The following summarizes improvements and bug fixes made in version 5.05 of Derive 5 released on 5 December 2001:

Algebra window items:

•        The aspect ratio of an embedded plot object is now maintained when resizing the object with any of the corner sizing handles.

•        When editing an expression object, a hatched pattern surrounds the object until the edit operation is either completed or cancelled.

•        The File > Load > Data file command now accepts the CSV (comma or semi-colon delimited) file format used by Microsoft Excel® and other spreadsheet programs.

•        The Options > Display > Background Color command allows only solid system background colors to be selected.

•        When printing an algebra window worksheet, page breaks no longer occur when Derive encounters an empty text object.

•        The state of the Display Tabs setting is now saved for the next Derive session in the dfw.ini file.

•        Messages on the status bar are now displayed using the "ToolTip" font specified using the Appearance tab of the Display Properties dialog box of the Windows Control Panel.  Expression annotations are still displayed on the status bar using the DfW5 Screen font.

•        After using the Insert expression or Paste command in the expression entry line, if the resulting expression can be totally contained within the line, the expression will scroll to the left so that all the text is visible.

Plot window items:

•        The 2D-plot window now has a Display properties tab dialog box similar to that of the 3D-plot window.  To activate it, issue the Options > Display command or right-click in the plot window and choose Display from the popup menu. 

•        The 2D-plot window dialog boxes now use only solid system colors.  When the Options > Change Plot Colors menu option is checked, visibly unique colors are used for plot lines.

•        Scales greater than 400·π are now allowed in the 2D-plot window.

•        Plots of a disjunction (i.e. the logical OR) of inequalities are now plotted in a single color, rather than a different color for each inequality.

•        If a and b are numbers, 2D-plots of the form a·x = b are plotted as vertical rather than horizontal lines.  

•        When making 2D polar plots of univariate expressions, the variable is always interpreted as the angle from the positive x-axis; unless the variable is r, in which case r is interpreted as the radius from the origin.

•        Printing or previewing the 2D-plot window using a screen resolution greater than 1024×768 no longer results in the "Cannot draw 2D-plot window" message.

•        When a new 2D-plot window is opened by editing an embedded plot object in a non-maximized algebra window, the new plot window will have the same aspect ratio as the embedded plot object.  Note that embedded plot objects are edited by issuing the Edit > Derive Object command or by double clicking on the plot object.

•        The top and bottom of 3D-plots can again be displayed using different colors (this resolves an error introduced in version 5.03 of Derive).

Mathematical items:

•        Several integration and summation rules have been added, including one for definite integrals of expressions of the form 1/(a·x^n+b) for x=0 to infinity, where n is a positive integer and the product a·b is positive.  For example, version 5.05 returns a very compact result when integrating 1/(x^7+1) from x=0 to infinity.

•        The equation solver has been extended to solve some simple equations involving the functions FLOOR and MOD (e.g. try solving FLOOR(x^2)=3 and MOD(2·x + 3, 5) = 4 for x).  Also expressions involving FLOOR are converted to equivalent ones involving MOD, if the latter is more compact.

•        The equality of two vectors or two matrices now simplifies to a conjunction of equalities of their elements (e.g. [a,b]=[c,d] simplifies to a=c ∧ b=d instead of [a=c, b=d] ).

•        In user-defined functions, assignments made to non-local variables (i.e. variables not in the functions formal argument list) are retained upon exit from the function.  This allows Derive programs to permanently set the value of control variables, etc.

•        If u and v are vectors, the inverse of u·v no longer simplifies to u inverse times v inverse, since that transformation is not valid for vectors (e.g. 1/([a,b]·[c.d]) simplifies to 1/(a·c+b·d) ).

•        The algorithm used to determine if algebraic and transcendental numbers are identically zero has been strengthened and made more efficient.

•        The recognizer functions (e.g. INTEGER?, ODD?, PRIME?, etc.) now ignore infinitesimal imaginary parts that can result from previous computations.

•        Given a rational number, the functions STRING and NAME_TO_CODES now use the current notation style (rational or decimal) and number of digits when converting the number to a string.

•        The special functions QUOTIENT, REMAINDER, SOLVE, NSOLVE, SOLUTIONS, and NSOLUTIONS now operate correctly when called from within user-defined functions.

•        The function SUBST now makes serial substitutions for subexpressions, as well as for variables (e.g. SUBST(x·y, y, x, x^2, z) now simplifies to z).

•        Given a fixed payment amount of 0, the function RATE now returns the correct interest rate, instead of 1 plus the interest rate.

•        When using the Author > Function Definition command to retrieve a function definition for editing, the order of factors in products is now prevented from occasionally being permuted.

•        The function APPEND_COLUMNS defined in Vector.mth has been generalized to append any number of matrices, or a vector of matrices.

•        Several new utility file packages are included in the Users directory including ones for tensor algebra and analysis, simplex mini/max method, logistic regression, nonlinear regression, and drawing arrows in the 2D and 3D-plot windows.


Other Revision SummariesRevision_Summary 

Created with the Personal Edition of HelpNDoc: Free help authoring tool