Chip 2000 February/CHIPCD_2_2000.iso/software/shareware/textcalc/data1.cab/Program_Executable_Files/Help.txt

Text File | 1999-10-31 | 10KB | 326 lines

//[Quick Start]
A basic concept in TextCalc is to first "select" an expression
or a block of data and then "apply" an operation to it.

//Computing Expressions
//---------------------
For example, to compute an expression, place the cursor
on the blue line below and press F1 or click the
"Compute Expression" button.

5+3-7+8

To compute multiple expressions at once, select the following
block of text and press F1 or the "Compute Expression" button.

72*32
8*9+43-10
(3+2)*4/2*sin(3.141592653589793/6)
-2*3+4
4^2
5+3/2+1
sqrt(sqr(3)+sqr(4))

To remove the results after evaluation, press CTRL-Z
or select Edit:Undo from the menu. For a list of functions
and operators supported, please see the section
"Functions supported" below.


//Summing numbers
//---------------
To sum the list of numbers below, place the cursor
of the line and press F12 or click the "Sum" button.
All numbers (in blue color) on the line will be summed.

3 5 -4 3 21 281 43 43 54 32 54 543

You can also sum a selection. Select the block of text
below,  including the non-numeric words in black, and
click "Sum".

Salary : $2700.3
Interest  :  $140.3
Mantainence : $312.2


As you can see, only numbers (colored in blue) will be added.
This operation applies not only to "Sum" but also to other
statistical functions like
Average, Count Items, Sum of Squares, Root mean squares,
Median, Find max and min values, Mean Deviation from Mean,
Standard Deviation and Variance. All these can be accessed
from the "Calculate" menu.


//Applying Numbers
//----------------
You can apply an expression to a list of numbers easily.
To convert the following from kg to pounds, select the block
of text below and press F11 or click the "Apply Numbers" button.
A dialog will appears. To multiply each of the following
by 2.2 (1Kg = 2.2 pounds), enter 2.2 into the
"Multiply by factor" textbox and press the "OK" button.

Sugar 1.2    Salt 7.3
Milk  4.2    Honey 8.8
Flour 3.4

In the Apply Dialog, apart from "Multiply by factor", you can
also "Add a value" or "Apply Expression" to each number.

The "Apply Expression" option is very powerful, you can type any
expression to evaluate every number in the list. For example,
to compute the squareroot of each number in the list below,
place the cursor on the blue line and press F11. Select
"Apply Expression", and in the textbox, type sqrt(x)

(Note: x is the variable that represent the original number
in the list you selected.)

and click the "OK" button in the dialog box.

4 9 16 25 36 49 64 81

When applying numbers, you have the option to
1)let results replace the original data   or
2)insert results next to the original data.


//Formating Numbers
//-----------------
The operation for formatting of numbers is the same as applying
numbers. For example to add a dollar sign before each number
below, select the block of text and choose
"Calculate:Format Numbers" from the menu. A dialog will appear.
Enter the $ (dollar sign) in the textbox next to "prefix" and
click the "OK" button.

Sugar 1.2    Salt 7.3
Milk  4.2    Honey 8.8
Flour 3.4

When formatting numbers, you can set the "prefix", "suffix"
and the "number of digits after decimal point" for each number
you selected.


//Extracting numbers
//------------------
The operation for extracting numbers is the same as applying
numbers. Simply select the data and choose
"Calculate:Extract Numbers" from the menu.
All numbers (colored in blue) in the selecton will be extracted.


//Hex, Dec and Oct Conversions
//----------------------------
Hex, Dec and Oct conversions is very similar to applying
numbers. As usual, you can select a single line by placing
the cursor on the line or select a block of text if
data is more than one line.

While the "Sum" or "Apply Numbers" operations will
automatically seek out the numbers that are colored in blue,
Hex, Dec and Oct indentify the objects for conversion using
separators.

A separator is any character that separates a word. For example
the space separates 22 33 44 55, while the comma separates
88,99,43,23,77. The default separator for conversion
is whitespace (space, tab  and newline).

For example, to convert the following hex numbers to decimal,
place the cursor on the line below and click the "DEC" button.

3F 12 1A 323 25 bC ee

To convert from decimal to hex, select the block below
and click the "HEX" button.

12
10
5
21 34
77
88

Other conversions from dec to oct, oct to dec, hex to oct,
oct to hex (accessible from the "Conversion" menu)
uses the same method for conversion.

If you need to use other separators to separate each number
for conversion, you can choose "Calculate:Computing Options"
from the menu. A dialog will appear.

Under the "Hex/Dec/Oct Conversion Options", select the
"any of the characters" checkbox. Enter , (comma) as the
separator in the textbox next to "any of the characters".
Click "OK". From now on, you can convert any line with comma
as the separator. For an example, test the following line
by converting it from hex into decimal. Place the cursor
on the line below and click the "DEC" button.

