PDA Software Library

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ PDA Software Library / pdasoftwarelib.iso / WIN_CE / PC / coolcalczip.exe / advanced.htp next >

Wrap

Text File | 1997-09-24 | 15.6 KB | 309 lines

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="refer" content="file:coolcalc.htc"> <title>Advanced Customization</title> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <h2>Advanced Customization </h2> Many of you won't need or want to get this deep into CoolCalc, but if you're really into creating your own custom formula screens or custom calculators, this section is for you. This section answers the following questions: <dl> <dt>What's the easiest way to create a formula screen? What are variables, and how do they work? Example: Creating a conversion screen Example: Creating a calculation screen </dt> </dl> <h3>What's the easiest way to create a formula screen?</h3> <blockquote> Formula screens come in two different types: conversions, and calculations. An example of a conversion is the metric conversion screens, i.e. converting temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit. Calculations are like the Loans screen, where you enter the term, interest rate, and monthly payment, and the amount you can borrow is calculated for you. There are two templates you can use to create your own formula screens: conversion template.mac, and formula template.mac. Choose the template that best matches the type of calculation you wish to produce. </blockquote> <h3>What are variables, and how do they work?</h3> <blockquote> As with any formula, CoolCalc's formula screens require you to use variables. If you look at some of the buttons in the formula screen templates, you'll see two functions being used: _ShowVariable, and _SetVariable. The parameter to these functions is always the name of the variable (variable names are case sensitive). _ShowVariable displays the value of a particular variable (using the Format property of the button). _SetVariable assigns the value of a variable to the contents of the display. The variable functions are useful when creating formula screens because you can use them to store and retrieve values while recording macros. For doing conversions, the _SetVariable buttons will be replaced with a macro that sets all variables on the screen. For calculations, the ? buttons will be replaced with macros that set variables. </blockquote> <h3>Example: Creating a conversion screen</h3> <blockquote> We'll show you the steps we took to create the metric weight conversion utility that ships with CoolCalc. The technique we use is to modify conversion template.mac to our specific conversion. In this example, we'll first create a macro that takes ounces, and converts that value to pounds, grams, and kilograms. Next, for grams, we'll convert that value to ounces, and run the ounces macro again to fill in the rest of the values. We'll repeat this process for kilograms and pounds. </blockquote> <ol> <li>Select File, Open from the top menu, and open "conversion template.mac". </li> <li>Save the template as test.mac. To do this, select File, Save As from the top menu, and enter "test".</li> <li>Decide which variables you will want. For this example, we'll use grams (g), kilograms (kg), ounces (oz) and pounds (lbs).</li> <li>Select View, Program Mode from the top menu.</li> <li>Delete the extra fields you don't need. Eight fields are shown, and we only need four of them, so delete the buttons labeled a, e, d, h, and the display buttons next to them as well. (To delete a button, tap on it once, then select Edit, Delete Button from the top menu.)</li> <li>Change the title of the layout to "weight conversion". To do this, select File, Properties from the top menu, and enter "weight conversions" in the title field. Press OK when finished.</li> <li>Change the appearance of the variable buttons. Hold down the Alt key and tap the button labeled "b", and set the Alt. Keycap field to "g". Press OK. Change the buttons labeled "c" to "kg", "f" to "oz" and "g" to "lbs" in the same way.</li> <li>Return to Run Mode. (Select View, Run Mode from the top menu).</li> <li>Now, we record the macro that takes a value for ounces, and calculates the number of pounds, grams, and kilograms. First, press 1 to start the macro with a value. Next, select Macro, Record Macro from the top menu. When asked for the name of the macro, type "test-oz". </li> <li>The macro gets recorded as follows: press oz, then the division button, then 16, = and press lbs to set the value for pounds. Tap the button to the right of oz to return the ounces value to the display, press X 28.35 =, then press the button labeled g to set grams. Press the division key, then 1000, then = and press the button labeled kg to set kilograms. </li> <li>Select Macro, End Record Macro to end the macro. When you are prompted "OK to assign next button pressed to new macro?", answer Yes. Tap the button labeled oz to assign the new macro to the oz button. We've just completed a quarter of the process; now, if you enter a number then press the oz button, you will have converted ounces to pounds, grams and kilograms. Note that the oz button will read test-oz. You can change this by returning to Program Mode (select View, Program Mode from the top menu), then hold down the Alt key and tap on the test-oz button, and then enter oz in the Alt. Keycap field. Be sure to return to Run Mode (Select View, Run Mode from the top menu).</li> <li>Next, we can record a macro for pounds. Press 1 to start the macro with a value, then select Macro, Record Macro. When asked for the name of the macro, enter "test-lbs". </li> <li>Now we actually record the macro for pounds. This is easy, we simply convert to ounces by multiplying by 16, and then let the ounces macro test-oz do the rest. Enter X, then 16, then =. Now, press the oz button.</li> <li>End the macro for pounds: select Macro, End Record Macro from the top menu. When you are prompted "OK to assign next button pressed to new macro?", answer Yes. Tap the button labeled lbs to assign the new macro to the lbs button. You should change the name of the button back to lbs like we did earlier for the oz button.</li> <li>Repeat the same steps for the g and kg buttons; for grams, divide by 28.35 to set ounces, and run the oz macro. For kilograms, you can just divide by 1000, and run the g macro you just recorded.</li> <li>Save your work. (From the top menu, select File, Save).