Math Mechanixs Changelog

What's new in Math Mechanixs 1.5.0.3

Sep 26, 2011

Minor release which fixes several small bugs and adds a new Math Tools feature that will allow you to easily create Histograms and Pareto charts from manually entered data or from data imported from ASCII Text or CSV files.

New in Math Mechanixs 1.5.0.2 (Jun 4, 2010)

New in Math Mechanixs 1.5.0.1 (Feb 11, 2010)

New in Math Mechanixs 1.4.0.4 (Jul 9, 2009)

New in Math Mechanixs 1.4.0.3 (Feb 14, 2009)

New in Math Mechanixs 1.4.0.2 (Nov 22, 2008)

New in Math Mechanixs 1.4.0.1 (Oct 16, 2008)

A new Curve Fitting Utility has been added to the Math Tools Dialog.
The statistical Gauss Error function ERF and the complimentary Error function have been added to the Statistal Library.
Added the QMEAN (Quadratic Mean) and the RMS (Root Mean Square) Statistical functions to the function library.
The following continuous probability distribution functions have been
added to the function library under a new category called "CONT. DISTRIB UTIONS": BETACDF, BETAPDF, BETAX, CAUCHYCDF, CAUCHYPDF, CAUCHYX, DBLEXPCDF, DBLEXPPDF, DBLEXPX, EXPCDF, EXPPDF, EXPX, GAMMACDF, GAMMAPDF, GAMMAX, LOGISTICCDF, LOGISTICPDF, LOGISTICX, LOGNORMCDF, LOGNORMPDF, LOGNORMX, RAYLEIGHCDF, RAYLEIGHPDF, RAYLEIGHX, UNIFORMCDF, UNIFORMPDF, UNIFORMX, WEIBULLCDF, WEIBULLPDF, WEIBULLX, CHISQCDF, CHISQPDF, CHISQX, FRATIOCDF, FRATIOPDF, FRATIOX, NORMALCDF, NORMALPDF, NORMALX, STUDTCDF, STUDTPDF, STUDTX.
Fixed a problem with the factorial function. The upper limits of the factorial function was not being detected and caught properly. The value of 0 was improperly being returned after the upper limit was reached.
Fixed a bug with the function solver, which occured exclusively on the functions NORMPROB, NORMX and ZSCORE.
Fixed a bug in the variable manager which prevented the dialog from being "seeded" with the startup variable or startup selection under certain circumstances.
Fixed a bug in the quick graph utility which occured when graphing a new function. If a variable was not defined mathematical expression the user would first need to define the variable before graphing the function. After the variable was defined, the function would always be graphed on top of the current and not be given the opportunity to create a new graph.
Modified the Quick Calc and Root Finder Utilities to automatically open Variables Manager Dialog with the undefined variable if it is not already defined such that the utility can not perform it proper function.
Modified the Function Manager Utility so that if a function is "double clicked" it will execute the "insert" function method so that the function will automatically be inserted.
Modified the Graph Window so that a 5% margin is added between the points closest to the edge of the graph and the edge of the graph. This makes viewing the graph easier, especially when the graph is asymptotic to the top of the graph.
Modified the control used for input data point on the Data Points tab of the Grpah Setup dialog to support the right and left arrow button to id in the ease of use and navigation of the control.
Fixed a problem which would not allow any more than 5 digits being placed in the coefficent edit controls for the Polynomial Root Finder. Now, longer series of digits or mathematical expressions can be placed
in any one of the edit controls.
Fixed a problem in the Polynomial Root Finder which would cause evaluation of the Polynomial at the zero value to be computed improperly under circumstances where a mathematical expression was used is the place of the Polynomial coefficients. The problem has been resolved and now mathematical expressions can safely be used in place of each coefficent value.
Modified that Polynomial Root Finder to support finding the roots of Polynomials that contain complex coefficient values. For example, now the roots of expressions like (4.5+i)X^3+(2.5-2i)X^2+(-0.75+0.1i)X+(5.25-i) can easily be found.
Added a new option to Save Data in the Quick Graph Dialog box, now the resulting output can easily be saved into a csv text file format with the click of the button.
Fixed a major crash bug which occured when large datasets are loaded into the Function Solver for functions such as Means and Stddev. If greater than 100 points are used than the application would likely crash
depending on the size of each data value.
Added wait cursors during the computation for the Function Solver, computation of large function can have a significant delay time and require a wait cursor indicating that the software is actually computing.
Fixed an issue with the expression parser if ASCII character 133 or the value '...' is used. Even though this character is NOT a legitimate mathematical character and is likely seldom used, if it was used, it would put the parser into an infinite loop.
Add additional error handling in the Polynomial Root Finder Utility such that if a parser error occurs in any one of the polynomial edit controls the utility will automatically move to and set focus on the appropriate edit control and select the text in the control. This makes it easier for the user to identify the error location without having to hunt for it.
Modified the Function Solver utility so that if a function (such as mean) is used with a list of data values loaded from an external file, and if the data within that file contains more than one column of data, the user is now given the opportunity to select which column of data they would like to read.
Modified the Quick Graph Utility so that a secondary variable could be added to form a family of curves for a given mathematical expression. The the secondary variable must be a function of the expression being graphed.
