ftp.whtech.com/ftp.whtech.com.tar/ftp.whtech.com/Geneve/9640news/CAT01/BG99.ARK

Text File | 2006-10-19 | 5KB | 73 lines

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BUSINESS GRAPHS 99 - A REVIEW
By - Dale Kaliser

Being in management of a major insurance company, I'm always asked for reports
comparing production from month to month and even year to year. To assist in my
comparisons, I have always felt that utilizing charts can be most informative
to the reader since in many ways they speak for themselves.
Until recently I have been using such programs as Draw N Plot and Chart Maker,
both from Quality 99 Software. I then came across what I feel to be the best
overall business graphics program entitled "Business Graphs 99" written by Mike
McCane and distributed by Disk Only Software for $24.95.
The 26 page booklet is highly professional in both contents and layout which
kept my attention throughout the reading. To briefly explain, the program
produces Pie Charts, Bar Graphs and Line Graphs which seems to be the normal
contents of a sophisticated business graphics program. But what I like is that
the program is menu driven, fast, versatile, highly professional and all
options can be dumped to a printer.
System requirements are: TI 99/4A, 32K, Disk Drive, Editor Assembler or
Extended Basic. Optional equipment: RS232 and Printer.
Four default settings may be set up by the user for convenience. You may set
the default background and foreground colors, setup default output device and
micro-linefeed may be changed to accommodate your particular printer. The
defaults are saved to the program disk for automatic loading upon booting of
the program.
The Pie Graph allows for individual labeling of slices from 2-6, the title of
the graph is displayed above the graph with a subtitle below the graph. For use
on a color monitor, there are 15 colors available and 7 different B/W shadings
for printouts. All are displayed on the screen for selection by number. In
addition, one of the Pie slices may be "Exploded" away from the rest of the
pie. This comes in handy when illustrating the largest or smallest part of a
comparison.
In order to adjust for the fact that each printer does not draw exact circles,
the program has a feature called "Aspect Ratio" which allows you to adjust for
the fact that a circle drawn on the screen or in the RAM looks like a football
on the printer.
The next type of graph available is a Line Graph. The Line Graph option begins
by asking for a title above the graph, subtitle below, horizontal axis title
and vertical axis title. Next you are prompted for the vertical range or upper
and lower boundaries of the display (1-500). Horizontal Display ranges from
0-10 and Horizontal Display Density controls proportional spacing between
display items on the grid.
Once the data is entered, you have the option to draw or print four types of
Line Graphs: HiLo, Line, Area and Grid On/Off. To briefly explain each, I'll
begin with HiLo. The HiLo plots a vertical line for each data element in range,
plotting vertically between MIN and MAX values. Line Plot will plot a line from
MAX of one data item to MAX in the next and from MIN to MIN for all data items.
Area Plot combines both Line and HiLo. Grid On/Off lets you turn on or off the
grid lines.
The last type of graph is the Bar Graph. Once again you are prompted for a
title above the graph, subtitle below, horizontal axis title and vertical axis
title. Then you are prompted for the edit ranges very similar to the Line graph
options. Next you enter the data for each bar. The Draw Graph option allows for
drawing three types of Bar Graphs: Single Bar which plots a single bar for each
data item with six shades of printing available, again displayed on the screen.
The next option is to draw Stacked Bars which plots a bar for the MIN value
then plots the difference between MAX and MIN as another bar stacked on top of
the first. The last option is a Double^Bar which plots a pair of bars side by
side representing the MAX and MIN values for each data item. The Double^Bar
type is very good for comparing one year to another.
Each type of chart option in the program may be saved to disk and can be easily
accessed using the disk directory option of the main menu.
For my personal use, "Business Graphs 99" fits my needs but due to its wide
range of options, it may not be for everyone. The program is copyrighted and
may not be distributed through the Fairware concept but the program is not copy
proof since I made a copy for my daily use.
You can look for a demo within the next few months.


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