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!FUNCY2 - A GRAPH PLOTTER ------------------------- This file contains information about how to use the software and the all important licence conditions. Please read carefully but don't be scared to play with the software - it's easier to use than the instructions suggest (I think). Please also read the file 'Notes' as it contains some valuable information. LICENCE CONDITIONS ------------------ This shareware application is supplied "as is". No warranty is made and I will accept no responsibility for any loss, damage or other problems arising from use of the software. This includes data stored on any medium. The application is NOT guaranteed to be bug free. This software can be freely distributed as long as the following conditions are observed: 1. No changes can be made to any of the files within the application directory or any of its subdirectories. 2. No charge can be made for the software except for a reasonable amount to cover only the distribution/copying of the software ie cost of the disc, p&p and handling charges. If you paid over the odds for this software, let me know. Anyone charging excessively - eg trying to use 'wear and tear on their disc drive' as an excuse for charging £10+ - will be investigated... THIS APPLICATION IS SHAREWARE... -------------------------------- You shouldn't have paid anything when you bought the software except money to cover the costs mentioned above. However if you are still using the software after 21 days of first using it then you should register with me at the address shown below. If this is being used in a non-domestic environment (eg a school) then I would particularly like to know. The main benefit of registering is that I will keep you informed of further updates to the software. I do not fix a registration fee - it's entirely at your discretion. However the more I get, the more likely I am to develop the software and the more likely I'll implement any suggestions. See the accompanying file 'Notes' to find out what I've done so far and how I want to improve. I would like to take this opportunity to point out that I do not have access to any Programmers Reference Manuals. Any monies received will go towards purchasing these and if I get even more I'll treat myself to a decent desktop editor. If I can do this then the quality of the application should improve 100fold and many advanced features can be implemented as I'll be able to find out how to do them. So as you can see any money sent will go into software development and not into the tills of the Godolphin Arms. Please send any communications regarding the software, any bugs found, any information I might find useful - eg does it work on a network? - ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT and ANY MONEY IF YOU WANT TO REGISTER to: Richard Blythe 37 Well Way NEWQUAY Cornwall TR7 3LS I promise to write to anyone who sends money, but be patient if during (university) term time - partly because mail will have to be forwarded. COPYRIGHT DETAILS ----------------- WimpHeap routines © Ben Summers/Acorn Computing Magazine December 1993. Used with kind permission of Steve Turnbull, Editor of Acorn Computing. If you would like to use it yourself then I'm sure Europress Enterprise will be able to furnish you with the relevant back issue. All other code and files © Richard Blythe May 1994 MANY THANKS... -------------- Firstly to everyone at Acorn Computing (and the Micro User before that) for allowing me to glean various programming titbits which almost obviate the need for PRMs (but not quite). Thanks particularly to the Editor, Steve Turnbull, who quickly and politely responded to my request to use the WimpHeap routines in this application. Thanks also Steve for returning an unrequired sae. To Acorn themselves for writing applications like Maestro in Basic so that I can look at them and see how various things are done. Also for adding the CRUNCH command to Basic which removes all spaces except necessary ones. To all family and friends. Maths teachers - obviously without whom I wouldn't have seen the need to write the application, let alone known how to do it! INTRODUCTION ------------ !Funcy2 is an application that allows you to plot graphs of functions of y expressed in terms of x. Once plotted these functions can be processed in a number of ways: their colour and quality can be changed; you can plot derivitives and integrals of a function and you can transform the function. Obviously this has many uses - for example for checking that the derivitive or integral of a function is correct, for seeing where a maximum or minimum value of a graph is or simply to see how a function varies with different values of x. A number of basic functions are provided for immediate plotting, but you can also build up a library of functions that you may require frequently. Anyone who has used a graph plotting calculator should feel at home with !Funcy2, although some of the features are much more advanced. NOTE ---- This manual assumes that you are familiar with the RISC OS desktop. If not, then consult the Welcome guide which came with your machine. Interactive help has not been implemented yet. GETTING STARTED --------------- To get a flavour of the software follow the following instructions. 