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11MIC95.TXT
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Microreviews for November 1995 MICROpendium
by Charles Good
---------------
PLOTTER by Bruce Harrison
Have you seen those neat Texas Instruments graphing calculators
in the stores. I refer to the TI-80, TI-81, TI-82, and the newest
TI-85. These are now popular items in calculater technology,
completely capturing the high end calculator market from BASIC
programmable calculators such as the CC40 and the TI-74. They all
have a square LED screen at the top which allows you to enter
equations and have them graphed for you on the little screen. You get
a nice display of sine waves, parabolas, elipses, etc. These rather
expensive calculators can be programmed by storing data in their
"registers" (memory locations). The more expensive ones have lots of
memory and work with an extra cost interface that lets you dump data
to a table top computer. College students and engineers carry these
calculators around with them today the way college students of my day
carried slide rules. Well, thanks to Bruce Harrison's latest public
domain software our 99/4As can now do anything the graphing
calculators can do except fit in your pocket.
As you know, in either BASIC our computers have an excellent
suite of mathematical functions (PI, ATN, LOG, TAN, etc) and very
accurate calculating to many digits with no rounding off errors. What
BASIC lacks is an easy way to plot equations on screen in high
resolution using individual pixels for the plot. There is old (1983)
all BASIC software that puts high res equation plots on screen, but
the display takes forever to build, and all you can do is look at the
end result. Bruce has solved this by creating a group of BASIC
plotting programs with embeded assembly code that quickly puts the
plot on screen in bit map mode, and he has added all kinds of neat
extras not found in the old software.
With each of the PLOTTER programs you edit line 100 of the
program and there you insert the equation(s) you want graphed. When
you run the program you are prompted for the position of the X axis
(horizontally across any of the screen's 192 pixels of vertical
resolution) and position of the Y axis anywhere along the 256 pixels
of screen width. You also get to specify a "Y scale factor" which can
magnify the vertical part of the plot. The natural scale factor is 1,
and some plots would look very flat on such a scale so you can balloon
the plots by specifying a scale factor of 20 or 40 to make them look
good on screen. Once you enter the Y scale the computer takes about
30 seconds to calculate 256 plot points and display them on screen
along with lolid lines for the X and Y axes.
Now for the fun! You can press S to save the plot to a 25 sector
TI Artist compatible "_P" file. You can also load an previously saved
plot into PLOTTER. If you want to add text to your plot just load it
into Bruce's DRAWING PROGRAM and type your text anywhere on screen,
then print the result and/or save it back as either a TIA picture or a
Drawing Program format picture. (The latest version of Drawing
Program both saves and loads TIA pictures). From within PLOTTER you
can also print a plot to almost any 9 or 24 pin printer including my
ancient Gemini 10X.
Here is the most amazing feature of PLOTTER. You can put an
equation in line 100, run the program and display the equation's plot.
You can then break the program (Fctn/4), edit line 100 with another
equation, run the program again and get your second plot on screen.
Now press O (for "overlay") and your first plot is displayed on screen
along with the second plot! They are both there on screen. When you
ran your first plot and then issued the break command (Fctn/4) to get
into command mode so you could change line 100, your first plot didn't
go away. It was stored in a buffer waiting for the overlay command to
be issued. You can also load a plot from disk, load a second plot
from disk (or create one from the equation in line 100), and overlay
them both on screen for printing or saving to a disk file. Printing
as well as loading and saving to disk files does not work in a Geneve.
Plotting to the screen and overlaying does.
On the same DSSD or SSSD disk there are three different versions
of PLOTTER, depending on the type of equation. In one Y is a function
of X, such as Y=SIN(X). In another version, for parametric equations,
both X and Y are a function of a third parameter P and you plot
simultaneous equations such as X=3/4*COS(P) and Y=1/4*SIN(P). The
third verison of PLOTTER is for equations using polar coordinates with
plots radiating out from the X/Y origin. Each of these is a separate
XB/assembly program.
What's that you say? You're not an engineer. You're not a
college student with a major in mathematics. You don't understand
algebra and never heard of trigonometry. Don't worry, this software
is still fun. Just randomly play around with the equations in line
100, and the input variables that assign the X and Y axis and see what
you get. The results, even with random equations, can be beautiful.
Bruce includes several sample plots saved on disk in TI Artist format.
Each is a work of art suitable for full page printing with his TIA
printer (reviewed last month) and framing.
The documentation is idiot friendly. Just do what it says,
enter the values suggested, and you will get beautiful geometrically
interesting plots. Bruce is a retired engineer, so if you have really
serious (or not so serious) questions on using this software you can
make use of a feature not found in other public domain software
offerings, the Harrison Help Line. In the Plotter docs he says,
"Should you have questions, comments, or need help, the author is
readily available by mail or phone. ... We answer all mail! By phone,
we're available from 9AM through Midnight Eastern time, seven days a
week." Amazing!
