Aero VB Runtime - Pocket Innovations 1.5

Pocket Innovations- Powerful applications for a portable world Pocket Innovations releases VB Runtime to allow users to run Visual Basic programs without hassle. Some programs delete these files when uninstalled, causing havoc to your system. Just run VB Runtime when you get an error message saying "There is no application associated with *.vb." Every VB program requires these files, so download and enjoy. NOTICE-This version is for Compaq Aero users only.

Welcome to GraphIt 1.5 Demo

Contents of this file

1. Current and future features and Purchase Information
2. Common tasks
3. Rules and limits
4. Version History (What’s New in GraphIt 1.5)
5. Support and contact information
6. License Agreement and terms of use

Current and Future Features

What is GraphIt, and where can I buy the full version?
GraphIt is a graphing calculator designed for Pocket PC devices. A graphing calculator is a powerful tool that can perform a range of tasks, from simple calculations to more complex calculus and statistics. Other calculators for the Pocket PC often perform only one function, or are otherwise designed for a specific task. GraphIt combines all these abilities into a single program. To view more information about GraphIt and other Pocket Innovations products, visit our web site at http://www.pocket-innovations.com. You’re using the demo version of GraphIt at the moment, and the program will shut itself down after three minutes of use. In order to remove this time limit, and to qualify for free upgrades and technical support, you can purchase the full version of GraphIt for only $15. Simply visit http://www.pocket-innovations.com and click on the “Products” tab in the menu bar. Under the GraphIt logo, click “Add to shopping cart” to purchase GraphIt.

What do I need to know about this early version of GraphIt?
GraphIt 1.5 is not a full replacement for your graphing calculator, though it soon will be. At the moment, it functions much like a regular scientific calculator, with the ability to graph functions and some additional features. This release of the program is designed so that we can get feedback from users, and then direct future releases towards that feedback. This version will also be offered at a lower price than future releases, and registered users get free upgrades.

So what features does GraphIt have at the moment?

- Graphical and helpful user interface. GraphIt’s smooth interface makes navigating the program efficient and enjoyable. Functions most commonly used are placed near at hand, and everything is designed to work in the least number of stylus taps possible.

- Scientific calculator mode lets you solve standard equations. All standard functions (sine, cosine, tangent, log, square root, etc.) are supported, as well as some additional functions (xroot, scientific exponents, factorial, etc.).

- Equations are entered in a user-friendly text box that supports full insert/overwrite/selection support. Although you can type out equations using any input device available to your Pocket PC, GraphIt features a powerful keypad system that puts all the calculator’s functions within two stylus taps. A history of previous equations and answers allows you to easily scroll back and re-use previous prompts.

- An equation-helper displays a list of any inputs into a function that you enter. Rather than having to memorize many variables and inputs for a certain function, they are displayed on the screen automatically.

- GraphIt supports a variety of other user-friendly improvements, such as automatic bracket-closing and automatic answer-inserting for a new equation.

- The Grapher’s viewport can be adjusted, and axis marker intervals are user-definable. Graph Window Presets allow you to easily jump to a certain predefined viewport. GraphIt’s graph window is over four times the size of the graphing window on a normal TI-8x graphing calculator, making graph features easier to see and allowing for larger graphs. The graph window also supports colors, to easily tell curves apart.

- Curves on the graph can be traced to see precise y-values, and the seek function displays a specific y-value for a certain x-value.

- GraphIt is efficient and compact. The entire program, including all the graphics and images that make up the interface, is less than 250K in size. Despite using large and detailed graphics (GraphIt contains more than 8 full screens of interface), the program can fit on even the most cluttered of Pocket PCs. GraphIt also uses a minimum of external controls and DLLs, so your memory is free for other uses.


So if I register GraphIt, I’ll be entitled to free upgrades. What kind of features are going to be added to GraphIt in the near future?

What gets added to GraphIt depends on what kind of user feedback we get from people like you. Below is a list of features that will be added to the program in upcoming versions.

- Improved grapher, with graph operations such as intersections, calculus, and drawing.

- Many more functions that are available in all calculator modes, including calculus, probability, vector geometry, and statistics functions.