1. Double click on the !Funcy2 icon to load it. 2. Click on the !Funcy2 icon on the icon bar. A large window ('Graphs') opens filling the whole screen. In front of this is the list of plotted functions (the 'Plot list') which initially is empty. 3. At the bottom of the Plot list window are three buttons: 'Preset', 'User' and 'y='. Click on 'Preset'. 4. A new window opens - a list of functions should appear in a scrollable window. Click on one of them so that it becomes highlighted in light blue. 5. Make sure that the icon marked 'Reset axes' is selected (ticked). 6. Click on 'PLOT' with Select. After a pause, the Preset functions window should disappear and the highlighted function will appear in the Plot list. The plot itself appears in the Graphs window. Now you have plotted a graph you can 'play' with it in one, or more, of the following ways: change the colour and quality of the plot - double click on the item in the Plot list. plot derivatives, integrals or transformations of the function - highlight the item in the Plot list and click on Calculus or Transform. change the range, axis colour and style - click menu over any of the main !Funcy2 windows or icon bar icon and select 'Range' from the 'Windows' submenu (or press F3) plot a grid behind the graph - do this by accessing the appearance window from the Windows submenu (or press F4). You can also move the graph around from this window. Having done this you should have got a general feel for the software. You can superimpose further graphs over the one you've got by clicking on one of the three plot buttons at the bottom of the Plot list window. IN DEPTH -------- Before we look at the features of !Funcy2 in detail, it is worth looking at some of the basic concepts behind the software. The output in the Graphs window is dictated mainly by the data shown in the Plot list window. The functions plotted, their colours and quality can all be changed from the Plot list window, or a window accessible from it. The range of the graphs (ie the upper and lower limits of the x and y axes) and the overall appearance are changed through two windows: the range window and the appearance window. These are accessed via a Windows menu which is invoked by clicking Menu over many of the !Funcy2 windows or by clicking menu over the icon-bar icon. Windows can also be opened by pressing function keys. A graph that has been entered into the Plot list is known as a 'plotted function'. Any plotted function can be made invisible. If this is the case it appears in the plot list in light grey rather than black. Making a function invisible allows you to replot it later without typing the function in again - the only other way to stop a function being plotted is to delete it from the list completely. An invisible function is still refered to as a plotted function even though it isn't actually plotted. STANDARD CONTROLS ----------------- There are a few controls which appear in more than one window. Therefore it makes sense to describe them once: The colours of graphs and axes can be changed from their default black. This is done via a set of controls (labelled 'colour') which consist of two arrows which when clicked on cycle through the 16 Wimp colours. The current colour is shown inbetween the two arrows. A further set of controls dictates the quality of graph or axis. When the left-hand icon is clicked on the best quality is selected - that is a solid line. The other icons represent dotted lines with the rightmost icon usually representing the line with the dots furthest apart. The only exception to this is the quality control for the grid - the rightmost icon represents no grid at all. The advantage of using a lower quality is that screen updates can be faster. See the sections headed Appearance and Speed for more information. THE WINDOWS SUB-MENU -------------------- This is a feature that is accessed from many of the windows in !Funcy2. Sometimes it is the only menu available from a window, other times it is a submenu. Either way it indicates currently open windows with a tick. If you select a window from the menu that is closed it will be opened at the front of the pile. Otherwise the window will be closed. You can also use function keys to open or close windows, however these only work if any !Funcy2 window has a yellow title bar or one of the following windows is open: graphs, plot list, preset functions. The windows that can be opened or closed from this menu are: Plot list (F1) - controls which functions are plotted and how. Output (F2) - shows the currently visible functions is the defined range. Axes/range (F3) - allows you to decide the extent of the range and the appearance of the axes. Appearance (F4) - controls the overall appearance of the graph: it's position, the quality of plot and grid colour and quality. Trace (F5) - gives a read-out of the mouse position in the graph in cartesian coordinates. Preset functions (F6) - gives access to a set of preset functions which can be plotted setting a suitable range if required. User functions (F7) - allows you to create your own set of functions which can then be referred to by name. The purpose of using a menu to open these windows is so that they can be accessed from any part of the software. THE ICON BAR ------------ The effect of clicking on the icon bar icon depends on which mouse button you