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1994-03-07
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Reference Manual for
Wesley B. Loewer's
Plotting Program
version 2.50
(C) 1990-94, Wesley B. Loewer
Manual Updated: March 7, 1994
Page 1
Table of Contents
Topic Page
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Latest Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Common Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Entering Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Entering Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Special Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Algebraic Order of Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Saving & Retrieving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
PCX Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Revision History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Custom Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
In Closing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Wesley Loewer's Plotting Program -- WL-Plot
Page 2
Introduction:
WL-Plot was designed to help students understand mathematical graphs a
little better by allowing them to quickly plot a graph to see what it looks
like. Often, students get bogged down in button pushing and point-by-point
plotting and fail to grasp the real significance behind the graph. The
goal of this program is to eliminate the busy work of plotting, freeing the
student to proceed to higher level thinking.
Speaking of free, that's one of the nice things about WL-Plot. (See the
"In Closing" section on page 20 of this document for the conditions in
which this program may be used without charge.) This may not be the best
plotting program that you can find, but you can't beat it for the price. I
have tried to include as many features that I thought students and teachers
could actually use. Please distribute WL-Plot to anyone who can use it.
Latest Version:
The latest version of WL-Plot can be found at
Tranquility Base BBS DataWarp Premium BBS
(713) 893-9124 (713) 355-6107
Spring, Texas USA Spring, Texas USA
WL-Plot is also available as item ST-01: #12471 from
Public (Software) Library
PO Box 35705
Houston, TX 77235-5705, USA.
Voice Phone: 800-242-4775 & 713-524-6394
WL-Plot version 2.50 was distributed as WLPLT250.ZIP. When passing WL-Plot
along to others, please use just this file. Currently, the compressed
archive contains the following files:
setup.exe, wlplot.bat, plot.exe, wlplot.doc, wlplot.hlp,
tutorial.wp, helvb.fon, plus sample files
The tutorial.wp file is a 15 page tutorial in WordPerfect (tm) format. If
you would like to use this tutorial and do not have any way of printing a
WordPerfect file, send $5 to the address at the end of this file and I will
send you a printed copy.
See p.17 for information on ordering custom distributions.
Wesley Loewer's Plotting Program -- WL-Plot
Page 3
Hardware:
Because WL-Plot was produced mainly for classroom use, care was taken to
make certain that the program would work on the limited equipment which is
still being used in many schools.
Required - You will need an IBM-compatible computer with DOS version 2.0 or
later. DOS 4.0 or later is needed to take full advantage of the printing
capabilities. The program should work with as little as 300K of available
memory for full VGA mode, even less for CGA mode. (See p. 17 of this
document for details for ordering a special version that will work on 256K
computers.) The program can be run from either a 360k or higher floppy
drive or a hard drive. You will also need some sort of graphics
capability, either CGA, EGA, MCGA, VGA, or Hercules. The Hercules adapter
is only partially supported and requires that the utility MSHERC must run
first before starting WL-Plot. A stand-alone Curve Fitting program can run
in a limited fashion without any graphics capability.
Optional - A mouse is quite useful but not necessary. A math coprocessor
will significantly speed up the plotting process.
Installing WL-Plot:
1) Copy the all the files to a floppy disk or hard drive.
2) Move to the drive and directory that contains the WL-Plot files.
3) Type "SETUP" to setup WL-Plot for your printer.
4) Once you have installed WL-Plot, just type "wlplot" to run the program.
If disk space is limited, such as with a bootable 360k floppy system disk,
then copy only the required files: PLOT.EXE, WLPLOT.HLP, HELVB.FON.
The environmental variable WLPLOTHELP can be set at the DOS command line to
indicate a different drive or directory for the WL-Plot help file. For
example:
SET WLPLOTHELP=B:\
indicates that the help file, WLPLOT.HLP, is located in the B: drive. The
use of WLPLOTHELP is purely option and is not necessary if the help file is
in the current directory.
Wesley Loewer's Plotting Program -- WL-Plot
Page 4
Getting Started:
Start the program by typing "wlplot" at the DOS prompt. The user will be
presented with the following choices.
Functions
Plots functions in Cartesian, Polar, or Parametric form. Functions
may be entered in either Algebraic or RPN (Reverse Polish Notation,
also called post-fix notation) modes. Allows grids, logarithmic
scales, up to 10 user defined variables, separate control over viewing
window and domain, and a library of over 75 built in operators,
functions, and constants (see page 9).
Conic Sections
Plots rotated conic sections: parabolas, circles, ellipses, hyperbolas
and their degenerate shapes. Equations may be entered in standard or
general (Ax²+Bxy+Cy²+Dx+Ey+F=0) form. Also shows focal points,
asymptotes, and directrix.
Derivatives & Integrals
Plots functions along with its indefinite integral and its 1st and 2nd
derivatives.
Relation Plotter
A somewhat slow but extremely powerful plotter for graphing relations
that are not necessarily functions, such as "y=abs(x)^sin(y)." It can
also graph a system of inequalities, such as "y < 0.5x and x > 1 and
x*y < 2." It is also good for those situations where it is just too
diff