannot be read the planner builds nothing, reports the problem under the buttons and keeps the last plan on screen; the line at the top of the plan panel names what you are looking at, clears itself once a build works, and reads “No plan yet” with the reason when there is nothing to show. The “Getting the plan out” section adds one sentence confirming that the line is kept off the printed sheet, so a warning about the screen never lands on a sheet you hand out.

Version 1.22

The plan now says whether it matches the fields above it. When a field cannot be read — the first teaching date cleared, no teaching day ticked, the session count emptied or out of range, the topics box cleared, a skip date that makes no sense, “Start numbering at” or “Minutes per session” mistyped — the planner reports the problem at the bottom of the form and stops, leaving the last plan it built on the screen. Nothing said so, so that older table, summary, copy box and estimate could be read as the plan just built. A short line above the summary now names the problem and says the plan below is the last one built, so it does not match the fields above, with the fix on the end: press “Build schedule” after correcting the field. With nothing built yet, the same line reads “No plan yet.” and the reason, so the plan panel is never blank.

The line clears itself the moment a build works, and it stays off the printed sheet. No rule, field, row, summary sentence, copied text, CSV, saved file or estimate changed. Its wording was written into the help page in version 1.23.

Older versions (1.21 back to 0.1) · Back to the planner