use: SELECT: opens the plot list and the graphs (output) window so that the plot list is in front of the output which is in front of everything else. ADJUST: has a similar effect to select except that the graphs window is opened behind any other window that is open at the time. MENU: opens a menu which lets you find out information about the software, open windows (via the windows sub-menu, explained above) and quit the application. If you have any unsaved work on quitting you will be asked if you really want to quit. CREATING PLOTS -------------- The creation of a plot is done via the three icons at the bottom of the Plot list window. Which icon you click depends on the type of function you want to plot. Click on 'User' to plot a user function - user functions will be discussed later on. Preset functions, like parabolas and exponential curves, can be plotted by clicking on 'Preset'. Finally your own function can be plotted by clicking on 'y='. You may enter up to 50 functions in the plot list. PRESET FUNCTIONS ---------------- When opened - whether by means of the windows sub-menu, a function key-press or by clicking in the plot list window - you should see a scrollable list of preset functions with names such as square and cuberoot. To plot a preset function, click on it so that it becomes highlighted and click on PLOT. If the 'Reset axes' icon is ticked then a suitable range will be selected for the function when it is plotted. When you click on PLOT the preset functions window disappears and, if open, the name of the preset function appears in the plot list. If the graphs window is open, the plot will be calculated and drawn. If not, open the graphs window to view the plot. Note that once a preset function has been added to the plot list, it then behaves like a 'y=' function - see next section. 'Y=' FUNCTIONS -------------- If you want to plot a function that is different to those in the preset functions window, click on the 'y=' icon in the plot list window. Enter the function you want to plot - eg 2x - into the white writeable icon, and set up the colour and quality of plot as described above. The default quality is the one set up in the appearance window. (See appearance later). You can also decide if you want the graph to be visible or not. Once you have done this click on OK and the plot will be added to the list and plotted if the respective windows are open. The Solo icon can be clicked on instead of OK. If you do this then the function you have just created will be the only visible function in the graphs window - the rest will be made invisible. When you click on OK or Solo, the function you have entered will be checked to see if it can be evaluated. If you get a message 'Error in definition with...' then the program is having difficulty with the function definition at the point mentioned in the error. You will also be told if brackets don't match up. You will be also told if you have made reference to a function which doesn't exist - that is one you haven't defined as a user function. This may be because you haven't defined the user function yet. In this case you should click on OK - note that the graph will be made invisible as it can't be plotted. If you mis-typed a function name then click on the Whoops icon to correct the function definition. FUNCTION SYNTAX --------------- The syntax for functions is as close to written algebra as possible. This means, for example, that multiplication signs can be omitted. Multiplication (symbol *) and division (symbol /) is done before addition and subtraction and the power sign (^) has the highest precedence. A function should be followed by a parameter in brackets. If the brackets are missing then the parameter is taken as being everything up to the next explicit operator. The following examples should give you an idea as to how the functions are evaluated. Function as Evaluation Comments typed in --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2x 2*x Times sign inserted 2x+3 (2*x)+3 Multiplication done first 2x/3 (2*x)/3 2/3x 2/(3*x) 3x is treated as a denominator as it doesn't contain an explicit operator (eg a * / + or -) 2/3x+2 (2/(3*x))+2 3x+2 is not treated as a denominator because it does contain an explicit operator sin(2x+3) sin((2*x)+3) 2x+3 taken as parameter as it's in brackets sin2*x sin(2)*x 2 taken as parameter because explicit operator (*) closes bracket sin2x+3 sin(2*x)+3 2x taken as parameter as + sign closes bracket -x^2 (-x)^2 Negative sign is unary operator here (makes x negative before being squared) 0-x^2 0-(x^2) Minus sign is binary operator here (x is squared before being taken away from 0) If in doubt, put in brackets for everything that should be evaluated seperately. Try taking out brackets to see if it makes any difference to the plot. BASIC FUNCTIONS --------------- You can refer to any of the following BASIC functions in your definition: ABS Absolute value - removes the sign ACS Inverse cosine ASN Inverse sine ATN Inverse tan COS Cosine DEG Converts from radians to degrees - DEG(PI)=180 EXP Inverse log natural INT Integer value - removes everything after the decimal point LOG Log (base 10) LN Log natural (base e) RAD Converts from degrees to radians - RAD(180)=PI RND Random number SGN Returns +1 if parameter is positive, -1 if parameter is negative and 0 if parameter