Software of the Month Club 1996 December

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PC GRAPH Version 3.0 Operator's Manual (c)1996 Servile Software 2 REQUIREMENTS PC Graph will operate with any IBM PC or compatible computer equipped with a graphics capable display card and monitor. CGA, EGA, MCGA, VGA and VESA display modes are supported. PC Graph will make use of a maths co-processor if one is fitted to the computer, but it is not essential. 3 INTRODUCTION PC Graph is offered as a serious tool for the benefit of anyone who handles data; statisticians, accountants, geographers, psychologists, students, mathematicians. Variety of styles of graphs have been coded covering both the reporting of absolute and frequency data. An additional facility has been included for plotting graphs of functions. The interface has been designed to be simple to use. Options are displayed with the current option reversed. Different options are selected by pressing the cursor arrow keys to move the reverse highlighting to the required facility. A facility is selected by pressing the Enter key when it is highlighted. Many options lead to lists of other options. These lists are refered to as "menus". A menu may be removed by pressing the Esc key. If a menu option leads to another menu it has a right facing triangle displayed to the right of the option text. The following diagram explains the main display: +--- Options | Data Graphs Mode Utility Exit +--- Status and input window | ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ PC GRAPH ║ ╟──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╢ ║ TITLE: ║ ║ X LEGEND: ║ ║ 1st Y LEGEND: ║ ║ 2nd Y LEGEND: ║ ║ MODE: 640 x 480 16 Colour ║ ║ LINE: Solid ║ ║ FILL: Solid ║ ║ POINT: X ║ ║ SHOW AXIS: Yes ║ ║ SHOW LABELS: Yes ║ ║ CLIP LABELS: No ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Enter Legends, Titles and Data | +--- Help line 4 DESCRIPTION OF OPTIONS DATA Selecting the DATA option drops down the data menu. This provides access to facilities for recording narratives and data for the graphs. Edit Title Select the Edit Title facility to enter a main title for displayed graphs. Edit X Title Select the Edit X Title facility to enter a title for the X axis. Edit 1st Y Title Select the Edit 1st Y Title facility to enter a title for the primary Y data range. Edit 2nd Y Title Select the Edit 2nd Y Title facility to enter a title for the secondary Y data range. Legends Select the Legends facility to enter labels for the primary data items. Ranges Select the Ranges facility to see the RANGES sub menu. Enter X Range Select the Enter X Range facility to type in values for the X data range. Enter 1st Y Range Select the Enter 1st Y Range facility to type in values for the primary Y data range. Enter 2nd Y Range Select the Enter 2nd Y Range facility to type in values for the secondary Y data range. Clear X Range Select the Clear X Range facility to zero all X data values. Clear 1st Y Range 5 Select the Clear 1st Y Range facility to zero the primary Y data range. Clear 2nd Y Range Select the Clear 2nd Y Range facility to zero the secondary Y data range. Store Ranges Select the Store Ranges facility to write the data ranges and narratives to a disk file. Restore Ranges Select the Restore Ranges facility to read the data ranges and narratives from a disk file. MODE Select the MODE facility to drop down the video display modes menu. From this menu you can select a different video display mode. This mode is used to display all subsequent graphs. Some display adaptors do not support certain display modes. If you select a display mode that is not supported by your computer hardware, you will know when you try to display a graph! You should then select a different mode. Different display modes offer differing screen resolutions. The higher the resolution the better the quality of the displayed graphs will be. However, the higher resolutions also cause the computer to operate slower and graphs take longer to display on older equipment. 6 GENERAL GRAPHS The general graphs offer, on the whole, diagrams of the absolute data recorded. The exception being the pie charts which strictly speaking are analysis type graphs. However, the familiarity and extensive use of pie charts lends them to being readily available. HISTOGRAM Displays a histogram style diagram of the absolute data recorded in the first Y range. PARTITION (COLOUR) Displays a colour partioned histogram style diagram of the data recorded in the first Y range. PARTITION (PATTERN) Displays a pattern partioned histogram style diagram of the data recorded in the first Y range. SCATTER Displays a scatter graph of the data recorded in the X and first Y ranges. XY LINE Displays a line graph of the data recorded in the X and first Y ranges. WALL Displays an area graph of the data recorded in the X and first Y ranges. COMPOUND Displays a compound area graph of the data recorded in the X, first and second Y ranges. PIE (COLOUR) Displays a pie chart with different coloured divisions of the data recorded in the first Y range. 7 PIE (PATTERN) Displays a pie chart with different patterned divisions of the data recorded in the first Y range. BAR (COLOUR) Displays a bar graph with different coloured divisions of the data recorded in the first and if available second Y range. BAR (PATTERN) Displays a bar graph with different patterned divisions of the data recorded in the first and if available second Y range. STACK Displays a stacked bar graph of the data recorded in the first and second Y ranges. PYRAMID Displays a pyramid graph of the data recorded in the first and second Y ranges. 8 ANALYSIS GRAPHS Analysis graphs offer displays of calculated rather than absolute data. LINE Displays a line graph of the data recorded in the first Y range. The horizontal distance between each point is defined by the number of data items divided by the available display width. 3 TERM MOVING AVERAGE Displays a line graph of the data recorded in the first Y range, and superimposes a line graph of the three term moving average of the data over it. The horizontal distance between each point is defined by the number of data items divided by the available display width. 5 TERM MOVING AVERAGE Displays a line graph of the data recorded in the first Y range, and superimposes a line graph of the five term moving average of the data over it. The horizontal distance between each point is defined by the number of data items divided by the available display width. 