- Support for Lists and Matrices

- A faster and more efficient graphing routine with shading capabilities

- Unit converter, allowing you to convert between meters and feet, pounds and kilos, and many other units of measurement

- Different number bases (hexadecimal, binary) with special tools for programmers.

Although these are some of the main functions that we’re thinking of adding, we’re open to suggestions. Feel free to email us at graphit@pocket-innovations.com to give us any comments or suggestions.

Thank you for trying the demo version of GraphIt. We hope that you liked the program, and welcome any comments that you would like to make. If you were happy with GraphIt, make sure to stop by http://www.pocket-innovations.com to purchase the full version. By buying the full version, you remove the time limit on the demo version, and are entitled to free upgrades. Version 1.5 costs $15, but as we add more features the price will rise. By buying GraphIt now, you can receive those upgrades for free.


Common Tasks

How do I use Scientific Calculator mode?

When GraphIt starts, click the button entitled “Calc”. You can also click on the button entitled “Menu” and then click on the calc button in the menu. Once you do this, scientific calculator mode starts. You’ll see a screen with a text entry box at the bottom, a little button with the letter “H” on it, and a keypad with many functions on it.

Once you’re in this mode, you can use the keypad to enter equations. All standard functions are included on the keypad. You’ll notice that each key has two numbers on it – a large black one and a smaller blue one. The smaller blue number is the “Second” function. To type this, press the blue “2nd” key in the upper right of the keypad, and then press the key with the blue function you want. This way, you can type anything with only two taps.

At the right of the keypad, you’ll see three buttons besides the 2nd button. Those three are “CLS”, “DEL”, and “CMP”. These stand for “Clear Screen”, “Delete”, and “Compute”. Pressing CLS erases everything in the text entry box. Pressing it while the text entry box is blank clears the entire screen. Pressing delete will delete the last letter in the text entry box. Pressing compute sends the equation to the GraphIt parser, which then solves it. The question and answer are both outputted to the screen.

The text entry box supports inserting and selecting as well. Click in the middle of some text you’ve entered, and the entry cursor will be positioned there. Typing something now will insert it at the cursor point. You can also click and drag across to select a group of text. Pressing delete now will delete this entire group, and entering something else will overwrite the selection. In addition to using the keypad, you can always use regular Windows CE entry methods, such as the keypad or character recognizer. Please be aware that clicking on some buttons will deselect the text box. So if you’ve positioned the cursor in the text box, and press 2nd, the cursor will no longer be positioned.

The little “H” to the right of the text entry box brings up the history. This is a list of all the equations and solutions that you’ve entered. This allows you to see what you’ve done, and re-use any equation or answer. In the upper-right of the keypad there is a small white button. This is the close button. Clicking on it will close the Num keypad and display the Menu keypad.

How do I use Graph Mode?

When GraphIt starts, click the button entitled “Graph”. You can also click on the button entitled “Menu” and then click on the graph button in the menu. Once you do this, graph mode starts. You’ll see a screen with a set of axes on it, and a keypad that contains four buttons and a directional control pad.

Before you can graph, you have to enter an equation. Click the button with the letter “y” on it. This brings up a screen with six lines of text, and a textbox with a check mark next to it. You can enter up to six equations to be solved at one time. The first line is selected by default. Enter your equation in the text box. If you want to move to another line, click on that line and the selection will change. Once this is done, click on the check mark and the equation will be graphed. Graphing equations, especially multiple equations with complex functions in them, may take some time. The equation parser in GraphIt 1.5 is in its very first revision. As a result, it isn’t as optimized as it will be in future revisions. Once your equation has been graphed, however, GraphIt stores it for future reference, so you no longer need to wait for the graph to display. Once the grapher is finished, you will return to the main graph window.

If you click on the “View” button in the main grapher screen, you will be taken to the graph viewport settings screen. Here, you can set the left, right, upper, and lower bounds for the graph, as well as the interval at which marks appear on the horizontal and vertical axes. This view works in much the same way as the Equation Entry view. To select a line, click on it, and then enter the value you want in the text entry box at the bottom of the screen. When this is finished, click the check mark to the right of the text entry box to return to the graph screen. Since changing the viewport requires recalculating graph values, you may have to wait a little while until this is complete. Once completed, the values are stored and you no longer need to recalculate them.

The “Trace” and “Seek” buttons let you view values at a certain point on a graph. Press the Trace button to begin tracing. Two values will appear at the bottom of the screen. These are the x and y values of the point you currently have selected. Click on the left or right arrows on the directional pad on your graphing keypad to move left and right on the graph. The values will automatically update. With this tool, you can easily see actual numeric values for a certain point.

The “Seek” button allows you to jump to a certain point on the graph. Click on Seek will begin tracing as if you had clicked on Trace. A text box will appear in the lower right of the screen. Enter a value into this box, and press “CMP” on the keypad. The selection cursor will now jump to this value. HINT: You can type in complex values, such as 2(Pi) to go to specific places without having to remember many decimal points.

What else do I need to know?

One additional feature of GraphIt 1.5 is the ability to set decimal accuracy. Instead of displaying 9 decimals, you can make GraphIt cut this number off at any value below nine. Click on the “menu” button when GraphIt starts to enter the main menu. Here, click on the button entitled “Config” to enter the preferences screen. You’ll see the word “accuracy” with a series of numbers from 0 to 9. Click on a number to set the accuracy. 0 will display only whole numbers, 2 will give answers with 2 decimal places of accuracy, etc.

Rules and Limits

What things should I keep in mind when using GraphIt?

- GraphIt’s equation parser is now stable enough to process a wide range of equations without any problems. However, in this fairly early state of development, we haven’t been able to evaluate all possible circumstances, so certain equations may return errors. GraphIt can handle almost any error, and the program will simply inform you that an error has occurred, rather than crashing or otherwise performing undesirably.

Version History

What’s new in GraphIt 1.5?

- Greatly improved parser stability and performance. The parser no longer crashes on performing many complex formulae. Order of operations is properly fixed, and negative values work properly. Support for negative graph value plotting has been fixed, and the parser is faster and more efficient.

- Added more functions to various keypads. To access these keypads, close the main calculation keypad, and then click on the keypad you want to access in the main menu.

- Added Graph Zoom presets, allowing easy changing of the graph window to standard presets such as “home” and “trig”.

- Improved Seek and Trace functions

- Fixed bugs and issues with all areas of the program


Support and Contact Information

Pocket Innovations support is always ready to answer any questions or concerns that you might have. If you have any problems while using GraphIt, please email us at graphit@pocket-innovations.com so that we can help resolve your problem as quickly as possible. If you had a problem with an equation returning an error, it would be very helpful if you included a copy of the equation in your support request email.

We would also appreciate any suggestions for features to add to GraphIt in the future. You can email these to graphit@pocket-innovations.com or post a message on the GraphIt messageboard on our web site. To find out more information about GraphIt and other Pocket Innovations products, visit our website at http://www.pocket-innovations.com.



GraphIt License Agreement

This License Agreement is a legal agreement between you and Pocket Innovations for GraphIt (hereafter referred to as the SOFTWARE). By purchasing, installing, copying, or using the SOFTWARE, you agree to be bound to the terms of this agreement.

You may not modify or remove any copyright information in the SOFTWARE, which is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties. United States Government Restricted Rights: Use, duplication or disclosure of this software and documentation by the U.S. Government is subject to the restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the
Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.227-7013. The SOFTWARE may only be installed on one device at any given time. Use of the SOFTWARE on multiple devices without having purchased separate licenses for those devices is prohibited by United States copyright law.

You also agree to indemnify, hold harmless, and defend Pocket Innovations from and against any claims or lawsuits, including attorney's fees, that arise or result from the use or distribution of the SOFTWARE. No warranties are expressed or implied. In no event shall Pocket Innovations, Pocket Innovations founding members, or Pocket Innovations employees be held liable for damages resulting from the use or misuse of this product, including but not limited to implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose.

GraphIt is copyright © 2001 Pocket Innovations

graphitdemo.zip [1.34 Mb] (Count: 1)