is zero SIN Sine SQR Square root TAN Tan The trigonometrical functions all work in radians unless you use the RAD function like this: SIN(RAD x). OTHER BASIC KEYWORDS THAT CAN BE USED IN FUNCTION DEFINITIONS ------------------------------------------------------------- NOT, AND, DIV, EOR, MOD, OR, FALSE, PI, TRUE Of these MOD, DIV and PI are the most useful. MOD finds the remainder after a division whereas DIV finds the quotient. PI is the constant 3.141592. EDITING FUNCTIONS ----------------- Having created a function you may want to edit it. To do this, highlight it in the Plot list and either double-click on it or click on edit. This will take you to the 'y=' window even if you used the preset or user functions windows to create the plot. Click on OK or Solo to complete the Edit, or close the window if you want to cancel the edit. USER FUNCTIONS -------------- You will probably have used preset functions. You can define your own functions that can be referred to by a name. This can save time when entering 'y=' functions. It also allows you to add functions or divide one function by another. CREATING USER FUNCTIONS ----------------------- Control of user funtions is from the User functions window, opened via the windows sub-menu, by clicking User from the Plot list or by pressing F7. The user functions window is similar to the preset functions window except you are able to create, edit and delete functions. Initially the scrollable pane is empty - to create a user function click on Create. In the window that opens you must enter a function name in the uppermost box and a definition in the other one. The function name must consist only of letters and must not begin or end in 'x' as it will get confused with the variable, x. The name will be converted so that all the letters are in lower case. The name must also be unique - ie not the same as another user function, preset function or basic function. You will be alerted if you do this. The syntax of the definition is the same as that of a y= function. The parameter of a user function is x so the definition should be in terms of x. When you click on OK you will be alerted if the function name is illegal, if the definition cannot be evaluated or if the function would lead to recursion. These means that when evaluated, the function definition refers to itself and an endless loop occurs, as in this example: f(x)=2g(x) ; g(x)=f(x)+4 To evaluate f(x), g(x) must be calculated. To get a value for g(x), f(x) must be calculated - which in turn references g(x) and so on and so forth. PLOTTING USER FUNCTIONS ----------------------- A user function can be directly plotted by highlighting it in the pane and clicking on PLOT. User functions can of course be referenced in y= functions, for example like this: y=12x+6f(x) This of course is the main reason for using user functions: you can combine functions in a number of ways and investigate the effect of changing part of the definition. The parameter of a user function doesn't need to be just x either - it can be as complicated as you like, eg f(2x+1), f(16x/2x^2+7x) or f(g(8x+3sin(x))). Note composite functions cannot be entered in the form fg(x) as it will be interpreted as a single function fg. Instead use brackets or leave a space - eg f g(x) or f(g(x)). EDITING USER FUNCTION DEFINITIONS --------------------------------- Like y= function definitions, user function definitions can be edited by double-clicking on them in the relevant pane (ie in the User functions window), or by highlighting one and clicking on Edit. If you change a function definition that is plotted, the graphs window will be redrawn to reflect these changes. One of the menus available from the user functions window is a select menu which gives control over the selection (highlighting) of user functions. The submenu contains the following options: All - selects all user functions Used - selects all the user functions that are involved in a plotted function Unused - selects all the user functions that are not refered to in any of the plotted functions. Clear - cancels the current selection Copy - copies the selected user function (there must be only one) with the name specified in the sub-menu. The name must be unique and not cause recursion (as above). Delete - deletes all selected user functions. Saving and loading of user functions will be described later. PROCESSING PLOTTED FUNCTIONS ---------------------------- Part of the power of !Funcy2 is the ability to process the plotted functions whether they're visible or invisible. Initially you can change the colour or quality of a function either by double-clicking on the function in the plot list window and using the controls in the 'y=' window. Alternatively you can use the menu available from the plot list window. THE PLOT LIST MENU ------------------ Apart from opening windows (see above) and saving (see later) you can control the selection of functions in the plot list. In the select menu you have the following options: All - selects everything in the plot list Visible - selects only visible functions Invisible - selects only invisible functions Invert - inverts the current selection (ie unselected items made selected and vice versa) Clear - cancels the selection Make - leads to a further sub-menu. It applies an effect to the currently selected