Fixed a problem which would occur if an equals sign "=" was added to the the name of a label for a data set in a graph. If the .mtx file was saved, the dataset would NOT be reloaded if the file was re-opened.
Fixed a bug which occurred in the graphing. If the graph data area background color is equal to the default line color, the graph would not show up on the background. This was changed so that if the back ground color is equal to the line color, the line color will automatically change to another unique color.
Resolved several problems with both the Function Manager and the Variable Manager to fix problems related to the auto-selection of functions and variables based on double clicking the values in the repective Function and Variable List Windows. The functions and variables were not being auto-selected if there were multiple values using the same initial character or characters but with different case. For example if two variables where defined with values of B and b, and the value of b was doubled clicked in the Variables List window, the value of B would be auto-selected. A similar problem occured in the Function List Window.
Modified the Six Sigma section of the function library by adding the following additional functions: CP, CPL, CPU, CPK, CPM, PP, PPL, PPU, PPK CPDPM, and ZDPM.
Fixed a significant bug which occured when computing or solving functions defined based on a very specific type of format. For example, a function in the form of a polynomial with decimal coefficients could be evaluated
incorrectly.
Modified the Polynomial Root Finder to display redundant zeros at the origin which have not been currently displayed, but is not mathematically correct. Now, all redundant zeros at the orign are not being displayed.
Fixed a potential crash bug in the Function Solver which could possibly occurr when evaluating "List Type Functions" which also include 1 or more parameter such as the NORMX function. The problem would only occur if evaluating the 2nd function prototype which uses a list of numbers combined with the parameters.
Fixed a problem which occured in the Function Solver when evaluating "List Type Functions", if the parameter list was scrolled to a new line, the last visible item in the list would be replaced the first static parameter value.
Fixed a bug which would occur when loading data points from a file (used in several of the utilities such as the curve fitting utility). If the file only contained x values and no y values, the program would hang. Now an error is thrown and the user is warned that the y data point values are missing.
Fixed a bug in the function solver which occured if there was an error during the computation, the wait cursor would persist and not be changed back to the arrow cursor.
Added a new financial function to the library called LBALANCE which returns the loan balance of a fixed payment loan amount.
Made several more adjustments to the data entry dialog used to enter data for the Curve Fitting Utility and made similar changes to the Points Page of the Graph Setup Dialog. Changes made allowed for proper navigation in the datagrid when the Tab and Return buttons are pressed.
Fixed a bug which occurred if there were several graphs defined and if each of the graphs were sequentially deleted until no graphs remained. If the focus was taken from the Graph Window to the Math Editor and back again, the last remaining graph would display rather than nothing at all.
Added a "New Graph" button to the Quick Graph Dialog box. This allows the user to easily define a new graph at any time. The user will still be prompted to decide if they would like to create a new graph if the graph function or variable changes, but this new button gives the user the descression to create a new graph at anytime without being required to modify the function or variables.
Modified the Point page in the Graph Setup Dialog to be more explicit regarding error notification and identification. If there is a problem with a specific data point, the user will be notified and the specific point will become selected to make it more appearant where the problem is. In addition, files that are loaded are screened for errors and the user is notified of these errors when the file is loaded.
Fixed a problem in the Root Finder Utility where the Column Headers were entered twice but not visible because they were entered to the right and required that use scroll to the right to see them.
Fixed an issue with the Polynomial Root Finder, where the current solution would be cleared if the user scrolled thru the polynomial, or in other words, changed the current position of the polynomial.
Fixed a bug in the function solver that occured specifically with the functions WSNORM and RANK. The alpha and value parameters were not showing up properly in the display, only the number list. This has been resolved.
Fixed some issues with the Variables and Functions list windows. If the F11 or F12 buttons were pressed while in the graph window, the Variables and Functions list windows would actually be displayed in the Graph Window. This is an issue because there are several technical details the prevent the proper display of these windows in the graph window, and until these issues are fixed, it is required that these window be prevented from being displayed in the graph window.
Fixed a bug in the Graph Setup Dialog, if the primary variable was not entered, the software would complain that the value X was not a function of the function or expression rather than complaining that the user did not enter any variable at all.
Fixed a problem in the Quick Graph Utility. Added a check to ensure the primary and secondary variables are not the same, if they are, the software will complain.

