# Psychtoolbox 3.0.19.8 release “CamJam” released

**URL:** <https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/psychtoolbox-3-0-19-8-release-camjam-released/5304>\
**Category:** Announcements\
**Tags:** release\
**Created:** [March 14, 2024, 6:00pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/psychtoolbox-3-0-19-8-release-camjam-released/5304 "2024-03-14T18:00:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mariokleiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@mariokleiner](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/mariokleiner)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2024, 6:00pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/psychtoolbox-3-0-19-8-release-camjam-released/5304/1 "2024-03-14T18:00:25Z")

</div>

To celebrate the start of another employer enforced vacation…

Psychtoolbox 3.0.19 Beta update “CamJam” was released at 14th March 2024.  
As usual, the complete development history can be found in our GitHub repository.  
The release tag is “3.0.19.8”, with the full tree and commit logs under the URL:

[https://github.com/Psychtoolbox-3/Psychtoolbox-3/tree/3.0.19.8](https://github.com/Psychtoolbox-3/Psychtoolbox-3/tree/3.0.19.8)

Some of this Psychtoolbox release was sponsored by [Mathworks under the year  
2023/2024 contract.](https://www.mathworks.com/solutions/neuroscience.html), [and our partner SR-Research, makers of the Eyelink gaze trackers](https://www.sr-research.com/).

### Compatibility changes wrt. Psychtoolbox 3.0.19.7:

- `dontOpenExisting` non-zero flag in `Eyelink('OpenFile')` now error aborts,  
instead of trying to implement something unsupportable.

### Highlights:

- None. Mostly a small refinement release.

### All:

- `Eyelink('OpenFile')`: Error out if optional dontOpenExisting flag is set  
to a non-zero value. Update help text. According to feedback from SR-Research  
this is simply not supportable with all current and past Eyelink runtimes and  
tracker host software. Game over for this feature, just warn users about it.

- `Gamepad() / Joystick()` et al.: Improve docs, help, setup instructions. Especially  
for proper choice of joystick driver on Ubuntu 20.04/22.04-LTS.

- Downloaders/Updaters etc.: Update again for final SVN death on GitHub. In combo  
with website updates, to make clear that functions `DownloadPsychtoolbox` and  
`UpdatePsychtoolbox` and `DownloadAdditionsForLinux` are currently dead.

- `SetupPsychtoolbox()`: Dead code removal, cleanup, docs updates.

### Linux:

- Psychtoolbox was built and lightly tested against Matlab R2023b.

- `XOrgConfSelector`: Add error handling and error resolution tips.  
There wasn’t error handling in case of delete() or copyfile() failure.  
Add something, and try to give some helpful feedback and advice, e.g.,  
running PsychLinuxConfiguration().

- Allow selection of a different clock to be used as the general GetSecs  
clock for (almost) all timing and timestamping, e.g., by GetSecs, WaitSecs,  
PsychPortAudio, Screen, etc. Since the year 2007, the so called wall clock,  
or gettimeofday() clock, or Posix CLOCK\_REALTIME clock was used for this,  
and it continues to be the default. But now one can use the new PsychTweak  
function `PsychTweak('GetSecsClock', clockid);` at the beginning of a  
script (before any other calls to Psychtoolbox mex files!) to select a clock  
with a different clockid. A clockid setting of 0 uses the default CLOCK\_REALTIME  
clock, as in the past. A clockid setting of 1 uses CLOCK\_MONOTONIC instead.  
CLOCK\_MONOTONIC, as opposed to default CLOCK\_REALTIME, does not maintain time  
in seconds since 1st January 1970 0:00:00 UTC, but has an unspecified zero  
point, but usually 0 denotes time of operating system boot. CLOCK\_MONOTONIC  
is always guaranteed to be monotonically increasing, not subject to step  
adjustments by the system administrator, NTP, PTP, or other external clock  
reference sources. This prevents synchronization to other computer on the  
network/setup, but may avoid clock trouble caused by time jumping in certain  
situations. CLOCK\_MONOTONIC behaves like the GetSecs clocks for Psychtoolbox  
on MS-Windows and macOS. For now the new monotonic mode is only lightly  
tested, and only available on Psychtoolbox for Intel processors, not yet for  
RaspberryPi - this will follow in a future release.

### Windows:

- Psychtoolbox was built and lightly tested against Matlab R2023b.

### macOS:

- Psychtoolbox was built and lightly tested against Matlab R2023b and  
Octave 8.4 from HomeBrew.

- Detect futile attempt of running under native Matlab for Apple Silicon / ARM,  
ie. not under Rosetta2 emulation and bail with more enlightening messages.

Enjoy!