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- !Stellate (Demo Version)
- ‘Fortran Friends’, P.O.Box 64, Didcot, Oxon, OX11 0TH
- telephone: +44 (0) 1235 834357
-
- Introduction
- !Stellate is an interactive program which creates uniform polyhedra and
- their stellations. The full version allows you to save:
- • Draw files of the stellation diagrams,
- • Draw files of the 3D solids,
- • data files for Stellate,
- • PolyData for PolyDraw and PolyNet
- and to print views of polyhedra directly.
- You can not print nor save any files with this demo version and can only use
- the supplied data files.
-
- Machine and operating system requirements: Any Acorn computers using RISC-OS
- operating systems: 3.XX, including networks and StrongARM with 288K spare
- Application memory space.
-
- Copyright and copying:
- This program remains the copyright of ‘Fortran Friends’; this demo version
- is given to you on the understanding that if you give a copy to anyone else
- you will copy all the files, unchanged, including this one.
-
- To get the Full Version:
-
- Send a cheque for £20 payable to ‘Fortran Friends’ at the address above.
-
- With the full version you can:
-
- 1. Save diagrams and 3D views as ‘Draw’ files or to !Draw for printing and
- combining with others.
- 2. Save new polyhedra for reading back into !Stellate
- 3. save PolyData for !PolyDraw and !PolyNet.
- 4. Use more data files; the standard distribution data file contains
- instructions for drawing 112 polyhedra.
- 5. Use your own new data files.
- 6. Read more documentation (see below)
- 7. Send us suggestions for improvements and report problems which we will
- try to correct.
-
- Contents of the !Stellate Demo Disc
-
- Top level directory
-
- !Stellate demonstration application
- Products - software available from Fortran Friends
- AllPoly - A squashed sprite showing all the polyhedra available on the
- standard distribution data file.
- ReadMe - This file
-
- Within the !Stellate application, in addition to the usual files, there is
- the first standard tutorial (Tutorial1) which you may use with the demo
- restricted data file. There is also a sub-directory, ‘Resources’, with files
- used by the program. You must not change any of the files in this directory.
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Documentation files supplied with the full version of !Stellate
-
- Text files:
-
- BookKits - WWW URLS, suggested reading, and suppliers of model kits
- CopyRight - a statement of ‘Fortran Friends’ copyright
- FaultRep - a form for you to return if you find any problems
- Versions - record of the differences between versions of !Stellate
- WishList - current planned enhancements for !Stellate
-
-
- Directory ‘Reference’:
-
- Component - Draw file showing the characteristics of the 9 possible
- components used to make polyhedra in !Stellate
- CrossRef - listings of the polyhedra stored in ‘Resources.StellaList’
- in various orders
- Faces - Draw file showing the characteristics of the 9 possible
- face types used to make polyhedra in !Stellate
- FormChoice - defines the format of ‘Resources.Choices’ file
- FormCols - defines the format of ‘Resources.Colours’ file
- FormComps - defines the format of ‘Resources.Components’ file and
- explains how to enter formulae instead of numbers
- FormList - defines the format of ‘Resources.StellaList’ file
- Glossary - defines terms associated with polyhedra
- Intro - explains what uniform polyhedra are and gives an introduction
- on how to make them using !Stellate
- ReadStel - skeleton BASIC program for reading ‘Resources.StellaList’
- WennError - some problems in the stellation diagrams in the book:
- ‘Polyhedron Models’ by M.J. Wenninger
- WennIndex - Type and alphabetical list of the polyhedra in
- ‘Polyhedron Models’ by M.J. Wenninger
-
- Directory ‘TryThese’:
-
- Activities - suggestions for things to try out with !Stellate. It is
- organised as a series of questions.
- Answer-n - compressed Draw files and text files giving possible answers
- to the questions posed in ‘Activities’
- NewLine9 - StellaList format file answer to question 9.
-
-
- Directory ‘Tutorials’ contains three tutorials to help show you what
- is possible with !Stellate. Each assumes that you have worked through the
- previous ones.
-
- Tutorial1 - Instructions for beginners - shows how to make the 3D view
- plot from the stored command data (this is included also with
- the demo version of !Stellate)
-
- Tutorial2 - Instructions for making your own selections from the
- stellation diagram to make your own version of a polyhedron
- from the stored instructions; the second section shows how to
- select star faces and selecting faces from more than one
- component
-
- Tutorial3 - Instructions for making a new polyhedron by selecting your
- face types to make stellation diagram(s) and a new polyhedron
-
- pictures - sub-directory of squashed Draw files of figures used in the
- tutorials
-
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- The rest of this file is the ‘ReadMe’ from the full version.
-
- **************************************************************************
- ReadMe for !Stellate
- last updated 15 Feb 1998
-
- !Stellate is an interactive program which creates uniform polyhedra and
- their stellations using stellation diagrams. There are 112 pre-stored
- polyhedra which are printed on the single A4 page enclosed in your manual.
- !Stellate is written in the Fortran programming language by:
-
- ‘Fortran Friends’, P.O.Box 64, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0TH
-
- tel: (01235) 834357
-
- Machine and operating system requirements:
-
- Any Acorn computers using RISC-OS operating systems 3.XX and at least 288K
- available application workspace, including networks and StrongARM.
