C#3.0 / .NET 3.5 and search tweak

I updated the server-side code to C# 3.0 and have it using the .NET 3.5 runtime now; this should result in precisely zero changes, but it's possible that I broke something. Let me know.

I also made two extremely minor search tweaks:

• ? and _ now work as wildcard characters, matching exactly one character. This in addition to * and % which match zero or more characters.
• Using uwp: prefix and wildcards are now mentioned in the "tool tip" when you hover over the search field. Previously these were mentioned only in the API docs.

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PNG and DOM

Two hopefully invisible changes today, but scream if anything breaks:

• I've changed the map to generating PNGs by default instead of GIFs. This is to work around a bug in embedded WebKit (seen in the Second Life Viewer 2.0 Beta) where it may not display GIFs correctly.
• I've rewritten the event handling code for the map to more correctly manage DOM events, in both the W3C and IE models. This is to try and make dragging work correctly in the IE9 Platform Preview (I'll test tomorrow), clean up the code (this was my first interactive web site!), and as a side effect it fixes mouse wheel support in Chrome.

I've tested in IE8, Safari (Win), Firefox 3.6 (Win), Chrome 4 (Win), and Opera 10 (Win). Looks good, but I'm nervous and ready to roll back if anyone sees any issues.

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Minor tweaks

Nothing big, just for reference:

• I've been correcting the routes for Dagudashaag as Signal GK issues are appearing online.
• Malorn data has been refreshed from BeRKA's copy
• I tweaked the glyphs used for bases and the font used on the map (slightly narrower now)
• I validated the links on the info page - unfortunately, many older sites are dropping offline.

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Whither Dando?

Sharp eyed visitor Andrew Storey noticed that Dando (Verge 2123) had vanished, leaving an orphaned xboat stop.

This is one of the locations that was identified as a mismatch between the Atlas of the Imperium and the GEnie data during the COTI cleanup - there's no world in that hex in AOTI!

As such, the world was removed, but the route remained. Fortunately, the xboat routes in verge are my own creation (pretty much the only one on the map!) so it was easy to reroute those lost couriers through nearby Turin. Ω

Nifty Online Map Generators

IsoMage has some nifty random map generators over at http://axiscity.hexamon.net/users/isomage/maps/ including subsectors, worlds, wilderness and caves. It uses seeded pseudorandom numbers for repeatability, just like the Elite universe. Check it out! Ω