</li> <li>Advanced stuff: if you want to make a custom help file for your new test layout screen, you will need to make a HTML file called "cc-test.htp", and place it in your \Windows directory on your HPC. (All help files for Coolcalc screens start with "cc-" and end with ".htp". Creating HTML files can be done using Microsoft Word or other commercially available software, but the specifics are beyond the scope of this document.</li> </ol> <blockquote> That's it! You can use these same steps and tricks to create conversion screens of your own. Remember the key concepts: first, use the "conversion template.mac" layout as a starter for all of your conversions, and second, once you make your first macro, you can let it do most of the work when you create the other macros. Also, it's a good idea to keep a consistent naming scheme among your macros and layouts. Note how we named the layout macro test, and the calculation macros test-oz, test-lbs, etc. Following this convention will make life a lot easier for you as you add to your collection of custom conversion screens. </blockquote> <h3>Example: Creating a calculation screen</h3> <blockquote> Calculation screens are a nice way to present what-if scenarios in a pleasing way. For example, the loans screen that comes with CoolCalc is a nice example of a calculation screen. You enter values for the known variables, then press the ? button next to the unknown value, and the result appears. Creating calculation screens is a bit simpler than creating conversion screens. Use the file formula template.mac as a basis for your custom calculation screens. Again, as we did with the conversion example, be sure to use a consistent naming convention for your layouts and macros, i.e. if the layout is named xyz, and xyz used variables var1 and var2, name your macros that go with the layout xyz-var1, xyz-var2 etc. For our example, we'll do a simple margin calculation as would be used in a retail setting. Our variables are margin, price, and cost. The formulas we will use will be: margin=((price - cost)/cost) x 100. price = cost / (1 - (margin/100)) cost = price x (1 - (margin/100)) Here's how to do it: </blockquote> <ol> <li>Open formula template.mac. (From the top menu, select File, Open, and choose "formula template.mac").</li> <li>Select Program Mode. (From the top menu, select View, Program Mode).</li> <li>Save the template as "margin.mac" (From the top menu, select File, Save As, and type "margin". Then, press Enter.</li> <li>Change the title of the screen to "margin calculations". (From the top menu, select File, Properties, and enter "margin calculations" in the title field. Press OK.)</li> <li>Remove any excess variables. Since four variables are showing, and we need only three, delete the button labeled "d", and the two buttons next to it. (Select the "d" button, then from the top menu, select Edit, Delete Button. Press the enter key when prompted "Press OK to delete this button". Repeat for the two buttons next to the "d" button.) </li> <li>Change the a button to reflect the cost variable. (Hold down the Alt key, and tap the button labeled "a". Change the parameter from "a" to "cost".)</li> <li>Change the button to the right of the cost button to display the cost variable. (Hold down the Alt key, and tap the button to the right of the cost button. Change the parameter from a to cost.)</li> <li>Repeat the previous two steps to change the b button and the button to it's right to price. Also, change the c button and the button to it's right to margin.</li> <li>Now, we can start to record macros. First, we need to return to Run Mode. (From the top menu, select View, Run Mode.)</li> <li>Let's create the macro to calculate margins. First we need to seed the cost and price variables. We'll set cost to 80, and price to 100, and this should give us a margin of 20%. Press the 80 buttons, and then the button labeled cost. Press 100, and then the price button.</li> <li>Now we'll program the formula margin=((price - cost)/cost) x 100, and assign it to the ? button to the right of the margin button. Start the macro by selecting Macro, Record Macro from the top menu. Enter the name of the macro as margin-margin.</li> <li>Do the formula. Press the button to the right of the price button, then -, then the button to the right of the cost button, then the division button, then the button to the right of the price button, then the X button, then 100. If you see 20.00 in the display, press the margin button.</li> <li>End the macro and assign it to a key: from the top menu, select Macro, End Record Macro. Answer Yes when asked "Want to assign next button pressed to new macro?". Tap the button labeled ? to the right of the margin button.</li> <li>Repeat this process for the buttons labeled ? to the right of the cost and price buttons, but use the formulas for cost and price. Make sure to call the macros margin-cost and margin-price respectively. (Hint: if you don't have the necessary buttons on screen to do the formula, try the Edit, Execute Function menu selection. In this example, you may need to use the Change Sign function or the Left Parenthesis function. You can also assign these functions to one of the empty buttons while you are recording a macro as well by going in and out of Program Mode.)</li> <li>When you're finished with the macros, you'll want to change the macro buttons back to their appearance of ? . To do so, select View, Program Mode from the menu, hold down Alt and tap the buttons, and set the Alt. Keycap field to "?".</li> <li>Save the layout! From the top menu, select File, Save.</li> <li>Return to Run Mode, and test your screen. (Select View, Run Mode from the top menu).</li> </ol> <blockquote> That's it! You can enter 80 for cost, 100 for price, and you should get 20 for the margin. Press the ? buttons next to price and cost to test these calculations as well. More advanced stuff: you change the format of your display fields to show a money display. From Program Mode, edit the property of the buttons to the right of the cost and price buttons and set the format to Money. Return to Run Mode to see if you like how it looks. Really advanced stuff: you can also change the number of digits (precision) of all values displayed. For this screen, a single digit after the decimal should suffice. From Run Mode, select Edit, Execute Function from the top menu. Change the function to _Precision, and set the parameter to the number of digits you wish to display (1 in this case). Press OK, and the margin value and display will change to show one digit of precision. Make sure to save the layout to keep the precision value. </blockquote> </body> </html