Send me $1 and I will send you PLOTTER. Please specify the
version you want: DSSD disk with lots of sample plots for 9 pin
printers; SSSD disk for 9 pin printers with fewer sample plots; DSSD
disk for 24 pin printers.
----------------------
PRNINST by Bruce Harrison
Here is another public domain offering from Bruce. This one will
print any TI Artist instance, automatically centered left/right on a
8.5 inch page. The instance is printed a couple of inches tall.
PRNINST is designed to let you use a TIA instance as part or all of a
letterhead. Just print your favorite instance at the top of the page,
then load up a word processor and print your letter below the
graphic. It works on 9 and 24 pin printers, including my SG10 and 10X
printers. On 9 pin printers you have your choice of single or double
density printing. Double density looks really good!
Just load PRNINST from EA5 or EA3 (there is no XB loader). You
are asked for your printer name. Just accept the PIO.CR default.
Then you asked for the full path name of the instance. Once this
information is entered printing begins.
I'll send you PRNINST on the same DSSD disk that has EDITINST
(see below) complete with source code, some sample instances, and
documentation. If you want I can also send you on another (DSSD) disk
instances of all the 50 United States. Most of these state instances
include text of the state's motto. These state instances make great
letterheads, particularly if you modify that of your state with your
own text and perhaps mark it with your specific location within your
own state.
--------------------------
INSTEDIT by Bruce Harrison
Since the Harrison Drawing program only allows you to load and
save instances, but doesn't allow you to manipulate them, Bruce has
made an Instance Editor. You can do almost anything with this editor
that you can do with his drawing program, but there is no color.
Everything is black and white.
You can load in an existing instance or a drawing program picture
or a TI Artist picture for modification and saving back to disk as an
instance. When loading in a big picture, you delete those areas of
the picture you don't want to save and save the rest back as an
instance. You can also create an instance from scratch.
When editing you have a cursor which can be moved in the usual 8
directions with the keyboard or a joystick. The cursor can be in the
pen up or down position. When down you mark black pixels on the
screen, which is in bit map mode. You can also create lines between
marked spots A and B, make perfect circles, and fill in enclosed areas
with black. You can even take a small instance and duplicate it
elsewhere on the screen, creating larger instances that are multiple
copies of the original. You can add text to your instance using any
CHARA1 font or a TI Artist "_F" font. This is a very powerful editor.
INSTEDIT comes on the same DSSD disk that contains PRINTINST.
Source code for both programs, docs, and sample instances are
included.
--------------------
THE HARRISON DRAWING SUITE by Bruce Harrison
Here is a list of public domain drawing software by Bruce
Harrison. The output of each piece of software can be used by the
others as described below. These have all been reviewed by me before
but some have been recently updated. With these programs you can do
almost anything TI Artist can do, and a whole lot more. Everything
listed here is available from me for $1 per disk.
PLOTTER: reviewed by me this month. Different versions for 9 and
24 pin printers. SSSD and DSSD versions.
PRNINST and INSTEDIT: reviewed by me this month. Create or edit
instances. Print with 9 or 24 pin printers instances centered on a
page as a letterhead. Both on the same DSSD disk. DSSD disk of USA
state instances also available from me.
DRAWING PROGRAM: newly updated to save in TI Artist format as
well as in it's own Drawing Program format. Can import Drawing
Program pictures as well as TI Artist pictures and instances, and can
use TI Artist fonts or CHARA1 files for text. Two versions, one for 9
pin printers and a new version for 24 pin printers, each on a separate
DSSD disk with source code. Does not work on a Geneve or on systems
with 80 column cards.
TI ARTIST PRINT: prints TI Artist pictures to full 8.5 x 11 inch
size. TI Artist can't do this. And everything is correctly
proportioned. Circles look like circles. Two versions, one for 9 pin
printers and a new version for 24 pin printers each on separate SSSD
disks with source code.
VIDEO TITLER: Manipulates Drawing Program or TI Artist pictures
for recording on video tape as title screens. Examples can be seen in
the 1995 Lima conference videos. DSSD disk with samples.
FONT CONVERTER: Can convert all 130 Jim Peterson XB screen fonts
into CHARA1 files which can be used in Drawing Program. SSSD disk with
sample converted fonts. The set of Jim Peterson screen fonts, with XB
demo programs to view the fonts, is available from me on three DSSD
disks.
SLIDE SHOW: Displays TI Artist pictures in slide show format.
Many options for timing and ordering of pictures. One DSSD disk.
--------------------
ACCESS:
Bruce Harrison: 5705 40th Place, Hyattsville MD 20781. Phone
301-277-3467.
Charles Good: P.O. Box 647, Venedocia OH 45894. Phone
419-667-3131. Internet email cgood@osulima1.lima.ohio-state.edu or
good.6@osu.edu