Description

• Use common algebraic expressions with the normal multiply before add rules.
• Can have up to 26 inputs from stored data.
• Can store results in up to 26 storage locations.
• Can use trigonometric, logarithmic, and other algebraic and control functions.
• Input can be by pen graffiti or from a Memo Pad memo.

It can be used as a simple calculator, or one to compute complicated routines. We hope you find FormulaCalc useful.

About This Documentation

For a quick start read Installation and Quick Start.
Then after trying it out please return to this documentation to learn all of the features.

Documentation Sections:

• Installation (Must Read)
• Quick Start (Must Read)
• Using FormulaCalc
  • The Menu Actions
    • Commands
    • Edit
    • Info
  • Storing Routines
  • Operators and Functions
  • Operator Calculation Order
  • Examples
• Contact Info
• Version Changes

Installation

This archive file includes:

frmclc11.prc

The executable file

MathLib.prc

The required mathematics library -- V1.1

FormulaCalc.html

This file

fcDisp1.gif fcDisp2.gif fcExample.gif fcMenu1.gif fcMenu2.gif fcPrefs.gif

Images for FormulaCalc.html

Use your Pilot installer to install frmclc11.prc. If you are upgrading FormulaCalc Version 1.0 (frmclc10.prc) you must first delete FormulaCalc V1.0 or risk requiring a Palm OS reset.
FormulaCalc requires MathLib.prc^*. If you have MathLib.prc already installed (because some other application uses it) just install frmclc11.prc. Otherwise install both frmclc11.prc and MathLib.prc.

The included MathLib.prc is the latest version (V1.1 dated 4/14/1999). You may update with this one if you desire.

Quick Start

• The output area -- the clear upper box.
• The input area -- the three lines below the box with scrolling and cutting buttons, welcoming you to FormulaCalc. The input area is also called the pen store.
• The four buttons:
  • Clear -- clears the output area.
  • Compute -- computes the value of the active formulas and displays it in the output area. If you press Compute at first nothing will happen because the greeting is a non-printing formula comment.
  • Reg -- pops up another window showing the values of the 26 registers A - Z.
    The values are changed by hightlighting a value and modifying it.
  • Pen -- toggles the active input between the input area (i.e. pen store) formulas and the routine selected from the Memo Pad memo entitled: Formula Calculator (i.e. memo store). Pressing this button at first will do nothing since you do not have a memo entitled Formula Calculator in your memo pad. After you establish a memo the button name will switch between Pen and Memo to indicate which formulas are active.

If you want to use FormulaCalc as a simple calculator:

• Tap the left side of the input area,
• Tap the 123 in the lower right of the graffiti area,
• Enter your formula,
• Tap Done,
• Tap Compute.

Your First Routine

For this first trial tap the diamond to the right side of the input area. This icon action is "highlight all text in the input store". Tap it again. That cut it to the clipboard, and accomplished our immediate goal of clearing the input area. Now with the pen and enter:   3*4-7/3   then press Compute.
The value 9.67 will appear in the output box. An "ordinary" calculator would have displayed 1.666... because it would use a left to right calculation rather than computing 3*4 then 7/3 and then subtracting as we understand algebraic formulas.

Now on the second input line enter: a=2; sr(a); a^2 then press Compute. The output box now displays 4 lines: 9.67 2.00 1.41 4.00
Press the Compute and Clear buttons several times to see what happens.

Next press the Reg button. You will see that the A register now has 2.00 and R has 4.00. That is because you stored 2 in A, and R is the result register which contains the last computed value 4.00.
Using the pen select register G, enter 20 and press Set Value. Now G contains 20. Press Done. On the third input line enter G to the end of your routine. Your routine should now read:

1. 3*4-7/3
2. a=2; sr(a); a^2
3. g

You are now an expert!

To prove that see if you understand the example on the right.

Allowable Formula Objects

This is the end of Quick Start.

The first three commands refer to routines stored in a Memo Pad entry. Your routines are stored in the Memo Pad under the name "Formula Calculator". ( See Storing Routines.)

• Open -- will pop up a window showing the names of your routines. Select the desired routine and close the window. This will load the selected routine in the memo store.
  If there are more routine names than will fit in the window a scroll bar will appear allowing you to move the names up or down.
• View -- will pop up a window showing the routine in the memo store. It too has a scroll bar if needed.
• CopyTo.. -- will copy the routine in the memo store to the pen store. This will allow you to edit small routines. The pen store is limited to 140 characters. Large routines can be edited in the Memo Pad.
• Show... -- toggles the choice of whether or not values assigned to registers are displayed. This menu item differs from the similar item in the Prefs... window in that it overrides any sr:X command in the routine.
• Prefs... -- pops up the Preferences window discussed next.

