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- RELEASE NOTES FOR MATHCAD 5.0 AND MATHCAD PLUS 5.0
-
-
- These notes provide last minute information on this version
- of Mathcad as well as corrections to the documentation.
-
- CONTENTS:
- 1: Preparing to Install
- 2: Windows Swap File
- 3: Incompatible DLL dialog - when upgrading from Mathcad 4.0
- 4: Incompatible DLL dialog - when upgrading from Mathcad 3.1
- 5: Compressed Drives
- 6: DOS 21 Error
- 7: What are WIN32S Libraries
- 8: Incompatibilities
- 9: Installation with Program Manager substitutes
- 10: Updates to documentation
- 11: Compatibility with older versions of Mathcad
- 12: Deleting unnecessary files
-
- 1: PREPARING TO INSTALL --------------------------------------------------
-
- Before installing:
-
- 1. Make sure that you have at least 15 MB free on your
- hard drive. For Mathcad PLUS, you should have 16 MB
- free.
-
- 2. Make sure you have disabled any virus checking
- software.
-
- 3 Make sure your system is set up to run Windows 3.1 in
- 386 enhanced mode or Windows NT. The installation script
- will not run otherwise.
-
- 4. Make sure you have shut down all other applications.
-
- 2: WINDOWS SWAP FILE -----------------------------------------------------
-
- If you see a dialog box saying
-
- "WIN32S requires Windows to run with virtual memory enabled.
- Re-install WIN32S"
-
- 1. Open up the Windows Control Panel and double-click on
- the 386 Enhanced icon to bring up a dialog box.
-
- 2. Click on the Virtual Memory button.
-
- 3. Click on the Change button and create a permanent
- or a temporary swap file. We recommend that the
- swap file be at least 8 MB.
-
- 4. Close all dialog boxes by clicking OK and restart
- Windows.
-
- WIN32S libraries require that a portion of your hard disk be
- set aside for a "swap file." It uses this file to create
- "virtual memory."
-
- Since virtual memory makes use of the hard disk, it is
- slower than actual RAM. You can improve its performance by
- creating a permanent swap file. Such a file makes use of
- contiguous blocks on your hard disk.
-
- The size of a permanent swap file is constrained by the
- smallest of the following three limits.
-
- 1. The amount of contiguous hard-disk space. You can
- increase this by de-fragmenting your hard disk using any
- of a number of commercially available utilities.
-
- 2. 50% of your free disk space.
-
- 3. Four times the amount of RAM on your system plus 4MB.
- Thus, 3MB RAM allows no more than 3MB*4 + 4MB or 16MB
- of swap file space.
-
- 3: INCOMPATIBLE DLL DIALOG BOX -- Upgrading from Mathcad 4.0 --------------
-
- If you have previously installed any of the MathSoft add-ons listed
- below and are upgrading to Mathcad 5.0 (not Mathcad PLUS 5.0) you
- will see a dialog box listing the names of any add-ons having incompatible
- DLL files. Possible add-ons are:
-
- Signal Processing Function Pack
- Differential Equations Function Pack
-
- When you see the INCOMPATIBLE DLL dialog box, continue the installation
- and when the installation is complete follow the instructions below.
-
- All Function Packs require Mathcad PLUS 5.0. They are not designed
- to work with Mathcad 5.0. For additional information on Mathcad PLUS 5.0
- please call MathSoft at 1-800-MATHCAD and ask for Customer Service.
-
- To avoid further error messages, rename the *.DLL files located in the
- \WINMCAD\EFI subdirectory to be *.DXX. Only rename the *.DDL files
- that are listed in the dialog box. Mathcad will no longer try to load them.
-
- 4: INCOMPATIBLE DLL DIALOG BOX -- Upgrading from Mathcad 3.1 --------
-
- If you have previously installed any of the following MathSoft add-ons
- you will see a dialog box listing the incompatible DLL files. These include:
-
- Signal Processing Function Pack
- Treasury of Statistics, Vol. 1: Hypothesis Testing
- Treasury of Statistics, Vol. 2: Data Analysis
- Applied Mathcad Quarterly Magazine
-
- When you see the INCOMPATIBLE DLL dialog box, do one of the
- following:
-
- If Upgrading to Mathcad 5.0
-
- Continue the installation and when the installation is complete
- follow the instructions below.
-
- Add-ons listed above other than the Signal Processing
- Function Pack should be re-installed. When you do so, install
- them as if you had Mathcad 4.0. If the installation for the add-on
- doesn't provide such an option, call Technical Support at
- 1-617-577-1778.
