Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/discs/pipeline/abacus/p_line/Charts01/ReadMe

Text File | 1993-08-27 | 16KB | 312 lines

%OP%VS4.13 (28-Apr-92), Gerald L Fitton, R4000 5966 9904 9938
%OP%DP0
%OP%IRY
%OP%PL0
%OP%HM0
%OP%FM0
%OP%BM0
%OP%LM4
%OP%PT1
%OP%PDPipeLine
%OP%WC1014,2262,184,1748,0,0,0,0
%CO:A,72,72%
%C%Charts from the Beginning - Part 1
%C%by Gerald L Fitton
Keywords:
Charts Fitton

Warning!
Apart from this [ReadMe] file, do not attempt to load and run any of
the other files in this directory from the master disc!

Why is this?  Colton Software's hot linked graphics package operates by
saving copies of chart files back to disc.  The original file we have
supplied will be over written.  For that reason I strongly suggest that
you work with back up copies of the files in this directory rather than
the originals.

We supply our PipeLine discs with the write protect tab open so that
(unless you slide it over to close the hole) you will be unable to
write to the disc which we supply.  An error message from your
operating system may suggest to you that having your disc write
protected is a mistake.  I suggest that you do not open the write
protect tab but that you copy the files either to your hard disc or, if
you have sufficient memory, then use a RAM disc.  Because the files are
saved every time the data is modified you need to load and save at
speed.  A RAM disc is faster than a hard disc which in turn is faster
than a floppy.

Creating a RAM disc
Place the pointer over the icon which is at the right hand end of the
icon bar (on earlier machines this icon was a 'fancy', slanting upper
case A but, on the latest machines, it is an acorn) and tap the mouse
Menu (middle) button.  Select 'Task display'.  Near the bottom of the
task display window you will find 'RAM disc    0K' (meaning zero
Kilobytes - not 'correct').  Place the pointer just to the right of
'0K' and (using the Select - left - mouse button) increase this to some
suitable value such as '64K'.  A RAM icon will appear on the left of
the icon bar; it can be treated exactly as a disc icon - indeed, you
have created a RAM disc.  The information stored in a RAM disc is lost
when you switch off the computer so, before closing down, make sure
that you have copied the files you want to keep from the RAM disc to a
'proper' disc.

RISC OS Printing
Although charts make pleasant pictures on a monitor, the result wanted
by most users of charts will be 'hard copy' - printed output!

You can not print charts with PipeDream printer drivers but only with
RISC OS printer drivers.  The [ReadMe] file in the Printing02 directory
of the August 1992 PipeLine 4 disc contains an explanation of the
difference between the two forms of printing as well as general advice
about RISC OS printers.  If you have not read that file then I suggest
that you might find it useful before you proceed further with designing
and printing charts.  Because you can print charts only with a RISC OS
printer driver, the example files in this directory (but not this
[ReadMe] file) have been saved with the 'Printer configuration -
Printer type' set to RISC OS rather than the more usual Parallel.

RISC OS printing takes longer than PipeDream printer driver printing
(typically RISC OS printing takes 5 to 10 minutes per A4 page) but,
without RISC OS printing, you will not be able to print charts.

I find the RISC OS output from the so called '9 - pin' printers
disappointing because of the large dot diameter.  Dot matrix printers
with 24 pins are substantially better, bubble and ink jet printers are
better still, only marginally poorer than laser printers.  Again,
please read the [ReadMe] file in the directory Printing02 for a more
information.

If you have RISC OS 3 then you will have been provided with a suitable
printer driver as part of that operating system.  If you have RISC OS 2
but you do not have any printer drivers then I suggest that you upgrade
to RISC OS 3 (see below under Outline Fonts).

Outline Fonts
The charts generated by PipeDream 4 include text.  The numbers which
appear along the axes of graphs are text as are the named 'categories'
(more of which later) which appear along the 'x - axis' of bar charts.
Although you can select any of your typefaces the default used by
Colton Software is Acorn's proprietary Homerton font.

You will not get very far with the PipeDream 4 charts package if you do
not have Acorn's outline font manager and, at least, the Homerton font.
So where do you get these from?

If you have bought a RISC OS 3 machine or upgraded from RISC OS 2 to
RISC OS 3 then your purchase will include both the outline font manager
and some outline fonts (including Homerton).  If you intend to upgrade
from RISC OS 2 to RISC OS 3 then, when you buy RISC OS 3, you will find
that a (new) font manager and the Homerton (and other) fonts are built
into the RISC OS 3 'chips'.

RISC OS 3.10 is available now (27th August 1992) at about £50.00 so I
suggest that, rather than spend money on an outline font starter kit
and printer drivers for use with RISC OS 2 at a cost of about £50.00,
you may prefer to spend the £50.00 on RISC OS 3.  I strongly recommend
buying RISC OS 3 rather than 'upgrading' your RISC OS 2 system.

