Graphmatica Beta Test

The beta-test program is now over. Thanks again to all who participated. Version 2.0 is now available for 32-bit Windows platforms only. I have stopped working on the DOS and Windows 3.1 versions entirely now; if this matters to you, please speak up ASAP!

The new version is backward compatible with old graphmat.ini and .gr files, but the .gr files it saves may produce some errors when loaded in version 1.60e without modification. If you need to continue using the old version as well as the new version, I recommend installing to a separate directory and then copying your old graphmat.ini file there.

Download Windows 3.1 beta version

• Version 1.63 [130k] is the last build I produced for 16-bit operating systems.

Please note that this version is not fully tested and may not be suitable for classroom instruction. If you find any bugs or usability problems with the new features, please send a quick e-mail describing the problem to beta@graphmatica.com.

1. The Point Tables window now uses a grid control based on "BabyGrid" by David Hillard rather than a standard listbox. This makes for much neater display of data (right-aligned numbers, resizable columns, etc.) and will be the data entry mechanism for new plotting features.
2. Last directory used in File Open/Save dialog boxes is now remembered.

What's new in version 1.66: (1/1/03)

1. The Point Tables window can now be resized and has a system close menu.
2. Added panel to choose Draw Tangent Line input method (mouse/dialog/both) and enable or disable Tangent Line mode "stickiness".
3. Simplified UI: Consolidated most options screens into 2 tabbed dialog boxes, and revamped menus to remove commands that were no longer needed, plus some rarely-used items that can be accessed through the Settings dialog box.
4. Converted to implicit-save model for default settings (but you now must explicitly set the defaults for grid range and graph paper).
5. Coordinate cursor is now always on except when it would interfere with display of important info (selected range, tangent line/integral info) in the status bar. However, you must still use the coordinate cursor button/menu item to gain keyboard control over the crosshairs.
6. Improved Windows shell integration: files are added to the Documents menu when opened, and the program opens files dragged from Explorer.

What's new in version 1.65: (5/3/01)

1. The equation of tangent lines is now displayed in the Printout window along with the point and slope.
2. Added Draw Tangent Line dialog box which, like the Integrate Curve dialog box, allows you to type in values rather than selecting an equation and tangent point with the mouse.

What's new in version 1.64:

1. Added 2 integration methods: left-hand sums and right-hand sums.
2. Improved right-click context menus to NOT come up after using right-click- drag coordinate cursor.
3. Fixed bug with specifying the domain as {y:...} for functions of y.
4. Added support for graphing highest-order derviative in custom ODE mode (e.g. {vars:t,dx} graphs t vs. dx/dt for a first-order ODE).
5. Added two options to graphmat.ini to improve accessibility for visually- impaired users:
   • "widelinewidth" specifies the width of curves when "Draw graphs with wide lines" is checked in the options panel. The default is 2 pixels, but you can now increase it to make lines even bolder.
   • "gridlinewidth" specifies the width in pixels of grid lines and the axes

What's new in version 1.63 (1/2/00):

1. Added context-sensitive popup menus when you right-click on the grid:
   • When you click on an equation, Delete Graph, Hide Graph, and Find Derivative are available.
   • When you click on an annotation, Edit Annotation, Move Annotation, and Delete Annotation are available.
   • When you click on any other part of the background, you can choose Zoom In, Zoom Out, Default Grid, Grid Range, or Clear Screen.
   Tell me what you think about these menu options--are they ordered in a way that makes it fast and easy to find the one you want? Did I leave out the one that would be most useful to you? Are there other modes I missed where a different context menu would be more appropriate?
2. Fixed several recently-reported bugs: problems with domain for "a" when decimal separator is set to ",", flow fields not drawn correctly when aspect ratio is not square, Redraw/Last Graph menu item crashes program when no graphs have been entered.
3. Added rand(n) function which generates a random number between 0 and n.

What's new in version 1.62 (11/20/99):

1. New, improved Point Evaluate dialog box allows you to:
   • Select a different equation than the current one to evaluate
   • Solve Cartesian functions for x as well as y
   Tell me what you think of the new dialog layout. Also let me know if you have any trouble finding solutions for some equations.
2. Moved Find Intersection to the Point menu
3. Added support for printing integral and tangent line information.
4. Made Draw Tangent a "mode" rather than a one-time operation. The program stays in Draw Tangent mode as long as you keep clicking on curves.
   Please send me your comments on whether this improves the usability of the tangent line feature for you.
5. Fixed a bug which prevented loading the newly-supported relations when an auto-scaled grid range was saved in the .gr file.

What's new in version 1.61:

1. Added support for decimal separators other than "." based on your Windows control panel settings. If your settings indicate you prefer a different decimal separator (say ",") then all constant values input and output by the program will use this separator. (Note that if you are using "," as your separator, to enter domains with non-integer values you must leave a space after the comma separating the parts of the domain, e.g. "{2, 2,3}".)

2. Added a Find Intersection feature to the Calculus menu. This brings up a dialog box which allows you to select two equations (they must be Cartesian functions or simple relations in the same variable) and display either all points of intersection on the screen or the intersection closest to a guess that you type in.
   I may try to add some support for approximating the solutions to other types of equations that Newton's method doesn't work on, but I think this basically works for most Cartesian functions. I still want your feedback on the usability of the feature:
   • Is the Find Solution dialog box easy to use?
   • Should it be non-modal or offer a means of clicking on your guess instead of typing it in (like the Integrate Curve dialog box)?
   • Should it be combined with another dialog box (Point Evaluate or Find Critical Points)? How?
   • Did it find all of the solutions you expected, accurately? If you notice a problem, please send me an email with the following:
     • Equations chosen.
     • Grid range at the time you opened the dialog box.
     • What happened? Did it miss a solution? Give an inaccurate solution? Give an error message instead of a solution?

3. Fixed a bug with the graph "y=int x" which prevented the graphing loop from terminating.

4. Initial support for graphing relations with multiple instances of both x and y variables. This is done by performing implicit differentiation with respect to both variables and plotting the resulting ODE. The algorithm attempts to find two initial values to deal with closed curves such as ellipses (e.g. x^2-xy+y^2=10) since the approximation fails when the slope goes vertical, but this may not always work. Also, certain features available for simple relations and functions (e.g. inequalities, calculus features, and the new Find Intersection feature) do not work yet (and may not ever work) for these relations.
   Note that I have only tested this feature on a small class of relations-- I cannot guarantee complete or accurate results for other equations. Please try it on equations that are of interest to you and send me your results:
   • Equation graphed.
   • Grid range at the time you entered the equation.
   • What happened? Did it
     • draw the graph completely and accurately?
     • draw the graph accurately but not completely? (describe missing segment)
     • draw the graph inaccurately?
     • crash the program?

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