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READ.ME
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1993-12-16
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12/16/93
Hello and thank you for trying out Tack 3.2. This document
lists some important things about this program.
Tack is a data analysis program primarily intended for electrophysiology.
It was written to read data files created by the data acquisition program
Patchit (also released as shareware). It can also read data files created
by the following data acquisition programs:
Patchit, Ninja, Clampex (v. 5.0 -> v. 6.0) and Fetchex (v. 5.0 -> v. 6.0).
Although intended for electrophysiology, Tack is of use to other users
of data acquisition systems.
Tack is being distributed as shareware. This means that you are free to
try out Tack for 30 days, and if you like it you should register and pay
the registration fee of $35.00 - such a bargain. A registration form is
enclosed, just type "print register.doc" to print out a copy and mail it
to my address below. By registering, you will get official release disks,
a free copy of the next major upgrade of the program and a printed copy of
the manual. I also will take registered users complaints and suggestions
more seriously than I would those of a non-registered user.
If you are currently using another version of Tack, I always recommend
that you save that copy of the program somewhere until you are sure that
the new version of Tack (this program) is useful for you. This rev.
should make no changes to your data files that will make them unreadable
by older versions of Tack (well, I'm sure as far back as rev. 2.9). If
this is not the case you must let me know IMMEDIATELY.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What's New:
Rev. 3.2 (first shareware release)
- The manual is complete and is included with this package. It is in
two formats - an ascii text version (Tack.doc) - that has lost all of
its formatting, and a version in the format of Windows Write word
processor. If you have windows, you should use Write to print the
manual as it will retain its formatting.
- Better support for graphics modes.
- Support for stroked fonts.
Rev. 3.1:
- What were the menu options "measure sustained", "measure inward peak", ...
are now called "values" on the measure menu. Selecting this brings up
a menu which allows you to do the same thing. There is now a submenu
on this menu "Type" that allows you to select average, minimum, maximum
etc. Also, when you complete the measurements, they are now displayed as
a graphical plot. At this time the graphical plot cannot be printed
or exported, but the raw data still can be. If you are doing multiple
measurements from a bunch of data files, after you save the first set
of measurements to a file, you will be prompted for each subsequent
measurement set whether you want to append this data to the same file.
- New noise analysis features incorporated: Power Spectrum, Mean/
Variance Analysis and Histogram. Like measure values (above) these
show their data as a graphical plot, you can then save it to file or
whatever. The plots cannot be printed or exported (yet).
- Help system, Just hit F1 anywhere and you will get help for that area.
- Dynamic Zoom feature. This allows you to marquee-select (that means
to drag a box with a mouse) some of your data traces and you will then zoom
in on that section. These functions take over the old role of "mult"
and "offset".
- Tack now reads files written by Axon Instruments Clampex version 5.1
and greater. Note that while these files are loaded correctly, I cannot
guarantee that they will be saved correctly at this time. That file format
is particularly lame and some of the modifications that Tack can do to
data would make it impossible to save the data in a Clampex file. So
beware, warning messages have NOT been implemented here. This only applies
to Clampex files.
- Scale 'n Sub really works!
- Data traces can now be displayed with their points connected! This will
of course, make the display of these traces slower, but is worth it.
Also you can select to show all of the points on the trace, otherwise only
one data point will be shown per X pixel. If there are less data points
in your trace than there are pixels in the width of the display, then this
parameter will make no difference. Showing all data points in the data
trace slows down the display also.
- Tack now uses the Borland Overlay system to allow me to cram more goodies
in and not make the program overly large. So, a word about memory is useful
here. Tack likes memory.
Conventional Memory - this is the famous 640K that you may have heard about
Under normal DOS, this is where all programs have to fit. Tack uses this
memory to fit the core of the program, active overlays and most dynamically
allocated arrays - of which quite a lot are used throughout the program.
XMS Memory - This is extended memory (that memory above the 1MB boundary)
that is managed by an XMS memory manager. Two common XMS memory managers
are himem.sys and qemm386.sys. I recommend that you have an XMS memory
manager loaded, and if you are using Windows in standard or 386 enhanced
mode you probably have such a memory manager. Tack uses the XMS memory
area to store the data that you load.
EMS Memory - This is an older memory standard. Tack does not use this,
but the Borland Overlay system, used by Tack, DOES. The Overlay system
will store overlays that were used by Tack and discarded to make room
for new overlays. If you do not have EMS (which you don't really need
for Tack), then overlays will just have to be reloaded from the disk,
which will slow things down a little, but if you have a disk cache it
won't really make that big a difference now would it?
Disk - Yes, Tack does use the disk. Why not use a disk cache? It will
speed up the reloading of overlays.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that's about it. I definitely want to hear about bugs and would like
the specifics on what happened. I can be reached at my email address
(george@mander.berkeley.edu) or by phone, at home (617) 625-2419 or at lab
(617-495-2599) - but please, only call if it's really important.
I also want to hear about things that you would like added to the program
and things that you might want put back the way they were (if you have used
the program before).
If you like the program, and know of somebody who could use it (i.e., Clampex
/Fetchex/Axotape users). Please let them know about it. If you are such a
person, please let me know that you are using the program and if you like it.
------------------------- List of Files on disk ------------------------------
READ.ME - this file
TACK.EXE - The program
TACK.CFG - configuration file for the program, if you have a tack.cfg
file already, then you can use it. Tack will upgrade it.
TACK.HLP - the help file for the program
TACK.DOC - The manual, in DOS text format
TACK.WRI - The manual, in Windows Write format.
TACK.PIF - A windows pif file for this program. Tack is a DOS program,
and can run as such under windows.
*.BGI - Graphics display drivers for Tack
*.CHR - Stroked font files for Tack
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- George Grant
Internet: ggrant@husc.harvard.edu
- or -
george@mander.berkeley.edu
Compuserve: 72722,3152
Mail: George Grant (617) 625-2419
38 Banks St. #2
Somerville, MA 02144
USA