function(s). You can make the selection visible or invisible. You can also set the colour or the quality of all the selected functions to a particular value, which is quicker than setting each one in turn. The solo option will make the selected function(s) visible and the rest invisible. Copy - copies the currently selected function (only works if only one function is highlighted) If you copy a function that has derivitives, integrals or transformations you will be asked if you want those copied as well. Delete - deletes a function. Can also be done by clicking on delete in the plot list window. If the function has derivitives, integrals or transformations they will be deleted as well. FURTHER PROCESSES: CALCULUS PROCESSES ------------------------------------- The two calculus processes - integration and differentiation - can be applied to any plotted function. To do this, highlight the function you want to integrate or differentiate (it must be the only highlighted function) and click on Calculus in the Plot list window. From the calculus window you can select the process you want to apply. You can also set up the quality and colour in the usual way. Click on Solo or OK to complete the operation, or on the close icon to cancel. Note that integral functions can take a while to be plotted. In the plot list, a calculus process appears as Derivitive or Integral. To edit it, double click on it in the usual way. FURTHER PROCESSES: TRANSFORMATIONS ---------------------------------- To transform a function, make sure it is the only one highlighted in the plot list and click on Transform. The bottom half of the Transform window is familiar - the top half is complicated. In the pane there is a list containing the transformations applied to the graph (in order) - initially of course this pane is empty. To create a transformation, click on Create. A default transformation will appear at the end of the list. As the default transformation has no effect, you will want to edit it. Highlight it by clicking on it and then use the buttons to the right of the pane to change the type of transformation. If applicable enter a factor into the box. Further transformations can be added to the list (to a maximum of 20) by clicking on Create again. Make sure you highlight the function you want to edit before using the buttons to change the transformation. The transformation that results depends on the combination of buttons pressed: Translate + x + factor: will translate (move) the graph in the x direction by the number of units in the factor box. A positive value will translate the graph right, a negative number will move the graph left. Translate + y + factor: will translate the graph in the y direction by the number of units in the factor box. A positve value will translate the graph up, a negative number will move it down. Scale + x + factor: will stretch the graph in the x direction (from the y axis) by the factor. A factor between 0 and 1 will contract the graph, a higher value will stretch it. Scale + y + factor: will stretch the graph in the y direction (from the x axis) by the factor in the box. Reflect + x: will reflect the graph horizontally - that is about the y axis. Reflect + y: will reflect the graph vertically - that is about the x axis. Reflect + y=x: will reflect the graph in the line y=x. Therefore produces the inverse of the function entered. To plot the transformation, click on OK or Solo (see y= functions for information). Double clicking on a transformation in the plot list will take you back to this window. There is a menu available from the transform window: it allows you to select all the transformations in the list, cancel the selection and delete the selected transformations. Alternatively the Delete icon will let you delete the selected transformations. GLOBAL SETTINGS WHICH AFFECT ALL PLOTTED GRAPHS ----------------------------------------------- There are a number of things which are set up via the range and appearance windows which affect the look of the whole graph. RANGE AND AXIS CONTROL ---------------------- Selecting Axes/Range from the windows sub-menu or pressing F3 will open a window where you can set the extent of the graph and determine the appearance of the axes. Both x and y axes have minimum and maximum values. The minimum value must be lower than maximum value, but the origin need not be included in the graph's range. The step value determines how often reference marks appear on the axes and the seperation of grid lines (see appearance). Like individual graphs the axes can be made invisible, the colour of them can be set and the quality ranges from a solid line to one point every 'step' as defined in the step boxes. The graph can also be labelled along the axes at intervals if label is ticked. Clicking OK will set the range, closing the window will cancel any changes. STORED RANGE SETTINGS --------------------- You can store and recall up to six range settings. Initially they are all set to the default (ie x and y from -10 to 10 with step size 2) but the current range - the one that is reflected in the graphs window - can be stored by clicking with adjust on one of the icons numbered 1 to 6 in the range window. Note that if the entries in the range window are different from the actual range shown in the output/graphs window then the range of