Peal Prover

Peal Prover runs on Windows machines. I'm afraid it isn't compatible with mobile phone operating systems.

It's available here as a free download.

Unfortunately, most security software doesn't recognise Peal Prover as safe software, so it makes you go through extra steps designed to stop people inadvertently downloading malware (See "Jumping Through Hoops" section below).

Peal Prover allows you to carry out the following main actions:

• Use place notations to define a method.

• Print out the changes and blue line for a method.

• Define a calling composition.

• Check if a composition is true or false.

• Search for musical changes in a composition.

• Check the leads rung by each bell.

• Print out the changes for a composition.

This version of the program handles "Standard" type methods, "Grandsire" type methods, "Stedman" type principles and "Other" principles.

It allows you to specify a starting change that is not rounds (e.g. useful if you want short touches of Grandsire Caters to bring up musical changes without using an extra course to get there).

It allows single method compositions or spliced compositions to be checked. It now also allows "Stedman" type principles and "Other" principles to be used in spliced compositions.

If you like the program just tell everyone about it !!!

When you click on the "download" link above, it doesn't actually download PealProver directly (that's too large, and would make updates very time consuming and cumbersome). Instead, it downloads a Download Manager application, which handles the rest of the PealProver download and installation.

I wrote the Download Manager application as well, so there's no 3rd party software involved (i.e. there's no malware in there). I've tried to register PealProver and the Download Manager with Microsoft Defender, but they haven't replied to me. As a result, when you attempt to download the PealProver Download Manager, your browser will probably think it's not safe, and will make you go through a few extra steps to confirm that you want to download and run the installer.

Standard Type Methods

These are methods where "n" place notations are used to get from the lead end to the half lead end. "n-1" of these place notations are then used in reverse order to bring up the change before the lead end. Finally, a separate place notation is used to bring up the lead end. Hence, for a method using 10 changes per lead, the place notations for one lead would be used in the order :

a b c d e d c b a f

The vast majority of methods fall into this category.

Grandsire Type Methods

These are methods where "n" place notations are used to get from the lead end to one change past the half lead end. "n-2" of these place notations are then used in reverse order to bring up the lead end (i.e. the first place notation is not re-used). Hence, for a method using 10 changes per lead, the place notations for one lead would be used in the order :

a b c d e f e d c b

Grandsire, and most methods using two hunt bells, fall into this category.

Stedman Type Principles

These are methods where two alternating blocks of place notations are used. The two blocks do not have to be the same length as each other, but only one calling position is allowed in each block. Stedman and Stedfast are two examples of Principles that fall into this category.

Other Principles

These are methods where one asymmetric block of place notations is used for each lead. Hence, the place notations for the whole lead have to be defined. Only one calling position per lead is allowed. Erin is an example of a Principle that falls into this category.

v6.2 - 2017

• Allow Stedman type methods to be used in spliced compositions.

• Modified "Ring Changes" to use the FMOD sound library rather than DirectX (Microsoft only support DirectX with a very old version of the DotNet framework).

v6.1 - 2016

• Allow manual formatting of the screen and print layout.

• Fixed bug in "Ring Changes" so it can play compositions that don't start from rounds.

• Fixed bug in "other call" place notations.

• Allow up to 512 methods in spliced compositions (was previously 128)

• Allow up to 512 parts in any composition (was previously 256)

• Added new Download Manager application to handle Peal Prover updates.

• Migrated to a more up to date version of Visual Studio for the development environment.

v6.0 - 2012

• Allow half lead splicing and snap lead starts.

• Added the "Ring Changes" feature to allow you to hear all or part of your composition.

v5.4 - 2011

• Allow repeated changes if composition is longer than one extent. The number of times a change is allowed to repeat is calculated as the number of extents minus one. i.e. in 240 changes of doubles each change can repeat once, in 360 changes each change can repeat twice ...etc

• Fixed bug when resolving long printer names.

• Help file rewritten as a compiled HTML file (CHM) to be compatible with Windows 7. However, the new help file is still backwards compatible with older versions of Windows, such as Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

v5.3 - 2010

• Added feature to allow the details of an update to be displayed before downloading and installing it.

• Made the "Scan Changes" feature case insensitive (so the pattern '*e9780t' can match changes ending with 'E9780T').

• Made the "Scan Changes" dialog resizeable.

• Added an option to the "Scan Changes" dialog to only count each change once if it matches multiple scan patterns.

v5.2 - 2009

• Added wildcard search patterns to the "Scan Changes" feature.

• Added feature to download new methods libraries as well as new versions of the Peal Prover application.

v5.1 - 2007

• Added new features to analyse the leads rung by each bell in a spliced composition.

• Allow short touches to start from a change other than rounds.

• Made the Compositions Message Log dialog resizable, so it's now easier to read.

• Added an automatic updates wizard to allow Peal Prover to detect and download its own new versions when they become available.

• Fixed the bug where Peal Prover would crash if run on a PC with no printer drivers installed.

v5.0 - 2004

• Modified to allow methods on 16 bells.

• Added the ability to mark course ends in a composition file - these lead ends are then automatically underlined by Peal Prover when the composition lead ends are displayed.

• Added a "Copy to Clipboard" facility, so that the generated changes can be copied onto the clipboard as a picture, and then pasted into another application (e.g. Word).

• This version of Peal Prover can use method and composition files generated by older versions of Peal Prover. However, if you use this version of Peal Prover to create methods on more than 12 bells, or compositions with the course end marker in them, then the resulting files will not be backwards compatible with older versions of Peal Prover.

v4.4 - 2003

• Modified the way calls are defined for "Other Principles" so that Peal Prover can cope with methods such as "Union Bob".

• Added a method and composition rename facility.

• Modified the syntax allowed in composition files, so that any of the characters { [ ( ) ] } can be used to define the start and end of calling blocks.

• Added a startup wizard to assist people who are using the program for the first time.

v4.3 - 2002

• Added the ability to scan the changes for musical combinations.

• Fixed bugs in the way place notations and output were handled for "Stedman" type principles.

v4.2 - 2001

• Added the ability to draw multiple lines of different colours through any or all of the bells.

• Fixed bugs in the way output was sent to the printer driver.

v4.1 - 1998

• Added the ability to cope with "Other Principles".

• Added a method and composition import / export facility.

v4.0 - 1996

• Modified to make it compatible with Windows 95.

• Added the ability to cope with "Stedman" type principles and spliced compositions.

earlier versions were written for older machines and operating systems.