New in Math Mechanixs 1.3.0.2 (May 3, 2008)

New in Math Mechanixs 1.3.0.1 (Mar 3, 2008)

10/20/07 Resolved a problem with the HTML help system, where all of the help topics associated with the dialog boxes was incorrect and labled with the topic title of "The", which was of coarse incorrect.
10/25/07 Fixed and issue with the Function Manager where functions were auto-matically begin selected during the editing process. This was annoying and made it nearly impossible to change the case of the function parameters for a predefined function.
10/28/07 Modified the parser to allow the ability to change the case of the function parameters for predefined functions. Previously, the function parameter could not be changed after the function definition without defining an entirely new function.
11/01/07 Centered the tip of the day dialog so that the dialog does not show behind calculator when Math Mechanixs starts up.
11/05/07 Added a new utility called "Math Tools" which currently includes two new utilities, Quick Calc and Root Finder. The Quick Calc utility is used `for computing mathematical expressions over a range of values with a specificied number of points and the Root Finder is used to compute the real root for mathematical expressions (i.e. the points where the value of the expression is equal to zero.
11/26/07 Fixed a major bug in the Function Solver Utility. If a mathematical expression is used as a parameter (rather than a number) for a function, the resulting answer could be inaccurate. This would depend on the function that was being evaluated. For example if the function CPOUND were being evaluated with P = 100000, I = .07/12, and N = 12*20 the answer would be correct, however, if the mathematical expression 50000 50000 were substituted for the value of P, then the resultant answer would be incorrect. This is because the CPOUND function is equal to CPOUND[P,I,N]=P(POW[1 I,N]). If parenthesis are not automatically added around the value of P=50000 50000, the value of CPOUND would be computed differently and incorrectly. So, the function solver has been modified to automatically add the parenthesis around each parameter before it is inserted into the function.
12/10/07 Fixed an problem which occured sole in Windows 98 and Windows 95. Since the system users application data directory does not exist in either of these operating system, an alternate directory needed to be used to store application data. The Program Files Common Files directory was chosen as an alternative for these two operating systems.
12/27/07 Fixed a problem with the Calculator. The Calculator should be opened up when Math Mechanixs is first started if the Calculator was opened before the software was last closed. The behavior of this feature was very sporadic and inconsistant. This issue has now been resolved.
12/28/07 Modified the software to remove old obsolete ini files in the Windows and Executable directories. The active location of the ini file is now in the Users Application Directory, if this file does not exist it is copied from either of the old directories before the files are removed.
12/30/07 Fixed a problem related to the way the Precision/Format and Math Options are applied. If either of these options are changed and the "Apply To File In Focus" radio button is selected, the change will ONLY apply to the current file in focus (just as the radio button implies) however, if the "Apply To All Files" radio button is selected, the changes will apply to all of the currently open files, in addition the changes will be written to the configuration file whereby these settings will be automatically applied by default to any new file that is created.
01/13/08 Fixed a problem in the Functions tab of the Graph Setup dialog. The user was allowed to add functions into the Functions to Graph list box even though the functions did not have any common variables (which is a re-quirement for graphing pre-defined functions. In addition, modifications were made to replace the variables with matching values if the functions were selected from the function library.
01/14/08 Modified the default text color for the graph footer to white. The old default value was black and the background color was black also making it appear that there was no footer text. Now the text is visible.
01/15/08 Modified the function manager so that a user is not allowed to define a new function using a name that is already defined in the function library. Creating a new function with a name that is already used would create and internal conflict within the parser.
01/18/08 Fixed a problem with the Labels Tab of the Graph Setup Dialog. If the set default button is pressed, the apply button was not being activated to allow the user to apply the changes.
01/19/08 Fixed a bug in the Variables tab of the Graph Setup Dialog. If the clear z axis button was pressed, the apply button was not being activated to allow the user to apply the changes.
01/19/08 Fixed a problem with the Remove button in the Functions tab of the Graph Setup dialog. The button would not be enabled even after a new function was dragged into the Function to Graph pane of the dialog.
01/19/08 Fixed a problem with the Graphs tab of the Graph Setup dialog. If a graph name was changed, the apply button was not getting activated and the name change was not applied to the default graph name in the display.
01/19/08 If graphing a 3 dimensional graph, and the z axis was cleared while the second variable was held constant, the apply button would not activate. The proper response was to automatically switch to a 2 dimensional graph and prompt the user to set the value of the 2nd variable if it did not already have a value.
01/20/08 The Variables Manager was modified so that if a variable is deleted, the next previous variable is auto selected in the list, similar to the way that the Functions Manager works. This is better than leaving the fields blank after the variables are deleted.
