The Datafile PD-CD 2/DATAFILE_PDCD2.iso/commercial/pipedream/documents/pd3_users/4warned

Text File | 1992-04-09 | 8KB | 840 lines

%OP%VS4.1283 (06-Apr-92), Colton Software, R4000 2029 4983 8986

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%C%%H2%The PipeDream 4 Spreadsheet for PipeDream 3 Users

There are various changes that have been made to the PipeDream 4
spreadsheet that affect PipeDream 3 users who wish to use their
existing spreadsheets.

1. Column and Row recalculation

PipeDream 4 cannot recalculate by row or by column. PipeDream 4 always
recalculates in natural fashion. The Manual/Auto option still exists
and is accessible from the PipeDream 4 icon menu.

PipeDream 3 spreadsheets such as bank statements which had very nested
calculations which gave the "Stack overflow" error message and
necessitated switching to row or column recalculation will calculate
without any problem on PipeDream 4 as long as there is enough memory.

2. Iteration

PipeDream 4 does not have the global iteration options that PipeDream 3
has. Instead you should use the looping facilities in the custom
function language which are much more powerful. As a result the
iteration counter LOOPC has also been removed.

3. Linking files

PipeDream 4 does not have the linking file functions which are
available in PipeDream 3. Instead we have provided suggested custom
functions read and write on the examples disc for you to replace your
linking files. You can use a custom function sheet as a linking file by
writing values into it with the set_value function. This is much faster
and potentially more powerful.

4. Single and Double inverted commas

The PipeDream 4 spreadsheet accepts only double inverted commas (") for
strings. Database function (see below) conditions are no longer
strings, so strings in database function conditions are entered, like
all strings, with double inverted commas. If you have used single
inverted commas in PipeDream 3 files, use the Search and Replace
command to change them to double inverted commas. This is backward
compatible with PipeDream 3 (except in database functions).

5. Index

The index function now requires one extra argument (the first one).
This is a range or array which specifies the area into which you are
indexing. In PipeDream 3 this area was always the whole spreadsheet; in
PipeDream 4, you must specify the area. We recommend that you think
about the area that you pass to index. The smaller the area, the fewer
times index will be recalculated, and the faster your spreadsheets will
be.  Typically, index extract a piece of information from a table: the
first parameter to index in PipeDream 4 should be the range of the
table.

6. Database functions

Three changes have been made to database functions in PipeDream 4:

(i)



(ii)









(iii)
















7. Intelligent evaluation of IF, OR and AND.

PipeDream 4 avoids evaluating the unnecessary parts of an IF OR or AND.
For example:





In all three cases, the 3+3 will never be evaluated since PipeDream 4
already has enough information to work out the result of the test. This
is very unlikely to adversely affect existing PipeDream 3 spreadsheets
unless you rely on the fact the PipeDream 3 always calculates all the
parts of an IF or OR or AND.  It will make many spreadsheets
recalculate more quickly.

8. Undefined names

Since the PipeDream 4 spreadsheet can use names to refer to parts of
the spreadsheet rather than just slot references and ranges, a whole
new set of formulae become valid for PipeDream 4 which PipeDream 3
would have recognised as text slots. This may cause problems if you
have your 'new slot format' set to 'numbers' in the options dialogue
box. For example:



is now a valid expression, and will be entered by PipeDream 4 as a
formula returning 'Name not defined' (assuming you have not defined the
names Start and Finish).

You may need to change the 'new slot format' setting to text or to
enter the text differently: Start to Finish or Start_Finish or
"Start to finish".

PipeDream 4 specifically excludes the case of a single undefined name,
so typing Fred into a slot will be treated as text.

A way to prevent PipeDream thinking your expression is valid is to
force in invalid punctuation characters.  Try putting in a valid
expression but add to the end a "hard space" by pressing Alt-Space.
Alternatively in the example above you can use a "soft hyphen" by
entering Alt-hyphen.  This looks like the minus sign but isn't one.


9. Names

Names are faster than ranges and use up less memory, so it's a good
idea to use named area in your spreadsheets rather than ranges,
especially if the range is replicated over a large area in a
spreadsheet.

10. Background recalculation

You should find the background recalculation in PipeDream 4 much
smoother than PipeDream 3 - when editing a large spreadsheet the
hourglass should hardly ever appear and you should be able to carry on
doing things on your computer while PipeDream 4 recalculates. You may
notice operation being slightly more sluggish whilst background
recalculation is in progress.

11. Slot references to strings

Since PipeDream 4 now has comprehensive string handling, the action of
references to text slots or slots containing strings is rather
different. Suppose:

A1 contains
A2 contains
A3 contains
A4 contains
A5 contains

%H2%Formula

A1
A2
A3
A4
A5

1+A1
1+A2
1+A3
1+A4
1+A5

if(A1="","Blank",if(A1=0,"Zero","Not empty"))
if(A2="","Blank",if(A2=0,"Zero","Not empty"))
if(A3="","Blank",if(A3=0,"Zero","Not empty"))
if(A4="","Blank",if(A4=0,"Zero","Not empty"))
if(A5="","Blank",if(A5=0,"Zero","Not empty"))

If you get "String not expected" errors it's probably because of an
explicit reference to a slot containing a string.

Functions like sum() are not affected since they are defined to ignore
non-numeric slots.


12. Date functions

There are many new date and time functions.  One consequence is that
PipeDream 3's function date is now called today in PipeDream 4.  The
date function in Pipedream 4 builds a date from year, month and day
components.

Dates can now span more than century and can go back to the year 100.
Dates before the year 100 are treated as dates in the current century.
A consequence of this is that date slots will print two characters
wider than they did in PipeDream 3.  The Auto width command may well
sort this out for you.
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The condition argument is no longer a string. You must
edit the condition argument and remove the (probable
single) quotes from around the condition string.

The condition argument can no longer contain hashes (#)
to indicate no reference update during evaluation.
Dollars ($), like before, indicate, as in all other
references and ranges, that the column or row is to be
fixed when the formula is replicated or copied.

Enter a single slot reference where you don't want the
reference updated during evaluation; enter a range
where the formula is to be updated.

As mentioned above, you must enter a range where you
want the condition updated for each slot in a database
function:

 PD3:  dsum(a1a100, 'b1>10')
 PD4:  dsum(a1a100,  b1b100>10)

 PD3:  dsum(a1a100, 'b1="fred"')
 PD4:  dsum(a1a100,  b1b100="fred")

 PD3:  dsum(a1a100, 'b1=a#200 & c1>10)
 PD4:  dsum(a1a100,  b1b100=a200 & c1c100>10)

 PD3:  dsum(a1a100, '$b1=$a$#200 & $c1>$a$#201')
 PD4:  dsum(a1a100,  $b1$b100=$a$100 & $c1$c100>$a$201)







if(1,2+2,3+3)
0 & 3+3
2+2 | 3+3 if(0,3+3,2+2)

















Start-Finish









































nothing (blank cell)
text slot: Hello
number slot: "Hello"
number slot: 0
number slot: " "
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or
or
or
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%H2%PD 3

0
Hello
"Hello"
0
0

1
Hello
"Hello"
1
1

Blank
Not empty
Not empty
Blank
Blank
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