Even if you have RISC OS 2, printer drivers and some outline fonts, I
still recommend that, if you are 'serious' about using PipeDream 4
Charts, you upgrade to RISC OS 3.  Colton Software have told me that
PipeDream 4 has been 'optimised' for RISC OS 3.  My experience is that
using PipeDream 4 with RISC OS 3 is noticeably 'smoother' and quicker.

Finally on outline fonts, on the more recent issues of Colton
Software's PipeDream 4 Examples disc you will find a version of Acorn's
outline font manager which is suitable for use with RISC OS 2 (but not
with 3).  However, you will not find any outline fonts nor RISC OS 2
printer drivers to go with that font manager.  If you are in the
position of not having Acorn's Homerton font and if you do not intend
to upgrade to RISC OS 3 then write to me and I will advise you how best
to overcome your shortage so that you can use PipeDream 4's charts.

PipeDream 4 - Version 4.13
Today is the 27th August 1992 and, as I write, the latest version of
PipeDream 4 is 4.13.  I am convinced that there will not be any further
upgrades of PipeDream 4.  Upgrades to version 4.13 are available free
of charge but only from Colton Software.  If you do not have version
4.13 then send both your Program disc and (this is important,
especially if you intend to stick with RISC OS 2) your Examples disc to
Colton Software asking for the latest version.

Many of the improvements to PipeDream 4 between version 4.10 and 4.13
have been to the way in which PipeDream 4's charts operate.  If you do
not have version 4.13 then some of the facilities which I refer to
later in this article either do not exist or do not work.  Please
upgrade your version to 4.13 before writing to me and complaining!  It
is partly because I was waiting for the charts to 'stabilise' and
partly because I wanted to assess whether to advise you to upgrade to
RISC OS 3 (with fonts and printer drivers) that I have delayed the
launch of this 'Charts from the Beginning' series.

Recent issues of the Examples disc contains the latest RISC OS 2
versions of the CLib (C library), FPE (Floating point emulator), Colour
and Outline font manager modules.  Unless you have RISC OS 3 you should
copy these onto your system disc.  Don't copy them if you do have
RISC OS 3!  If you haven't had much practice at merging !Systems
directories then you may find the files in the StartUp directory of the
February 1992 PipeLine 4 disc useful.

Homerton font
Yes!  I know that we haven't got around to charts yet but this is
intended to be 'from the beginning' and it is as well to get the
preliminaries 'right' from the start.  I bet I've still missed out
something important and you'll telephone (or fax me) to tell me of the
difficulties you are having with the charts files I have included in
this directory.

Anyway, here is my logic.  Charts need to be printed.  Printing
requires RISC OS printer drivers (not PipeDream printer drivers).
RISC OS printer drivers require outline fonts.  Colton Software's
default font for the text created by their charts package is Homerton.
If you are going to use charts you already have (or will soon have)
Acorn's Outline font manager, the Homerton font and RISC OS printer
drivers.  My advise is that you upgrade to RISC OS 3 because it
includes all these (and much more).

Hence, on this and other PipeLine discs the files in directories
containing charts will be in Homerton font (later charts directories
will include files in Trinity font).

If you send me contributions to PipeLine which include charts then I
shall be most grateful if you will keep the [ReadMe] file in system
font and, for now, the application files in Homerton.  Later I will
probably extend the range of typefaces used in charts applications to
include Trinity but I am reluctant at the moment to include Selwyn or
NewHall since many subscribers to PipeLine will be using Dingbats
(instead of Selwyn) and NewSchbook (instead of NewHall).  Error
messages will be generated and the text in the chart will appear on
screen in system font, probably at the wrong scale, and a printed
version will look a real mess.

Charts
The time has come to try out a chart.

If you say "Graph" to a Mathematician they will probably think of a
graph with x and y axes, a set of points and a line running through the
points.  The PipeDream 4 package will produce such "x - y" graphs but,
for this simple exercise I shall use a bar chart.  I do this partly
because bar charts are generally appreciated more easily by non
mathematicians and partly because the bar chart is the default option
built into PipeDream 4 by Colton Software.

In this directory, Charts01, you will find the files [Timing_1],
[Timing_2] and [Timing_1C].  PipeDream chart files behave differently
from PipeDream files but they do not have a different Acorn type number
and so they appear in a directory viewer having the same icon as other
PipeDream 4 files.  In order to distinguish a chart file from an
'ordinary' PipeDream 4 file the convention I am using is that a file
with _C as a suffix is a chart file.  This convention of an underline
followed by an upper case C is also used by Colton Software and I
recommend it to you.

The file [Timing_2] is a close copy of the file [Timing_1], however, it
is not hot linked to a chart and you can experiment with it.  The file
[Timing_1D] is a file in !Draw format to which I shall refer later.

Double click on the [Timing_1] file to load it.  The chart [Timing_1C]
will be loaded into slot [Timing_1]A14.  I have scaled the chart to
130%PC% of its full size so that it fits across a 72 column screen.