01/21/08 Modified the Variable Manager button so that if the Insert button is pressed, the variable will be inserted into the parent window that spawned the current instance of the Variable Manager.
01/22/08 Modified the Labels tab of the Graph Setup dialog so that the default footer takes into consideration the names of all the functions and datasets in the footer name, previously then default name only include the graphed functions and it didnt include the datasets.
01/23/08 Fixed a problem which occured in all if the Utility Dialogs (i.e. Quick Calc, Calculus, Root Finder, etc). If a function was defined (for example F[x]) if F[x]F[x]... was entered into the Function edit control on anyone of these utilities, the utilities, the utility would "act upon" only a single entry of F[x] rather then the multiplication of F[x] multiple times.
01/23/08 Modified each of the Utility Dialogs to check and see of the Function manager is open before responding to the Cancel button. A message box is now posted asking the user to close the Function Manager if it is open whe the cancel button is pressed.
01/24/08 Modified the Graphs page of the Graph Setup Dialog so that if a graph is selected from the Graph List, it will automatically be displayed in the graph window. This way, the user does not need to press the apply button to display the graph as he/she moves from graph to graph.
01/27/08 Modified the Function Manager so that if a function is Added, Edited or Deleted, the function will automatically be updated in the functions list for each of any open Utility Dialogs.
01/28/08 Fixed a bug which occured when trying to save a read only file. If the Graph Window was in focus during the saving process, and the file was read only, the user would warned that the file was read only and that the file could not be saved, and then the file would be closed and the user would loose all of his data.
01/29/08 Modified the Data Points tab of the Graph Setup dialog to include a new Check Box called 3D Data. This check box will display the z Data Point edit control when checked. By default this check box is NOT checked so that the z Data Point edit control is hidden to inhence simplicity since most of the time 3D graphs will not be constructed from direct data points.
01/30/08 Added small buttons in the upper left hand corner of both the Math Editor and the Graph Page. These buttons allow the user to easily toggle back and forth between the Math Editor and the Graph Window. These buttons are considered a temporary measure until a set of tabbed controls can be integrated into the child windows.
01/30/08 Added a progress bar that show up when a file is saved, this way saving huge files will not trick the user into thinking that the software has become unresponsive.
01/31/08 Fixed a bug which caused the Functions List Window and the Variables List Window to flicker when the Calculator was being used.
01/31/08 Fixed a bug in the Points tab of the Graph Setup Dialog box. If the tab button was used to move thru the respective data points, the first and last buttons where not enabling properly.
02/01/08 Fixed a major crash bug which occured if the user changed focus from one Math Editor to another while a graph was building. This fix required major modifications which resulted in the ability for a user to be able build a graph while computing inside the math editor, building another graph, search for roots, etc. In other words, the program can now multitask to some degree without crashing the program.
02/03/08 If a graph was loaded from a *.g3d or a *.g2d file format, and the user tried to modify the file using the Graph Setup Dialog, the user was not warned that the changes can not be applied to the graph because *.g3d and *.g2d files are in a read-only format.
02/04/08 The default axis and header/footer labeling was not working properly for new graphs. The default labels should be applied until the user explicitly changes any of the labels at which time the labels will be solely controled by the user.
02/06/08 Modified the positioning of all dialog boxs so that when the are opened they do not open exactly on top of one another. The dialog boxes now Cascade on top of one another so that the user does not "loose" any because they are hidden underneath one another.
02/12/08 Resolved a problem with the Function Solver. If an error occured while entering a function parameter, the user could not quit (or close) the Function Solver utility before fixing the problem.
02/14/08 Modified the Math Options Dialog, so that the user can not change the Trigonometric Options while performing computations in another process such as the Calculus utility, Math Tools utility, or while graphing a function.
02/15/08 Modified the function solver so that parenthesis are added around any parameter that includes a mathematical operator (i.e. - / *), but only for non-internal functions that do not have clear prototypes. For example, clearly, POW[2 2,.5 1.5] = 16 does not need parenthesis around the parameters, howerver, in the cased of the function CPOUND: CPOUND[(50 50),(.05/12),12] = (50 50)(POW[1 (.05/12),12]) = 105.1 the parenthesis are certianly required.
02/17/08 Fixed a crash bug which would occur in very rare cases when 2 graphs were created solely from data points and the user would rapidly flip back and for between the two graphs then select the data points tab of the graph setup. The software would crash under some circumstances.
02/23/08 Fixed a problem related to editing a function using the function manager under certain circumatance the change would not be correctly applied and proliferated to each of various utilities and graphs dependent on the function. Now the change is correctly applied to an utility and graph dependent on the function and the associated change.
02/28/08 Fixed an error in the Impledance function. The function was changed from IMPEDENCE[resistance,XL,XC] = SQRT[(resistance*resistance) (XL-XC)] to IMPEDENCE[resistance,XL,XC] = SQRT[(resistance)^2 (XL-XC)^2] which is the correct formula for computing the impedance.