the graph window will be stored: to make sure that you store the correct range, click on OK in the range window with adjust before storing the range. Recalling a range is done by clicking select on one of the 1 to 6 icons. To make the graph assume the settings click on OK. The function keys can also be used to store and recall ranges. Shift+F1 to Shift+F6 recall range settings one to six respectively. Ctrl+F1 to Ctrl+F6 store ranges. Note these have instant effect. NB Compare changing the range with zooming - see later. APPEARANCE ---------- This is opened with F4 or via the windows sub-menu. The top half of the window controls the positioning and extent of the graph. The resize arrows expand or shrink the graph in the direction shown by one step unit (as set up in the range window) - experiment to find out which arrow does what. The move arrows moves the 'window' through which you are looking at the graph in the direction shown so that you end up looking at a different part of the graph. Both these functions have instant effect and work even when the graphs window is closed. The bottom half of the window lets you set up a grid. The quality buttons range from a solid line to one dot per step unit to no grid at all. The colour selection works in the usual way. Click on OK to set the grid or close the window to cancel. The overall refers to the overall quality of all the plots. Changing the overall quality affects all the graphs that have been set up with default quality. By setting a low overall quality you can speed up plotting considerably. MISCELLANEOUS ------------- THE TRACE WINDOW ---------------- This window - accessed by F5 or the windows submenu gives a readout of the current mouse position on the graph in the graphs co-ordinates. You get very long numbers due to the resolution of the screen - on a real graph the x and y values are continous but on screen one pixel refers to a range of values. The one given is at the centre of the pixel. The accuracy of the readout can be toned down using the rounding functions - either in significant figures or decimal places. Before you can set the degree of rounding you must turn it on by making the 'Round' option ticked. THE GRAPHS WINDOW ----------------- This shows the actual plots defined in the plot list and can be opened by pressing F2, clicking with select or adjust on the icon bar or using the windows submenu. Only the plots that have been defined as visible will be seen. The control of axes is done via the range and appearance windows; the grid and overall quality are defined from the appearance window (see above for description). The graphs window is designed so that at zoom factor 1:1 (see next section) the graph fills the whole screen. If you change mode so that the screen becomes bigger or smaller, the window will be resized to take this into account. If the screen resolution is increased the resolution of the graph increases as well - so in effect you get a better quality plot. ZOOMING ------- By default the graph is set to fill the whole screen. If you wanted to see the graph in more detail, you could change the range of the graph so that a smaller extent is covered. However, you may want to be able to keep the current range extent (eg x from -5 to -3) but still see lots of detail. For this you can zoom in on the graph so that the extent covers more than a screen's worth of space. To do this, click menu over the graphs window, and move to the zoom sub-menu. This works in a similar way to a zoom window in !Draw or !Paint except you can have different zoom factors in the x and y directions. If you're not familiar with zoom boxes, the zoom factors are expressed as quotients, so 2:1 means twice as large (2/1) whereas 1:3 is a third (1/3) of the size. You can use the arrows to change the number nearest, or enter values into the boxes directly. The arrows have instant effect; entering values directly only comes into effect when you press Return when the caret is in one of the right-hand boxes. If the button in the middle of the zoom window is pressed, the contents of the x and y boxes are tied so that any change you make in one appears in the other as well. This means that the zoom factor is the same in both directions. However if you click on the link icon so that it is not depressed, you can set the x and y zoom factors independently. Very large and very small zoom factors are attainable but should be avoided unless you're very patient! SAVING AND LOADING ------------------ Although there is only one filetype, different things can be saved or loaded, depending on where you drag icons from/to. The three types of information that can be saved or loaded are: Plotted function definitions User function definitions Overall information - eg range, stored ranges, grid style, zoom factor etc If you save from the plot list menu, all the functions in the plot list will be saved along with the overall information. If the 'with definitions' option in the save dialogue box is ticked, all the user function definitions will be saved as well. This means you can save everything in a single file. If you only want to save user functions then open the User functions window, and save from the menu there. Overall information will not be saved. When loading, if you drag the icon to the icon bar icon, then all information in