The only font used in [Timing_1] is Homerton.  For rows 2 to 11 the
font is 10 point with a 12 point line spacing.  The chart which is
loaded into [Timing_1]A14 also uses the Homerton font.  If you do not
have Homerton then the system font will be used and the document will
probably look a mess!

Let me say right away that this table of data and the chart do not
conform to the standards which I would normally insist on for an
illustrative table and an illustrative chart.  In particular I have no
title and no units on the chart and I do realise that this is bad
practice.  More of such things in another tutorial - in any case I
shall start that series by discussing how to convert reference tables
into illustrative tables using PipeDream.  What I want to do in this
tutorial is to use the defaults provided by Colton Software so that you
can learn the basics of deriving charts from data.

The data consists of the Names of five people in column A, the time in
minutes which they took to get to work Yesterday and Today in columns B
and C respectively.  The bar chart shows the time taken yesterday in
red and today's time in yellow.

Place the pointer in slot C10 (Sheila's time for today ) and change the
value from 23 to 80.  You will find that the (modified) file
[Timing_1C] will be saved (overwriting the original file) and the
yellow bar corresponding to Sheila will grow.  Restore the value in
[Timing_1]C23 to 23 and the file will be saved again and the chart
will be drawn again.

The file, [Timing_1], has been sorted on column A (in alphabetical
order).  Mark the block A6C11.  Execute the command <Ctrl BSO> (Block
SOrt) on column B first in Ascending order.  You will find that the hot
linked chart will be redrawn with the largest bar at the right when the
data is sorted in Ascending order on column B.

It is more usual to display bar charts in descending order from left to
right.  Execute <Ctrl BSO> again but this time remove the blue star
from the Ascending order box so that the data is sorted in descending
order.  Now resort it into alphabetical order on column A.  Notice that
the chart is not only drawn on the screen but is saved to your disc or
RAM disc each time the data is changed.

Change Bill to William.  The chart is saved and then drawn only when
you move the cursor from slot [Timing_1]A6 and not before.

Creating the Charts
You can repeat the way in which I this chart.  Make sure you work with
a back up copy of the files.  Load [Timing_2].  Look at the expression
in slot [Timing_2]A14 and you will see that the name of the chart you
have to create is [Timing_2C].  I have left out the @@ in this line so
that PipeDream will not give you an error message that the chart can
not be found.  Place the cursor at the start of row 14 and then tap
<F8> to delete the name of the chart.

Drag the pointer from A6 to C11 to mark the data.  Then execute the
command <Ctrl CHN> (CHart New) or alternatively click the mouse Menu
(middle) button and run the pointer through Chart and click on New
Chart.  You will create a bar chart which PipeDream will provisionally
called [Chart1].  Place the pointer in the [Chart1] window, tap the
mouse Menu button, run the pointer through Save, change the name to
[Timing_2C] and drag the icon into the directory window containing the
back up copy of [Timing_2].

Place the pointer in slot [Timing_2]A14 and click the mouse Select
(left) button.  Drag the file [Timing_2C] into the [Timing_2] window.
The bar chart will be drawn at 100%PC% with its top left corner in slot
A14.  Place the pointer in [Timing_2]A14, click the mouse Select button
and edit the line @@G:Timing_2C,100@@ to read @@G:Timing_2C,130@@ so that
the bar chart is enlarged to 130%PC% size.

If you wish you can close the window containing what was [Chart1] and
is now called [Timing_2C] by clicking Select on the close window icon.

Finally save the modified [Timing_2].  To prove that all is well, close
the [Timing_2] window and load it again - if you have succeeded then
you will find that the chart loads and is hot linked.

I'm not sure if it's a 'bug' or not but sometimes I find that, on
reloading, the chart is not hot linked.  If you find this then Save
everything, quit PipeDream from the icon bar and double click on
[Timing_2C].  This second time, from a 'cold start' the hot link will
be active (well it is for me).

Over to you
If you have succeeded in creating this 'default options' chart you may
like to experiment and see if you can 'improve' the chart.  As I
implied earlier I am not particularly proud of the file [Timing_1C] as
it stands.  Apart from missing text (such as title and units) which
requires larger margins (from the Options menu), I would like to see
the bars narrower so that there is a gap between bars.  I would prefer
the '3D' turned off and settings (from the Gallery - Bar sub menu) such
as Bar size 60%PC% width and 60%PC% overlap.  All these are achievable from
within PipeDream but they will have to await another tutorial.  The
file [Timing_1D] has been Saved from PipeDream in !Draw format and, as
an illustrative chart I think it is approaching a "Merit" standard.
You'll have to wait for another tutorial to 'discover' the way to
achieve a "Distinction" standard using PipeDream's hot linked charts.

Please let me know how you get on and, if you have real trouble
producing the type of chart which you want, then write to me enclosing
a disc file of your data and I will try to help you.