New in Math Mechanixs 1.2.0.1 (Aug 2, 2007)

Added additional statistical functions, BERDEV (bernoulli deviate), BETADEV (beta deviate), BNLDEV (binomial deviate), CAUDEV (cauchy deviate), CHIDEV (chi-squared deviate), DEXPDEV (double exponential deviate), FDEV (F deviate), GAMDEV (gamma deviate), LOGDEV (log deviate), NCHIDEV (non-central chi-squared deviate.
Modified the Math Editor so that if an expression does not compute or if there is a parser error during the computation, the cursor WILL NOT automatically fall to the next line.
Emmensely modified the Calc Bar or (Calculator) to include much more functionality, including all of the trigonometric functions, many statistical functions, plus much more.
Fixed a bug in the statistical function called mode. This function was generating an in exact result because the frequency distribution used to find the mode was not being broken up into small enough intervals or small enough classes. Now, a minimum of 100 intervals are used to build the frequency distribution resulting in a more accurate answer.
Fixed a crash bug caused whenever a problem occurred when loading data from a text file during a function call. For example, if the text file in the function call MODE[{C:MathMechanixsexampledata.txt}] did not exist or if there was a problem in the data, Math Mechanixs would crash.
Modified the Math Editor so that it is more "user friendly". Now you can compute an expression even if there is comment on the same line (i.e. contains the comment charcater //), the comment will be ignored.
Also, you can now compute an expression that has already been computed (i.e. contains an equals sign = with the last computed result). In addition, the cursor is no longer automatically returned to the next line unless the return key is pressed to compute the expression or the equals sign in the calculator is pressed.
Fixed a crash bug that would sporatically occur if a new data set was added in the Points tab of the Graph Setup dialog and then immediately removed before any data points were added.
Fixed a problem which occurred if a new graph was created in the Graphs Page of the Graph Setup Dialog, if the current graph had changed, the user would be prompted to save the changes before adding the new graph. The changes would be saved regardless of the selection by the user.