Presentations Package Announcement
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg83867] Presentations Package Announcement
- From: "David Park" <djmpark at comcast.net>
- Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 05:43:09 -0500 (EST)
I have now released the Presentations package for Mathematica Version 6. Presentations is a follow-on package for DrawGraphics. It can be obtained at the Mathematica page of my web site below and costs $50. Previous purchasers of DrawGraphics have been sent email notices and may freely upgrade to Presentations. If you are a purchaser who has changed your email address and have not received a notice please contact me with your current address. Presentations is a package designed to facilitate the use of Mathematica in studying standard textbook material, in writing tutorials for students, in research, and in using Mathematica in technical communications. Although it started as basically a graphics package it is now being enlarged to accommodate the many new features of Version 6 and to contain generally useful features that might not specifically be graphics. A 'presentation' is my term for any display of data or information about a scientific or mathematical concept that goes beyond simple text and equations. Some of the features of Presentations are: 1) Rather than treating graphics as a collection of major plot types that are difficult to combine, Presentations treats all graphics including curves and surfaces as graphics primitives that may be easily combined in one drawing statement. 2) Since graphical elements are all treated as primitives they can be easily manipulated and transformed. Routines are provided for that and the new geometric transformation routines of Version 6 have been cast in a form convenient for this use. 3) There is a suite of routines for generating custom ticks and grids, free standing scales, symbolic tick scales, and polar grids to replace the usual Cartesian axes. 4) There are 3D arrows with arrowcones that can be drawn in a number of styles. There are routines for marking angle arcs and right angle indicators on 2D geometrical diagrams. 5) For 2D graphics there are the LocatorDraw and LocatorLine routines that allow the user to temporarily add locators to a graphic, position them, and then copy the positions into a drawing statement. 6) There is provision for Text3D that allows true 3D text that rotates with the image and hides behind surfaces. 7) There is a complete set of routines for complex function graphics. These include primitives such as ComplexPoint, ComplexLine, ComplexText, ComplexCurve etc., that use complex arguments instead of coordinate pairs. In addition there are complex forms of maps, surface plots, contour plots, density plots and domain coloring plots that use a single complex iterator. There is a BranchArg routine that allows the user to set the branch line in the complex plane at any angle. There is a general multifunction with memory capability that calculates all function values and orders them to be continuous with a previous, close-by, evaluation. There is a Riemann sphere routine and a StereographicMap routine. There are information panel primitives for providing numerical information along with dynamic graphics. 8) There is an IndefiniteSequences subpackage that allows the formatting of expressions that contain ellipses to indicate skipped terms or factors in sums, products, tables, free standing sequences and infix expressions. There is the ability to do some operations on the expressions and to convert them to normal Mathematica expressions. 9) The Presentations package is a natural extension of standard Mathematica; it uses the regular Mathematica interface and in no way cuts the user off from any regular Mathematica functions, including the regular graphics functions. 10) Presentations is extensively documented with individual Help pages for each function. In addition there are many extended examples showing practical cases of graphics and extended presentations. There are three essays on 'Writing Notebooks', 'Writing Presentations' and 'Writing Packages' in which I try to give tips on avoiding traps and getting the most productive use from Mathematica. One example, EllipseArea, illustrates a style of writing notebooks that does everything actively and generates embedded knowledge. There is a sample toy package that can be used as a model for users who have never before written packages. There is an included optional style sheet that, to my taste, corrects many of the deficiencies of the WRI style sheets. Currently, the entire package contains 193 files and occupies some 3.5 MB (without the graphics being evaluated) - a true bargain for $50. David Park djmpark at comcast.net <http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark> http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark