by Mike Epstein mike@kagi.com or epstein@nyiq.net My home page: http://www.nyiq.net/~epstein/ SuperGraph information: http://www.nyiq.net/~epstein/programs/supergraph/ About SuperGraph 1.0 (19 June 1996) SuperGraph is a powerful, easy-to-use, inexpensive program to graph explicit and implicit mathematical functions. Implicit expressions, ones that cannot easily be solved for either x or y, have presented a challenge to visualize. SuperGraph makes that a thing of the past. SuperGraph differs from Apple¹s Graphing Calculator in its flexibility and customizability when dealing with implicit expressions (which Graphing Calculator does not directly support) and in its ability to run on 680x0 (non-PowerPC) Macintosh computers. SuperGraph is especially suited to demonstrating various implicit expressions and techniques of sketching them in a classroom situation. Complete instructions on using SuperGraph are provided below, in the section ³Using SuperGraph.² Information about registration and payment is in the section ³SuperGraph is Shareware.² System requirements SuperGraph requires a Macintosh with System 6.0.4 or higher, a 68020 or higher processor and a math coprocessor (or PowerPC). SuperGraph is accelerated for Power Macintosh and ships as a ³fat binary² application. 32-Bit QuickDraw is also required, as is a color or grayscale monitor. At least 16 grays or 256 colors should be used; 256 grays or millions of colors produce the best-looking implicit graphs. (Images that are copied or saved will be of the same quality no matter what the screen can display.) Saving pictures to disk is not available under System 6; System 6 users should use copy and paste instead. Users of 68040 Macintoshes without math coprocessors (some Performas, some PowerBooks and certain other models) should contact the author for information on obtaining a version that will work on their systems. Unfortunately, no version is available for 68020 and 68030 Macintoshes without math coprocessors (LC series and some Performas and PowerBooks). Users of Macintoshes without math coprocessors may want to consider using John Neil & Associates¹ $10 control panel SoftwareFPU. Information about SoftwareFPU is available on the World Wide Web at . As with any shareware, if you keep SoftwareFPU, you should register it with the author. SuperGraph is shareware SuperGraph is distributed as shareware under the honor system. If you use it, please pay for it. The fee is $15 per computer. Source code (in Pascal for CodeWarrior) is free with registration if you provide an email address where I can send the latest version and source code; a disk with the latest version and other goodies is $5 additional with registration. (If you don¹t provide an email address and do not order a disk, I will be unable to send you the latest version or the source code.) Please use the enclosed Register program or the registration form if you have it. Contact me for information on institutional use or site licensing. Even if you pay nothing at all, feel free to send me email with comments, questions, or suggestions. To register, run the enclosed Register program. Registration is handled through Kagi Shareware, which accepts money orders, credit cards, First Virtual, and U.S. checks. You may register by fax, postal mail or email. You may also register by sending a check or money order in the appropriate amount (U.S. currency drawn on U.S. banks only, or a postal money order in U.S. currency) to Mike Epstein at 90 Maple Drive, Great Neck, NY 11021. Please include your email address and the version you are currently using to allow me to notify you of new versions. Specify whether you want me to email you a copy of the latest version. A disk with the latest version is $5 additional. The latest version may always be downloaded from the SuperGraph information page, which is located at . Using SuperGraph For basic assistance with general concepts of SuperGraph, choose ³SuperGraph Help² from the Help menu. In addition, Balloon Help is available for all menus and dialog boxes. The window after the splash screen is the graphing window. There can only be one graphing window at a time. At any time, you can select ³Copy Image² from the Edit menu to copy the current image to the Clipboard or select ³Save Image AsŠ² from the File menu to save the current image to disk. To graph an expression, first select ³New ExpressionŠ² from the Graphing menu. In the dialog box that results, type or paste a mathematical expression. Then either press the Graph Now button to graph it immediately, or press OK and then choose ³Graph Expression² from the Graphing menu. SuperGraph is always in either implicit mode or non-implicit (function) mode. Implicit mode should be used with complex equations, such as y^2(y-1)-x^2(y^2-1)+2xy^2-x^4=0 or 2x^2(y^2+x^2-y-x-13) = 9(y^2-2y-2x-8), that cannot easily be solved for y. However, when you have a function of x, such as y = 3 x + 3, non-implicit mode gives more precise graphs, and it also allows for evaluation of the function at a point. To switch between implicit and non-implicit modes, use the Preferences dialog box, available under the Options menu. For information about the format of expressions, select ³Entering Expressions² from the Help menu. Implicit mode works by evaluating the entered expression for every point in the window, then assigning an appropriate shade of gray for each point that meets the tolerance you specify in the Preferences dialog box. The reason implicit mode works this way is that if it simply selected from black or white, many implicit expressions would result in splotches of black in one area and barely visible trails in others. By assigning a grayscale, SuperGraph allows the user to visualize the dynamics of implicit expressions. The ³Zoom In² and ³Zoom Out² commands in the Graphing menu zoom in and out by a factor of two. For more precise scaling, or to change the implicit-mode tolerance or the distance between tick marks on the axes, use the Preferences dialog box. Troubleshooting Some users have experienced a conflict with outdated versions of the ~Aaron system extension. Please be sure that you are using version 1.3.2 or later of ~Aaron. (As of this writing, the latest version is 1.4.) Information about ~Aaron is available on the World Wide Web at . If you experience out-of-memory messages, or if you graph very large images (and especially if you copy them to the clipboard or save them to disk), you should raise SuperGraph¹s memory allocation by selecting its icon in the Finder and choosing Get Info from the File menu. Raise the ³Preferred size² by increments of about 100K until the problem stops. If you experience any problems, please report them to the author so that they can be corrected for a future version. Support Technical support is available via electronic mail at mike@kagi.com or epstein@nyiq.net. Comments are always welcome. Registered users who either include an email address with their registration or pay for a disk with the latest version will receive my phone number for support. Thanks Special thanks to Mr. Albert F. Cavallaro, my Computer Science teacher, for his support and encouragement during this project. I am indebted to Matt Gieselman for development help. Thanks to my beta testers (Dennis T. Cheung, ³JD,² Matt Gieselman, Tim Kelly, Stephen Ryan, and several others who preferred that their names not be used here) for their invaluable efforts. Thanks also to Tonya Engst for her exposition of the attributes of a good Read Me file in TidBITS, a weekly Macintosh e-zine. Information about TidBITS is available on the World Wide Web at . Legal While I believe SuperGraph to be quite robust, I cannot be held responsible for any damage or data loss caused by its use. It has been tested under several Macintosh platforms with good results. Still, as with all software, all use is at your own risk. SuperGraph, its documentation and its insignia are copyright © 1996 by Mike Epstein. Any images created by SuperGraph from your input are in the public domain, unless you specifically claim rights to them. SuperGraph may not be redistributed on CD-ROM without my advance permission. Redistribution in any form by any for-profit organization requires my advance permission. Any redistribution must include this file and the registration form. The installer for this product was created using Installer VISE Lite from MindVision Software. For more information on Installer VISE Lite, contact: MindVision Software 840 South 30th Street, Suite C P.O. Box 81886 Lincoln, NE 68510 Voice: (402) 477-3269 Fax: (402) 477-1395 Internet: mindvision@mindvision.com AOL: MindVision AppleLink: MindVision CompuServe: 70253,1437 ftp://ftp.mindvision.com I¹d like to thank Steve Kiene and MindVision for their extraordinary support of shareware authors and the shareware system. Version History Version 1.0: 19 June 1996. First public release. Mike Epstein, 90 Maple Drive, Great Neck, NY 11021, mike@kagi.com or epstein@nyiq.net