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1994-08-18
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Tau, version 1.10
Copyright © Tim Birks 1993, 1994
Freeware: for conditions of use, see the file ReadMe.
Desktop graph preparation software. Tau generates publication-quality graphs
in the form of Draw files, ready to import into your favourite word-processor
or DTP. A data worksheet (16 columns by 1024 rows) can be filled by keying-
in, importing from a file, and/or calculation. You determine line patterns
and thicknesses, text positioning and font sizes, etc.
Note that Tau does not draw graphs on the screen (Acorn's excellent Draw
application will do that). In the following text, all references to 'drawing'
or 'plotting' a graph refer to the construction of a Draw file.
This file is intended to be some kind of help, but no way is it
comprehensive. It assumes some experience with graph drawing packages, common
sense, and a willingness to suck-it-and-see.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Starting Tau.
Double-click on the !Tau icon in a filer window, or double-click on the icon
of a file of type 082 (TauFile) or 083 (TauStyle). The Tau icon is installed
on the icon bar, and the application's main window opens, showing the data
worksheet (dark blue background) with labelling (grey background) along the
top and left edges.
If starting by a double-click on a TauFile or TauStyle, that file is loaded
into Tau. If starting by a double-click on the !Tau icon itself, Tau looks
for a TauFile or TauStyle called "Default" within the !Tau directory and
loads that. If there is no such file, Tau starts with its worksheet empty
and with minimal appearance data.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editing data.
The data worksheet is arranged in 16 columns, each containing 1024 rows of
cells. The cells can be filled with data by importing from a file (see
below), by calculation (see below), or from the keyboard. Click on the
appropriate cell with Select to set the caret and highlight. You can then
edit the contents of the cell. Valid contents are: a number (use 'E' for
exponential notation); no contents (blank cell); or the special entry 'M'
(for 'move') which will cause any eventual line graph to have a break at
that position.
If you click on a cell with Adjust, the caret does not move, but all the
cells in a rectangle between the caret-cell and the cell you clicked on will
highlight. Any action performed at the caret (followed by RETURN when
entering a number) will then affect all these cells.
Tau keeps a note of the maximum row and column numbers for which data are held. If you double-click on a cell, that cell gains the caret and the whole
column (down to the maximum row) will highlight. Double-click with SHIFT to
highlight a whole row instead.
Values are displayed in cells to six significant figures.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special key presses.
RETURN - Reflect the value in the current cell in all highlit cells,
then move the caret down one row.
SHIFT-RETURN - As RETURN, but move the caret right one column.
CTRL-RETURN - Carriage return, move down one row, and to leftmost column.
LEFT/RIGHT - Move caret one character left/right.
BACKSPACE - Delete the character to the left of the caret within a cell.
DOWN/UP - Move caret down/up one cell.
SHIFT-DOWN/UP/LEFT/RIGHT - Extend or contract the highlit block of cells.
CTRL-DOWN/UP - Move caret to the last/first cell in a column.
TAB - Move caret right one cell, perform 'carriage return' if at the
last column.
SHIFT-TAB - Move caret left one cell, perform 'reverse carriage return' if
at the first column.
HOME - Move caret to the first cell in the worksheet.
SHIFT-COPY (ie, END) - Move caret to the bottom-right-most cell of a
rectangle enclosing all cells containing data.
CTRL-U - Blank all highlit cells.
DELETE - Same action as BACKSPACE.
SHIFT-DELETE - All highlit cells in the same row as the caret are blanked,
then all the values in the cells below these are scrolled up
to 'fill the hole'.
INSERT - The values in all highlit cells in the same row as the caret,
and the cells below these, are scrolled down. A row of blank
cells is inserted.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dragging files onto the main window (or the icon bar icon).
This starts a load action which depends on the filetype of the file dragged:
082 (TauFile) - A TauFile file is a complete record of a previous state of
Tau, and includes all the data in a worksheet and the variables governing
the appearance of a graph. Dragging a TauFile onto Tau will restore the
saved state, overwriting all of the current state.
083 (TauStyle) - A TauStyle file is a TauFile file without any worksheet
data. It replaces the variables governing the appearance of a graph, without
overwriting the current data. It's like the 'template' files in other graph
software, but the word 'template' already has a very particular meaning in
RISC OS.
ffb (BASIC) - Has no immediate effect. Tau assumes any imported BASIC file
to be a function library. You can then perform calculations on worksheet
data using your own defined functions. A simple example, Sinc, is provided
with Tau - this contains a function FNsinc(x) which returns SIN(x)/x without
generating an error at x=0. To avoid clashes with the program's internal FN
definitions, do not use FN names beginning with capital 'T'.
fff (Text), dfe (CSV) - Tau assumes files of these types contain textual data
for import, either separated by spaces or commas, with row endings marked
by one or more control characters (such a linefeed or carriage-return).
Import starts at the caret; data in cells not explicitly overwritten by new
data are retained. Incidentally, Tau treats these files identically on
import - eg the contents of a Text file can be comma- separated. A blank
cell can be marked by an isolated decimal '.', and a 'move' cell by 'M'.
Other filetypes - action is normally as for fff (Text). But Tau first
investigates whether the file might contain non-textual numerical data
("Binary data"). Such a file would be generated by, for example, the Basic
PRINT# statement. Tau assumes that your file is "Binary data" if the first
byte in the file is ascii &40, &80 or &88; no self-respecting file of
textual data should contain any of these characters.
Because there is no row-ending marker in such a file, Tau expects a special
first datum in the file to be an integer specifying the number of data
columns in one row. However, you can instead specify the number of columns
in the Import dbox. Import starts at the caret; data not overwritten are
retained.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main menu.
Click Menu over the main window, gives the following items:
Paper - Leads to a submenu controlling the size and shape of a graph on the
paper.
Graph - Leads to a submenu controlling the appearance of the whole graph.
This includes such attributes as its scaling and the appearance of ticks
and labels.
Column - Leads to a submenu controlling the treatment of an individual column
of data. This includes control of the meaning of a column (use as X data, Y
data, error bar data, or ignore), the appearance of a plot (whether to draw
points, lines between points, etc), and actions such as calculation and
sort.
Save - Leads to a submenu allowing the saving of data in various ways.
Clicking on the Save item in the Main menu will save the current Tau state
as a TauFile, or generate an error if no pathname is specified yet.
Import - Leads to a dialogue box. The first part governs the import of a
file of Binary data (see above). The second part allows you to "weed" data
being imported, reading in only 1 row of data for each n rows of data in the
file.
Cells - A submenu, various ways of highlighting parts of the worksheet.
Reduce