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Readme.doc
PLOT -- DOCUMENTATION
PLOT-- LICENSE AGREEMENT
Copyright 1985,1986,1987, Prowess, Inc.
This is a user supported software product. It is not public domain
software, nor is it free software. You are granted a limited license
to use this product on a trial basis. If you continue to use this
product after a trial period, you are expected to register by sending:
$25 (Minimum reg.) or $35 (+ $4 S/H) (Full reg.)
* Technical support * Technical support
* Update notification * Latest diskette
* Printed manual
Texas residents, please add 7 1/4 % sales tax
Contact us for information concerning low cost site licenses.
If you like the shareware concept - try before you buy - please support the
companies that provide useful, professional quality products.
Prowess,Inc. - 203 Lakeridge Village - Suite 102 - Dallas 75238
(214) 349-4718
You are encouraged to distribute copies of this software providing
that you make no modifications to any of the files and that the copy
that you distribute, regardless of the means of distribution, contains
all files that came on your product diskette.
DISCLAIMER
----------
This software product and associated instructional material are sold
"as is" without warranty as to their performance, accuracy, freedom
from error, merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.
The entire risk as to the performance of the software is assumed by
the user.
Under no circumstances, whether in contract or tort, shall Prowess,
Inc. be liable for indirect, consequential, special, or exemplary
damages such as, but not limited to, loss of revenue or anticipated
profits, lost business or other economic loss, arising out of, or
in connection with this agreement, or your use, or inability to use
any program or sub-program associated with this software product.
------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
* File descriptions
* Minimum system requirements
* Introduction
* Working diskette preparation
* Loading/running the plot programs
* General information about these programs
* Other Prowess, Inc. shareware products
----------------------------------------------------------------
FILE DESCRIPTIONS
The following files are contained on your product diskette:
README.DOC This file. Documentation for PLOT
HLP3.BAS Help file accessed from PLOTM.BAS. Provides
the most detailed information on all plot
programs.
IPLOT.BAS Program for plotting Y=f(X) type equations.
It also provide integration capability to
find the area under a curve.
SPLOT.BAS Program for plotting two simultaneous
equations.
PPLOT.BAS Program for polar plotting.
VPLOT.BAS Program for vector plotting.
PLOTM.BAS Contains the plot menu. Calls the available
plotting programs and help file.
PLOT.BAT A batch file which loads the opening screen
files via BASIC(A).
PLOG.BAS Opening screen files - logo, etc. Calls
PLOTM.BAS.
FUNCT.BAS Data files containing user defined
FCT1.BAS equations. These files are automatically
FCT2.BAS generated when you use the plotting
FCT3.BAS programs. These file are generated as a
result of running the plotting programs.
They may or may not be present on your
product diskette.
PLIC.BAS License statement.
--------------------------------------------------------
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
* IBM-PC or 100% compatible * CGA graphics
* BASICA (or equivalent, GW-BASIC, etc.) * 64K RAM
* DOS 2.1 or above * 1 Floppy drive
-------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
This program set is designed to provide a quick, easy to use, set of tools
for technical plotting. It will handle rectilinear, polar and vector
plotting. After plotting, you may review a tabulation of all plotted points
(except for the vector program).
These programs were written in BASICA to take advantage of a unique BASICA
capability - the CHAIN MERGE feature. When you enter an equation to be
plotted, you may enter it just as you would write it on paper. The
program accepts your equation as a string variable, appends your equation
to a string that defines a line number then writes the whole string to a
file (FCT1.BAS for example). This file is then CHAIN MERGED with the
program itself and your equation becomes an executable line of code,
complete with a line number in the program. Unfortunately, existing
compilers can not compile the CHAIN MERGE statement.
We felt that being able to enter the equation in standard equation format was
so important that we have released these programs in BASIC(A). No other
language that we know of allows a chain-merge-like function and writing the
function in another language would be a formidable task. Chalk one up for
BASIC! Although not extremely fast, we think that you will find the plotting
speed of these programs satisfactory.
SPECIAL NOTE: Because of the technique mentioned above, you will render
these programs INOPERATIVE IF YOU RENUMBER THE LINES !!!
There is a master help file accessable from the main menu (HLP3.BAS). It is
a separate program that describes each program in detail. It is your best
source of information about program specifics.