5 TERM BINOMINAL Displays a line graph of the data recorded in the first Y range, and superimposes a line graph of the five term moving average, calculated using a binominal formulae, of the data over it. The horizontal distance between each point is defined by the number of data items divided by the available display width. CPF OGIVE Displays a percentage frequency graph (Ogive) of the occurences of the first Y range data. PERCENTAGE SCALE Displays a percentage scale graph of the data recorded in the first Y range. Each item is plotted expressed as a percentage of the highest recorded value. HISTOGRAM Displays a frequency histogram of the data recorded in the first Y range. 9 PARTITION (COLOUR) Displays a colour partioned frequency histogram of the data recorded in the first Y range. PARTITION (PATTERN) Displays a pattern partioned frequency histogram of the data recorded in the first Y range. 10 UTILITY Switch X & Y Replaces the X data range with the primary Y range, and the primary Y range with the old X range. The axis titles are also changed. Line Style Allows you to select the type of line used for drawing line graphs. Fill Style Allows you to select the pattern used to fill wall graphs. Point Style Allows you to select the character used for plotting points. Show Axis Toggles the display of the axis lines. Show Labels Toggles the display of the axis labels. Clip Labels Toggles clipping of data legends. Sometimes data legends are wider than the available space. Clipping causes only the available width of label to be displayed. 11 PRINTING PC Graph incorporates an Epson printer driver for printing graphs on Epson dot matrix printers, and other printers that can emulate the Epson. The displayed graph can be sent to an attached printer by pressing function keys F1 through F5 where each function key selects a different print style: F1 Default graphics mode, 120dpi density for 320 pixel width displays and 240dpi density for 640 pixel width displays. F2 120dpi graphics density F3 240dpi graphics density F4 CRT I graphics density F5 CRT II graphics density Alternatively, we recommend the use of a screen capture program such as "Screen Thief" for capturing the displayed graph and converting it into a standard graphics format disk file. 12 EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS Three data files are supplied with PC Graph. Each contains the data for an imaginary scenario. These scenarios are offered as examples of how PC Graph may be employed. Class Test Results (example1.dat) A class of twenty-five children sit a test. The resulting scores may range from zero to 100. It is wanted to graph the results. The test scores are recorded in the first Y range. The number of pupil's taking part is faitly high, and so rather than enter each pupil's name as a data legend, a letter or number is entered to identify each pupil. As there is only one range of data; the test scores. A histogram is a good general purpose graph of the results. If we want to see if there is a wide variance in the results, a percentage scale graph may be plotted. This will clearly show the extent of the variance. If there is a slight variance in the results, the plots will all be toward the top of the scale, with a large empty area below. Exports Of Ore (example2.dat) A country's chief exports are Iron ore and coal. The anuual incomes from both these exports are recorded, and wish to be graphed. The export figures for Iron ore are recorded in the first Y range, and the figures for coal in the second Y range. The year applying to each figure is recorded in the X data range. The graph legends may be the years or a subset of the years; 1900, 1910, 1920 spaced accordingly through the legends range. A compound graph can illustrate both the total exports over the period and the contribution from each product. Mintage of Florins (example3.dat) The mintage of English florins during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the second along with the year of mintage is entered. The years are entered both into the X data range (although this is not important) and the legends. The mintage figures are entered into the primary Y data range. A pie chart illustrates the comparative quantities of coins minted for each year. The percentage scale definitely identifies the year 1958 as by far the rarest. The analysis line graphs reveal the trend of production, with a sharp peak during 1966. 13 SPECIFICATIONS Supported Display Modes: CGA, EGA, MCGA, VGA, SVGA X data Ranges: 100 Y data Ranges: 100 primary 100 secondary Precision: Numeric data is stored in 8 byte registers giving 15 digit precision. Numeric Range: 0.00000001 to 9999999999 14 APPENDIX A summary glossary of true terms relating to diagrams. Area graph A line graph in which the area beneath the line is stippled or shaded. The line and horizontal axis thus form boundaries to a distinct area. Bar graph A columnar diagram consisting of a series of columns, or bars proportional in length to the quantities they represent. Clock diagram See "Vector diagram" Dispersion diagram A graph used to measure the spread of a series of values in which values are plotted as single dots against a vertical scale. Histogram A type of graph in which the values are plotted horizontally and the scale of frequencies vertically. Distinct from a bar graph in that it does not display absolute values. Line graph A graph in which rectangular coordinate points are plotted and joined by straight lines. Line-scale A single line that allows distances to be measured Moving average A calculated average value of a time series graph that suggests trend. Ogive A graph in which the frequencies have been added to one another successively and converted into percentages. Pictorgram A graph drawn with symbols instead of points and lines. Pie graph A divided circle in which each segment reflects that data item's proportion of the sum of the data. Polygraph A line graph that includes several sets of values connected by distinct lines. Roses See "Vector diagram" Stack bar A compound bar diagram in which each column is sub divided to show the constituents also the whole. 15 Star diagram See "Vector diagram" Time series A graph where values are plotted as a function of time. Vector diagram A form of graph in which values are plotted as radii from a point of origin. Wheel graph See "Pie graph" 16 PC Graph is published by Servile Software. After you have used PC Graph 20 times it will no longer function and you will need to register it. This will also entitle you to life-time FREE support from the author, by post, telephone and the internet. To register your copy of PC Graph please send a cheque for 29.95 UK pounds made payable Matthew Probert to: Servile Software 5 Longcroft Close Basingstoke Hampshire RG21 8XG England Telephone 01256 414072 (8am - 8pm) EMAIL probertm@pins.co.uk WEB http://www.pins.co.uk/upages/probertm/ FTP ftp.pins.co.uk (/seville)