  This menu selects:

  • the number of decimal digits displayed for number,
  • control over number notation -- fixed or scientific,
  • whether trigonometric function use degrees or radians,
  • whether or not values assigned to registers are displayed.
  There are two sections to this menu: 1) settings take place now, or 2) settings take place next time you start FormulaCalc.
  The Last buttons in the StartUp section, if selected, set the StartUp values as they were when you last shut down FormulaCalc.

  The 'Show Exponent' value determines when the notation is switched between fixed to scientific notation. The Trim check box determines if trailing 0's in scientific notation are displayed.
  For the preferences shown the above screen, the notation will switch from fixed notation to scientific notation when the number would be displayed with an e5.
  For example:

  • 12345.6789 will display as 12345.68, but 123456.789 will display as 1.23e5
  • 10000.001 will display as 10000.00, but 100000.001 will display as 1e5
  • Un-checking the Trim check box: 100000.001 will display as 1.00e5

• Copy -- The highlighted pen store characters are copied to the clipboard. In the special case that nothing is highlighted, the value of the result register (R) is copied.
• Cut -- Same as Copy except the highlighted characters are deleted from the pen store.
• Paste -- The characters in the clipboard are pasted into the pen store at the cursor location.
• Undo -- This undoes the last Paste or Cut action.
• Clear Regs -- This clears all registers to 0.0.

• Help -- This displays a short summary about how to write well formed FormulaCalc formulas.
• About -- This displays the version and build numbers of FormulaCalc. To be sure that your version is up-to-date check the Bld: number of FormulaCalc at: http://davidbray.org/palm/

Create a Memo Pad entry entitled: Formula Calculator (the first line and column 1 of the entry -- be sure there are no leading spaces). It can be in an category. FormulaCalc will find it.

Each routine starts with a # sign in column 1 followed by the name e.g. #Compound Interest.
A routine is of the form: formula followed by ; (and/or new line) followed by formula .....
The routine is terminated by one or more blank lines.
All space characters within a formula are ignored.

Following is an example memo with two routines:

    Formula Calculator
    #Compound Interest
    [Reg: I interest, P principle]
    [N years, M periods per year]
    dd:2
    (1+i/m)^(m*n)*p

    #Future Annuity
    dd:2; ((1+i/m)^(m*n)-1)/(i/m)*p

The second routine in the memo is Future Annunity.
As many routines as desired may be in the memo. Each must start with a #.

Operators and Functions

arithmetic:

  +

addition -- e.g. 4 + 8     result: [12]

  -

negation -- e.g. -4 or subtraction e.g. 5 - 2.02     [2.98]

  *

multiplication -- e.g. 12 * 6     [72],     121 * -7     [-847]

  /

division -- e.g. 36 / 4.321     [8.3314]

  ^

x to power y -- e.g. 2 ^ 3     [8]

  %

remainder of x divided by y -- e.g. 30.25 % 5     [0.05],     30.25 % 1     [0.25] the fractional part

arithmetic:

  sr()

square root -- e.g. sr(2)     [1.1414]

  sq()

square -- e.g. sq(2)     [4]

  ln()

natural logarithm -- e.g. ln(3)     [1.0986]

  log()

base 10 logarithm -- e.g. sr(1000)     [3]

  int()

integer part -- e.g. int(30.25)     [30]

  pi

constant pi -- e.g. pi * 2     [6.283185307]

trigonometric:

  sin()

sine -- e.g. sin(1)     [0.8415]

  cos()

cosine -- e.g. cos(1)     [0.5403]

  tan()

tangent -- e.g. tan(1)     [1.5574]

  asin()

arcsine -- e.g. asin(1)     [1.5708]

  acos()

arccosine -- e.g. acos(1)     [0.0000]

  atan()

arctangent -- e.g. atan(1.5574)     [1.0]

assignment:

  =

register store -- e.g. a = 2     [2] -- a cumulative example

  +=

add and store -- e.g. a += 13     [15]

  -=

subtract and store -- e.g. a -= 9     [6]

  *=

multiple and store -- e.g. a *= 3     [18]

  /=

divide and store -- e.g. a /= 3     [6]

decision -- used in if(,,):