In addition to HLP3.BAS, each program contains a brief help (or
instruction) section for quick reference.
-----------------------------------------------
MAKE A WORKING DISKETTE
Protect your investment; make a working copy of your PLOT product diskette
now!
1. Format a new diskette (with the system option)
Example: FORMAT B:/S
(Assumes system diskette in drive A and new diskette in
drive B.)
2. Copy your BASICA.COM to the working diskette.
COPY BASICA.COM B:
If your system uses a different advanced BASIC, you will
need to copy it to the working disk AND CHANGE ITS NAME
TO BASICA.XXX (the XXX refers to its original extension-
probably .EXE)
Examples: COPY GW-BASIC.EXE B:BASICA.EXE
3. Copy all files from your product diskette to the newly
formatted diskette.
Example: COPY *.* B:
(Assumes product diskette in drive A and formatted diskette
in drive B.)
4. Label your working diskette PLOT.
5. Put your PLOT product diskette in a safe place.
NOTE: If you are using a hard disk, set up a separate directory
for PLOT and start with step #2 above, substituting C: for
B:.
------------------------------------------------------------
LOADING AND RUNNING THE PLOT PROGRAMS
Put your working diskette in drive A (or get into the PLOT directory if
you are using a hard disk). Enter:
PLOT <return>
This will cause PLOT.BAT to execute and you should see the logo screen
appear.
NOTE: PLOT.BAT expects to find a program called BASIC (.COM
or .EXE). If you forgot to change the name of your BASICA
(or other advanced basic clone) to BASIC, you will have a
problem. Either ROM basic will be loaded or you will get a
"file not found" error.
Pressing any key from the logo screen will display the Prowess, Inc.
license statement. Pressing any key at this point will call the main menu.
From the main menu, you may select any of the plotting programs. We strongly
suggest that you review the main help file (accessable from the main menu)
before operating the programs.
NOTE: If your DOS operating system contains a utility called GRAPHICS.COM
(DOS 2.1 and greater), you may want to load it prior to loading the PLOT
programs. With GRAPHICS.COM memory resident, you can print the graphs
produced by the PLOT package on most wire dot printers by simply pressing
<shift-prtSc>. You can load GRAPHICS.COM by entering: GRAPHICS <return> from
your system disk.
-------------------------------------------------
GENERAL INFORMATION
BASIC is rather unforgiving about comma errors; if you enter a period
instead of a comma or fail to put a comma where the program is expecting
one, you will see a 'REDO FROM START' error message. If this occurs, you
can usually recover by re-entering the data correctly AT THE CURRENT
CURSOR POSITION. If you try to move the cursor before correcting your
entry, you'll make things worse! In most cases the messy screen will be
redrawn when the function is plotted. Specifying the range of X over
which to plot, the range of X over which to integrate, and inputting
vectors (in both rectangular and polar formats) require entries in the
form of M,N. The comma is a requirement!!
BASICA does not allow error trapping 'division by zero' and 'overflow'
(a floating point overflow). Some BASICA equivalents do allow trapping
these errors. Error trapping statements exist in the programs to detect
these errors; however, they won't operate on the IBM-PC. They will work
properly on some clones that use a different advanced BASIC. If you get
either of these error messages, from the system, you will have to restart
the program. Most syntax errors are trapped and the error traps should
work.
Entering a single 'Q' (for 'quit') and pressing return, at most user inputs,
will halt the current operation and display the exit screen.
------------------------------------------------------
If you like this program set, try our other Prowess , Inc. shareware
tools:
* Financial programs (interest, annuities, amortization, etc.)
* Pro-menu (an elegant full featured PC menu system-one data file)
* Units (easy, fast technical units conversions and more)
* Circuit design calculations (DC circuits, RC, RL, Pw., Energy, etc.)
* AC circuit design (great graphics,- RF design, Op amps, Xformers, BW)
* Magnetics design (great graphics - linear motors, mag. force, etc.)
* Automated Planning Form (project planning tools - Gantt-charts, etc.)
* Math utilities (equation solving, lines, factors, intersections, etc.)
* Geometry for design (great graphics - chords, arcs, triangles, etc.)
* Dos-pro (a special menu for executing DOS commands from plain English)