merged devel into master!

[Keller, Jacob E]

I have finally merged devel into master. I forced a merge commit, so
that I could include a short description explaining the major changes,
as this included some 57 commits total. I have also included 2 new less
tested commits to devel, as these I just posted again.

There are several changes which may make your current settings on master
not work, but in general the changes are much better.

Please let us know if you have any issues.

Thanks,
Jake