  <

less than -- e.g. a < 10

  <=

less or equal -- e.g. a <= q

  ==

equal -- e.g. 20 == w

  >=

greater or equal -- e.g. t >= s

  >

greater than -- e.g. d / 3 > 10 * 7 + a

control:

  if(,,)

select -- e.g.   a=18; if (a<10, a, a/3)     [6]     or a=9     [9]

  deg

set trig functions to degrees -- e.g. deg     [57.29577951]

  rad

set trig functions to radians -- e.g. rad     [0.017453292]

  dd:

set number decimal digits to (0-15) -- e.g. dd:4     [ ]

  se:

set exponent to display scientific notation (0-15) -- e.g. se:4     [ ]

  sr:

set show register assignments (y or n) -- e.g. sr:y     [ ]

comment:

  " "

printing comment -- e.g. "answer is:"     [answer is:]

  [ ]

non-printing comment -- e.g. [debug line]     [ ]

Operator Calculation Order

Group computation order:

First:	sr()   sq()   ln()   log()   int()   pi   sin()   cos()   tan()   asin()   acos()   atan()   if(,,)   deg   rad   <   <=   = =   >=   >
Second:	*   /   ^   %;
Third:	+   -
Last:	=   +=   -=   *=   /=
Not Combined:	dd:   sr:   " "   [ ]

Example:

          a = 10; deg                                          Left to right
          b = 2 * 3 + 5 * sin(a + 30) ^ 2 - 9 * (5 + 7)
              |   |   |     |  \   /    |    |    \  /
              |   |   |     |   40     /     |     12          Compute inside ()'s 1st
              |   |   |      \  /     /      |      |
              |   |   |      0.64    /       |      |          Then things in First
               \ /     \      /     /         \    /
                6        3.21      /            108            Then Second (leftmost)
                 \        \       /             /
                  \         10.33              /               And Second Again
                   \        /                 /
                     16.33                   /                 Then Third (leftmost)
                          \                 /
                                 -91.67                        And Third Again
          Finally the assignment

Example 1:
This example shows the use of arithmetic assignments to registers, and iteration.

    #Powers of 2
    sr:y
    u += 1; v *= 2

Example 2:

This example shows the use of the int() function (i.e. whole number extraction).
Julian Date was defined by astronomers to have a uniform date code independent of the calendar. It makes taking the difference between 2 dates easy. (See note below.)

    #Julian Date
    sr:n; dd:2; se:10
    i=int(z/100); i=2-i+int(i/4)
    int(365.25*z)+int(30.6001*(x+1))+y+1720994.5+i

Note: A Julian Date is defined to start at noon and show the fraction of a day. So to be accurate the day in y should be a day and a fraction. If y was 15.5 then noon on October 15, 1999 is the start of Julian Day 2451467.00
This routine is only accurate for the Gregorian calendar. A modification of this routine must be made for dates before October 15, 1582.

Example 3:

This example is really too complicated but it shows the use of the if(,,) function, and it shows how to encode 3 numbers into 1. It produces the calendar date for an Julian date, and show the fraction of a day to two decimal places.

    #Julian Calendar					Program Comments
    dd:6; se:10; sr:n					2 decimal digits, no scientific notation, no register values
    i=int((z+1-1867216.25)/36524.25);			number of centuries
    i=z+1+i-int(i/4);i=i+1524;				leap days
    j=int((i-122.1)/365.25)				a year value
    m=int(365.25*j); k=int((i-m)/30.6001)
    i=i-m-int(30.60001*k)				day of the month
    m=if(k<13.5,k-1,k-13);				month number
    if(m>2.5,j-4716,j-4715)+(m+i/100)/100		answer dependent on month value

Contact Info

The Bray Palm OS Page can be found at: http://davidbray.org/palm/

Registering

This archive may be freely redistributed, provided it is made available only in its complete, unmodified form with no additional files and for noncommercial purposes only. Any other use must have prior written authorization from David W. Bray at bray@davidbray.org.

Unauthorized commercial use includes, but is not limited to:

• FormulaCalc itself as a product for sale.
• Accompanying a product for sale.
• Accompanying a magazine, book or other publication for sale.
• Distribution with 'Media', 'Copying' or other incidental costs.
• Available for download with access or download fees.

Disclaimer

^*Program Changes in Version 1.1

• Display of numbers can be up to 15 digits instead of 9. (V1.1 Bld:335)
• Display of numbers can be in either fixed or scientific notation. (V1.1 Bld:335)
• Added control function SE: to select the exponent at use scientific notation. (V1.1 Bld:335)
• Added DD: SR: SE: save/restore action so that their values are restored after computing a routine. (V1.1 Bld:335)
• Added "Clear Regs" menu command. (V1.1 Bld:340)

^*MathLib