-
- Copyright and copying:
-
- Further details can be found in the file ‘Docs.CopyRight’
- This program remains the copyright of ‘Fortran Friends’: it is licensed for
- use at one site only; you may copy it to a backup floppy disc or to your own
- hard disk but giving copies to others is illegal. Your registration number
- is unique; any illegal copies found will be reported to the ‘Federation
- Against Software Theft’ and you will be liable for prosecution.
-
- Getting Started:
-
- These instructions assume some knowledge of how to use an Acorn computer.
- If you are a new user, more detailed instructions on how to copy files, use
- the windows and the mouse can be found in the ‘User Guide’ manual for your
- computer system. !Stellate is a RISC-OS compliant program which runs in the
- Acorn Desktop and tries to conform to the operating conventions in the Acorn
- Style guide; it supports Acorn interactive help.
-
- Fortran Friends welcome comments and requests for new features for future
- versions of this program.
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
- Contents of the !Stellate Disc
-
- This section is for reference only, you may never need to use it if you just
- want to use the supplied data file to create and save stellations. All Draw
- files on the distribution disc have been compressed using the standard
- ‘Squash’ program.
-
- Top level directory
-
- !Stellate - application
- Docs - directory of documentation; ‘Docs.Readme’ explains what is in
- each file
- Products - software available from Fortran Friends
- ReadMe - (This file)
-
- Skip to the section headed ‘Installation’ if this is the first time you have
- looked at this file, and you are not interested in technicalities.
-
- Within the !Stellate application, in addition to the usual files,
- there is the directory ‘Resources’.
-
- This has the standard Acorn files, ‘Messages’ and ‘Templates’;
- there are several other files, which the program may change for you,
- but which most users need not bother with.
-
- ‘Choices’ defines the initial settings of various options.
- ‘Colours’ defines all the colours used initially. The program can
- change this file if the user changes the colours and then
- asks to save the ‘Colours’ file before quitting the program.
- ‘Components’ definitions of components’ names, symmetry and interplanar
- angles.
- ‘Register’ this file contains your name and registration information.
- It must not be changed by the user.
- ‘Sprites’ sprites used in the tools pane of the 3D display window.
- ‘StellaList’ list of instructions for drawing stored polyhedra
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Installation:
-
- 1. Make a working copy on floppy disc. Store the original safely, in case
- your working copy becomes damaged. Your license allows you to make a
- single copy for your own use. If the disc supplied has been damaged and
- will not copy, return it to us for a free replacement within 3 months of
- purchase.
-
- Use the ‘working’ copy for the rest of the instructions. You can run from
- the floppy if you want to.
-
- 2. Installation on hard disc:
- Make yourself a directory for storing your programs, with a name such as
- ‘Polyhedra’ and copy the contents of the floppy disc to it.
-
- 3. Read the Documentation.
- Before trying to run the application, look at the file !Help file for
- operating instructions, and in the directory ‘Docs.Reference’ for a glossary
- of terms and an ‘Intro’ which explains how !Stellate uses stellation
- diagrams to draw polyhedra. The sub-directory ‘Tutorials’ has more detailed
- explanations with Draw file figures to help you understand better how to get
- the most from !Stellate. The directory ‘TryThese’ has some suggested
- activities and answers. You may want to print some of these out for future
- reference.
-
- 4. Operating instructions:
- Running instructions are in the file !Help of the application.
- Acorn interactive help is supported.
-
- 5. Starting the program:
-
- Double-click on the application !Stellate to start the program; this loads
- an icon on to the icon bar. Click MENU when the pointer is over this icon to
- see the options. Choose ‘info’ to see the program name, version number and
- your registration number, which should be quoted in any correspondence with
- ‘Fortran Friends’. Click SELECT to choose a polyhedron.
-
- 6. Stopping the program:
-
- Click MENU over the icon on the icon bar and choose the last option, ‘quit’.
- If windows are hiding the icon bar, press key F12 while holding down the
- SHIFT key, to bring the icon bar to the front of the windows.
-
- 7. Colour Changing:
- You can change the colour used for particular faces of a polyhedron in some
- of the display forms, and other colours of lines, or window backgrounds etc.
- from the icon bar menu. If you try to do this and get an error message saying
- ‘Colour Picker module is not loaded’, then if you have a copy of the Acorn
- Colour Picker Module load it using commands as described in the !Run file.
- If you have not got this module you can get it off the Acorn User Cover Disc
- for September 97 (in directory ‘System.!System.Modules.Toolbox’) or send a
- blank disc plus return envelope and postage to ‘Fortran Friends’ at the
- address above.
-
- 8. Possible Faults:
-
- Error conditions we have thought about have ‘traffic sign’ windows which
- should allow you to choose whether to stop the program or try to carry on.
-
- If your working disc is damaged, you may find when you try to start the
- program you merely get an ‘error window’ saying your user registration file
- has been corrupted. Delete all the files from your working disc, and make a
- new copy from your original disc.
-
- If you find the program stops in an uncontrolled way, please try to write
- down details of what you were doing just before the error, and send them to
- us, preferably using the fault report form in file ‘Docs.FaultRep’.
-
- If you have changed any of the !Stellate files, please supply copies of the
- files on floppy disc which you were using when the error occurred.
-
-