-
- All Function Packs require Mathcad PLUS 5.0. They are not
- designed to work with Mathcad 5.0. For additional
- information on Mathcad PLUS 5.0 please call MathSoft at
- 1-800-MATHCAD and ask for Customer Service.
-
- If Upgrading to Mathcad PLUS 5.0
- Ignore the message and continue the installation. All Add-ons listed
- above should be re-installed. When you do so, install them as if you
- had Mathcad 4.0. If the installation for the add-on does not provide
- such an option, call Technical Support at 1-617-577-1778.
-
- If you do not successfully reinstall you may encounter the
- error message "Cannot find MCAD.DLL" or "Cannot find
- EFIUTIL.DLL." These messages are benign. They merely
- indicate that you have an older 16-bit DLL on your system.
-
- To update to a 32-bit file, please call MathSoft Technical
- Support at 617-577-1778 between 9:00 and 5:30 Eastern
- time.
-
- 5: COMPRESSED DRIVES -----------------------------------------------------
-
- If you're using a disk compressor such as Stacker, we recommend
- you create a permanent swap file on your host drive. This will
- significantly improve performance. See section 2 above for
- information on how to create a swap file. Note that a permanent
- swap file, unlike a temporary one, can exist only on your host
- drive. It cannot be created on your compressed drive.
-
- If you're using DBLSPACE, DOS 6.0's compression utility,
- Windows will be able to create a permanent swap file only on
- your host drive. If you don't have the space to create a
- permanent swap file there, you can still run Mathcad by
- creating a temporary swap file on your compressed drive.
-
- 6: DOS 21 ERROR----------------------------------------------------------
-
- If you see a dialog box saying "DOS Error = 21" when starting up Mathcad
- or Mathcad PLUS, do the following:
-
- 1. Exit to DOS and execute the file - "_mcad.bat" found in your
- WINDOWS\SYSTEM subdirectory. If this file does not exist, call
- MathSoft Technical Support at 617-577-1778.
-
- 2. Restart Windows. You should be able to run Mathcad now.
-
- These steps will correctly give Windows access to the version of
- the WIN 32S libraries shipped with Mathcad 5.0. These files are needed to
- run Mathcad 5.0 or Mathcad PLUS 5.0 successfully.
-
- 7: WHAT ARE WIN32S LIBRARIES -----------------------------------------------
-
- The Mathcad installation script automatically installs
- Microsoft's WIN32S libraries. These Microsoft libraries
- permit Mathcad to use a limited subset of Windows-NT
- features. The 32-bit data path made available through the
- WIN32S libraries makes Mathcad run significantly faster.
-
- Once installation is complete, you'll find the WIN32S
- libraries in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WIN32S directory.
-
- 8: INCOMPATIBILITIES -------------------------------------------------------
-
- Shareware
- Certain shareware memory monitoring software may be
- incompatible with Mathcad. If you are running such software
- and experience unexplained crashes, try disabling any memory
- monitoring software you have running.
-
- Anti-virus software
- Most anti-virus software will interfere with the
- installation program. Be sure to disable any such software
- before installing Mathcad. You can re-enable anti-virus
- software after Mathcad is installed.
-
- Math coprocessors
- If you get obviously inappropriate error messages when
- running Mathcad, for example an "illegal range" pointing to
- a simple range variable assignment, you may have an
- incompatible coprocessor.
-
- Some older 80387 coprocessors made by IIT have this
- property. If you have an IIT coprocessor, call IIT customer
- support at 800-832-0770 to inquire about a replacement.
-
- Some older computers are equipped with an 80287 coprocessor
- and an 80386 CPU. Although fundamentally incompatible, this
- combination works for many software packages. However,
- because of its extensive use of the coprocessor, Mathcad
- tends to expose even minor incompatibilities in this
- configuration.
-
- Printers
- If you can't choose Print from the File menu and you have an
- HP-Deskjet 500C printer you may need to upgrade your printer
- driver to version 3.0 or later. To do so, call HP at 208-
- 323-2551.
-
- Print Spoolers
- The print spooler WINJET comes with a file WINSPOOL.DRV.
- This is incompatible with the WIN32S file having the same
- name. When you attempt to install Mathcad with WINJET
- installed, the installation program quits about halfway
- through the process.
-
- To circumvent this problem, do the following:
-
- 1. Comment out the following lines in the [386enh]
- section of your SYSTEM.INI file by preceding each
- line with a semicolon.
- DEVICE: = LMHERALD.386
- DEVICE: = LMMI.386
- DEVICE: = LMCAP.386
-
- 2. Reboot the computer.
