Custom.htmlTEXTMPad .ʵecec^ MathPad Manual _ Customizing

Customizing MathPad

Here are a few suggestions on setting up Mathpad for your own uses.

Apple Menu

Replace that lame calculator that came with your system. Put a MathPad document or alias in your Apple Menu Items folder.

If you want MathPad to act the way desk accessory calculators operate, turn on the "Save and Quit" option via the Options... menu and save a document in the Apple Menu Items folder. For documents saved with this option on, clicking the window's close box will save the current text and quit the application.

If you want MathPad's close box to act like most applications, leave this option off.

Changing Defaults

If you would like to change MathPad's default document settings, create a new document with whatever you want for defaults. Use the save button in the Options... dialog. This will create a file in MathPad's folder named "defaults". This allows setting radians, numeric format, fonts, window sizes etc. (You will have to evaluate a plot to set plot window options).

The "defaults" file is an ordinary MathPad document and can be edited directly. Normally it is saved without any text but default starting text is allowed.

Include Files

You may wish to save definitions that you find generally useful in one or more include files. A document containing the command

   include "filename"

will open and read definitions from the named file.

The distribution contains some general utility functions in the "incl" folder. Any document can access these files via a short relative path name such as ":incl:vector ops". You can add your include files to this folder or make your own include folder.

Plug-ins

XFun files placed in MathPad's "Active XFuns" folder extend its function menu. See the folder "XFuns". Choose the XFuns you need and move them into the active folder. Remember that adding XFuns will increase MathPad's memory needs.

ResEdit

For those who really like to mess with details, there are a few resources that can be edited.

If you wish to change the way in which image data values are mapped to colors or grayscale, you can edit the following resources:

'PAT#' name="graypats" used when halftone patterns are selected
'ctbl' id=128 the color table used when gray levels are selected
'ctbl' id=129 the color table used when color is selected

The number of "graypats" can be changed as well as the patterns themselves.

The system's default 8-bit grayscale table is used for either 128 or 129 if the color table is missing.

Miscellaneous resources
'ppat' id=128 the color pen pattern for grid lines
'ppat' id=129 the color pen pattern for bold grid lines
'STR#' id=129 name of the standard font and size
'TEXT' id=128 text for general help file
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