the file will be loaded. If you drag to the plot list window, then only plotted functions will be loaded; if you drag to the User functions window, then only user functions will be loaded. If you drag to the graphs window, the overall information only will be loaded. This allows you, for example, to import range settings from another file. Note that function definitions are added to the respective lists so you never lose anything on a load. User function definitions whose names clash will not be loaded and neither will those that would cause recursive definitions (see user functions section) to be set up. SPEED ----- Whenever you change anything which !Funcy2 thinks might affect the overall appearance of the graph, it is recalculated, but only if the graphs window is open. This recalculation can take some time so here are some tips on speeding things up 1. Don't leave the graphs window open if you don't need it to be when you are changing a lot of things. 2. Use a small zoom factor - the time taken should be halved if the zoom factor is halved. 3. Change to a lower resolution screen mode - a y value is calculated for each pixel across the window, so the fewer pixels across the window there are the quicker updates will be 4. Use lower quality plots - temporarily set the default quality to a very low setting to reduce the number of calculations made. 5. Use integral functions with care - the way these are calculated means that more time is spent if the graph's origin is a long way away from the left hand side of the window and that reducing the quality doesn't help. 6. Make functions invisible if they don't need to be plotted. 7. If you really must, try typing *RMFaster BASIC after pressing F12 and see if it works. 8. Finally, get a faster computer! NOTE that medium quality grids and axes slow things down - have either the highest or the lowest. Also avoid using small step sizes in the range window. EXPORTING GRAPHS AS GRAPHIC IMAGES ---------------------------------- There is no facility to save files as sprites or draw files (yet) but there is a workround (which assumes you've got RiscOS 3) 1. Set up the graphs so that the output in the graphs window is what you want and at the size you want it (as long as it isn't bigger than the screen) 2. Close all the windows except the output window (to make a bit of space) 3. If the icon bar is not visible, press Shift+F12 4. If !Paint is not loaded, click on the Apps icon and double click on !Paint with adjust. 5. Click with menu over the !Paint icon on the icon bar and select Snapshot... 6. If you pressed Shift+F12 in step 3, press it again. 7. If the graphs window takes up most of the screen, make sure that the 'whole screen' icon is ticked. 8. Click on OK. 9, If you didn't set the whole screen option, draw a box around the graphs window. 10. A save box appears. If the icon bar is not visible press Shift-F12 again. 11. Drag the Sprite file icon in the save box to the !Paint icon on the icon bar. 12. If you've got enough memory a sprite file window should open with a miniature version of the graph you have just grabbed. Double click on it so that you can view and edit it. You might wnat to trim off the window gadgets or change some colours etc- see the Risc OS manuals to find out how to do this. If all you want is a Sprite file you can stop here. However, you might want to convert your sprite file to a draw file. 13. Close !Funcy2s output window and any of !Paints windows EXCEPT the sprite file window containing the miniature version of the graph (you don't want to get confused!) 14. If !Draw is not loaded, click on the Apps icon and double click on !Draw with adjust. 15. Click menu over the miniature version of the graph in the sprite file window. 16. Move to the save box from Sprite->Save menu. Drag the sprite icon to the !Draw icon. 17. A !Draw window should open containing the graph at full size. You may need to change the page size of the draw document to be able to see the whole graph. 18. Use this sprite as a template over which you draw Bezier curves and straight lines to form the shape of the graph. By zooming the !Draw window you can check that your version of the graph is close to the original. 19. Once you have done this, select the original sprite in the !Draw document and delete it. 20. The path you have just created should be left and you can then group it to form one object which can be resized, rotated, used in DTP documents with no discernable loss of quality. NB I intend to reduce this 20 stage process to a single drag in a future version. Please bear with me! ENDPIECE -------- I hope that you enjoy using this application - possibly even enough that you feel like registering. Please let me know of any bugs you encounter or of any ideas for future improvements. I apologise if I've missed anything out in this documentation - it's taken me almost as long to write it as it did to write the application! Also apologies if some of the instructions aren't very clear - as the software hasn't settled yet, I didn't want to write the definitive manual! PLEASE READ THE LICENCE CONDITIONS ETC AT THE TOP OF THIS FILE -------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE READ THE FILE 'NOTES' TO FIND OUT ABOUT THIS APPLICATION, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Text (c) 1994 Richard Blythe