-
- 3. Install Mathcad.
-
- 4. Uncomment the above lines by removing the semicolons
- you placed in the SYSTEM.INI. file.
-
- 5. Reboot the computer.
-
- 9: INSTALLATION WITH PROGRAM MANAGER SUBSTITUTES ---------------------------
-
- Norton Desktop
- If you see an error message saying "Can't open group" you
- should:
-
- 1. Open File Manager and locate "MATHSOF0.GRP." This
- is usually in your \WINDOWS subdirectory.
-
- 2. Drag this file from the File Manager to your desktop.
-
- PC Tools
- You may find that icons for the tutorial and for the Electronic
- Books are missing from the MathSoft Apps group. To add these
- icons manually:
-
- 1. Choose New File from the File menu.
-
- 2. In the text box next to "Command Line" type the
- appropriate filename from the list below:
-
- TUTORIAL\TUTORIAL.EXE for the Tutorial
- HANDBOOK\DESKREF.HBK for the Desktop Reference
- HANDBOOK\SAMPLER.HBK for the Book Sampler
-
- These will generally be in the \WINMCAD directory. Click
- on the Browse button if necessary to help you find them.
-
- 3. To add the appropriate icons, click the Icon button and
- open HANDBOOK\EBOOK.ICO.
-
- For more information, contact Central Point Software directly at
- 503-645-6111.
-
- 10: UPDATES TO DOCUMENTATION ---------------------------------------------
-
- AUTOSCALE ON POLAR PLOTS
- The autoscale feature is not available for polar plots.
- When you leave a placeholder on the radial axis blank, Mathcad
- will always set it to the nearest major tick mark which
- allows all the data to appear on the polar plot.
-
- LOG SCALE ON POLAR PLOTS
- When the radius of a polar plot is negative, Mathcad creates the
- plot using the absolute value of the radius.
-
- ZOOM FEATURE FOR POLAR PLOTS
- The zoom feature is not available for polar and x-y plots that are
- log scaled.
-
- GENINV FUNCTION IN MATHCAD PLUS 5.0
- The generalized inverse function, geninv(A), uses the built-in
- Mathcad variable TOL when calculating the generalized inverse
- of matrix A. To increase the accuracy of the geninv function,
- lower the value for TOL. After changing the value of TOL,
- recalculate by clicking on the geninv function and pressing [F9].
-
- CHOLESKY FUNCTION IN MATHCAD PLUS 5.0
- The Cholesky function, cholesky(M), for matrix decomposition
- uses the upper triangular matrix of matrix M, rather than the lower
- triangular matrix. The documentation states that the matrix M
- must be positive definite. However, it is the symmetric matrix
- formed by reflecting the upper triangle of matrix M about the
- diagonal which must be positive definite.
-
- NEW FEATURES SECTION IN USER'S GUIDE
- The new features section discussing additional features to Mathcad's
- dimensional analysis has an error. There are no additional units
- added either to Mathcad 5.0 or Mathcad PLUS 5.0.
-
- 11: COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF MATHCAD ---------------------------
-
- TITLES ON GRAPHICS
- When this version of Mathcad opens a document created
- by an older version, any graphics region in that document
- will have "Show titles" disabled. When adding a title to
- one of these graphics regions, make sure "Show titles" is
- enabled.
-
- DISPLAYING MATRICES
- If you load a document created in an earlier version of
- Mathcad into Mathcad 5.0 or Mathcad PLUS 5.0, any matrices
- in the document will be displayed as matrices, rather than as
- scrolling output tables. To display a matrix as a scrolling output
- table, select the matrix and choose Numerical Format from the
- Math menu. Click in the box beside Display as Matrix to turn
- the option off. Then click OK.
-
- 12: DELETING UNNECESSARY FILES ------------------------------------------
-
- If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Mathcad, some
- unnecessary files may remain in the \WINMCAD directory. These
- files will not affect the operation of Mathcad.
-
- However, if you need to free up disk space for any reason, you
- can delete the following directories from the
- \WINMCAD\HANDBOOK directory:
-
- GETSTART
- STANDARD
- TUTORIAL
- SAMPLE
-
- You can also delete the following files located in the
- \WINMCAD\HANDBOOK directory:
-
- GETSTART.HBK
- STANDARD.HBK
- TUTORIAL.HBK
- SAMPLE.HBK
-
- You should no longer need these files or the contents of these
- directories. They are updated in new directories when you
- install Mathcad 5.0 or Mathcad PLUS 5.0.
-
-