3F,12,1A,323,25,bC,ee,C


//Text Functions
//--------------
Apart from performing calculation, TextCalc also offers some
useful text utility functions. You can add a word to
the beginning of every line by using "Add First Word".
For example, select the block of text below, then choose
"Text:Add First Word" from the menu. Click "OK" when a
dialog appears.

Hello World!
ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOP
1 3 5 7 9 11 13
Good Morning! Good Night!


Other text operations include
"Add Last Word" :  Add a word to the end of each line.
"Remove First Word" : Remove the first word of each line.
"Remove Last Word" : Remove the last word of each line.
"Keep First Word" : Keep only the first word of each line.
"Keep Last Word" : Keep only the last word of each line.
"Make Into One Line" : Make selection into one long single line.



//TextCalc Advantages
//-------------------
TextCalc, being both a Calculator and a Text Editor,
and has several advantages over conventional calculators.

1)You can put comments besides your answer
and expressions.
2)You can save and reuse your results and expressions.
3)You do not need to write your answer down on a paper
before computing another expression, as you can leave
the previous result in the editor.
4)You can open an existing text data file
and perform calculations on it.
5)You can apply an expression to many numbers at one go.
For example, 1 2 3 4 5 will be changed to 2 4 6 8 10.
6)You can sum, average, convert into hex etc. a list of
numbers easily.



//Math Functions supported in TextCalc
//------------------------------------
These functions are supported in TextCalc:
( )   Brackets, indicates high precedence sub-expressions
^     To the power of
*     Multiplication
/     Division
+     Addition
-     Subtraction

sin   Sine       //e.g sin(3.14159)   arguments are in radians
cos   Cosine     //e.g cos(3.14159)   arguments are in radians
tan   Tangent    //e.g tan(3.14159)   arguments are in radians
sinh  Hyperbolic sine     //e.g sinh(1)
cosh  Hyperbolic cosine   //e.g cosh(1)
tanh  Hyperbolic tangent  //e.g tanh(2)
asin  Arcsine              //e.g acos(1)      results is in radians
acos  Arccosine              //e.g acos(0.5) results is in radians
atan  Arctangent          //e.g atan(4)      results is in radians
ln    Natural logarithm      //e.g    ln(20)
log10 Log to base 10  //e.g log10(1000)
sqr   Square          //e.g sqr(5)
sqrt  Squareroot      //e.g sqrt(64)
abs   Absolute value  //e.g abs(-3)
deg2rad Convert degrees to radians   //e.g deg2rad(30)
rad2deg Convert radians to degrees   //e.g rad2deg(3.141592654)
remainder   find the remainder of    //e.g remainder(17,5)
div   Perform integer division  //e.g div(17,5)  result is 3
exp   e (2.71828182846) to the power of  //e.g exp(10)
root  Compute root //e.g root(8,3) computes the cube root of 8
log   Compute logarithm to a base
//e.g log(1024,2) computes the logarithm of 1024 to base 2
fact  Compute factorial //e.g fact(5)
nPr   Permutation of  //e.g npr(4,2)
nCr   Combination of  //e.g ncr(5,3)


//Operators precedence:
//---------------------
When computing an expression, some operators will be evaluated
before others. E.g for

2+3*4

multiplication will precede addition, so

  2+3*4
= 2+12
= 14


The precedence for the operators are:
-------------------------------------
( ) brackets                        (Highest precedence)
unary -
^ power of
* /    multiplication and division
+ -    addition and subtraction     (Lowest precedence)


//About The Text Editor
//---------------------
The text editor is able to recognize numbers and strings
enclosed inside double quotes "" . Numbers are colored
blue, while strings are colored red. Any line with
double slash infront // will be turned green.
Futhermore, any block of text within /*  and */ will
also be turned green.



//Bugs and Limitations
//--------------------
1)Currently, all spaces inside an expression will be
removed/trimmed before evaluation. For example, if
you have an expression 23 45 + 1 47 *89 + sqrt(9),
then the expression passed to the parser will be
2345+147*89+sqrt(9).

Another example:
sqr      t(9)+3 00 . 230 will be interpreted as
sqrt(9)+300.230

2)TextCalc cannot recognize numbers of the form 3.2e2

3)Hex/Dec/Oct conversion is limited to positive integers
only.




//Acknowledgements
//----------------
This product is made possible because it uses code from
certain individuals. We are grateful to

Andrei Stcherbatchenko for his wonderful
Crystal Edit - syntax coloring text editor!

Zoly Farkas for his powerful
Expression Evaluator!

Chris Maunder for his most useful
HyperLink!



//-------------------
//Filename : Help.txt
//-------------------