DETAILS OF THE R-TEK SCRATCHPAD

This text file provides a much more detailed description of
the capabilities of the R-Tek Scratchpad (version 1.08) than
is possible in the descriptive text accompanying the upload.

Minimum System Requirements 
	(it is recommended to exceed these minimums)
	Windows 3.1, 386 processor, 4Mb RAM, 
	4Mb free hard disk space, VGA color, mouse

Keywords
windows, mathematics, statistics, scientific, scratchpad,
calculator, graph, plot, polar, programming, fraction,
mixed number, trigonometry, matrix, linear algebra, finance,
linear programming

What the R-Tek Scratchpad does:
The scratchpad is best thought of as a full-featured printing, 
graphing, scientific scratchpad calculator.  A "scratchpad" 
calculator is a cross between a calculator and a word processor
that allows you to enter and work with mathematical expressions
using booklike expression formatting (ie, the expressions you 
view on screen (or print) look a lot like you would write them
on a sheet of paper, not some cryptic programming command line).

Scratchpad calculations are essentially self documenting, but
you can also add comments to your work, thereby providing an aid
to understanding for someone (perhaps even yourself <g>) who 
examines your solution later. 

The scratchpad has built-in functions to enable you to handle 
a great variety of math problems (see Keywords above). It was
written to provide an ideal environment for undergraduates in
finite mathematics, linear algebra, and statistics courses to
explore the problems in their texts. The key to mastering these
subjects, as in many others, is to work problems - the more the
better. This program can eliminate much of the drudgery of hand
calculations, saving time that can be better spent solving
more problems, as well as document your solutions in a very 
readable format. Students in the natural and social sciences,
indeed in many areas of study other than math and statistics
will also find the scratchpad's built-in capabilities to be
very useful. The advanced high school student wishing to explore
on his own might find an Intro to Finite Math textbook an easier
read than the typical calculus text and at the same time, a very
enjoyable read because of the wide range of topics covered.

The scratchpad has a simple programming language which is not
required for simple calculations in the scratchpad, but does
allow the interested student to learn programming fundamentals.

It has an autosubstitution capability that allows generation of
random example problems.

Besides extensive on-line help, context sensitive help is
provided for quick function reference.

The right mouse button allows quick access to object
characteristics.

The scratchpad comes withs a number of example files that
demonstrate some of its many powerful capabilities. 

In short, the scratchpad has so many powerful features that few
individuals will master them all, but is well worth the small
registration fee (less than most video games) even if you
intend using it for nothing more than simple calculations
involving fractions and mixed numbers.  (Its like having an
advanced scientific calculator where you don't know what all the
buttons are for.  You can still use it effectively on problems
that interest you by using the buttons that you do know!)

What the R-Tek Scratchpad does not do:
Written with the student in mind, the R-Tek Scratchpad is not
suitable for working with systems of equations involving thousands
of variables.  It does not solve equations symbolically,
automatically handle units, draw 3-D graphs, or communicate with
other programs. It can numerically calculate simple integrals and
derivatives, but does not handle differential equations and
advanced calculus.  Users needing these capabilities would be
better served by a package targeting professionals.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

Graphs  - quick & easy, just create, fill in the blanks, 
	  size and run. Multitrace, function or matrix plots
	  (with quick & easy cartesian/polar conversion)
	Cartesian (can be log or log/log)
	Polar

Data Types
	Booleans (logicals)
	Numbers 
		integers (which can be very big)
		rationals(fractions)  
Calculations involving rationals with large integers for numerator
and denominator are "exact" calculations. Besides the obvious 
ability to work with large integers (eg 500 factorial), for some
problems "exact" calculations can eliminate problems associated
with matrix "ill-conditioning", since "exact" inverses are
calculable.
		mixed numbers(whole+fraction)
		reals(decimals)
		imaginaries(multiples of the square root of -1)
		complex (real+imaginary)
	Matrices (vectors)

Programming Commands (not required for simple calculations)
	proc		return			endproc
	if		else			endif
	matloop		endmatloop
	while		endwhile
	break		continue
	comments	endcomments
	autosubblock	endautosubblock
	autosub		endautosub
	show		hide

Predefined Constants
	pi	e	i (j)	true	false	TOL

Greek Alphabet
	type Ctrl+g followed by Roman equivalent, or simply
	click on the Greek letter on the second Toolbar

Numeric (or hot key) Operators
	assignment
	exchange
	+, -, *, /, ^  (remember that the expression rearranges
	     to look like you would write it on a sheet of paper)
	square root
	factorial
	percent
	complex conjugate
	absolute value
	derivative	integral
	iterated sum	iterated product
	permutations	combinations

Logical Operators (these operators also look like you would 
		   write them on a sheet of paper)
	assignment
	and	or	not
	equal to		  not equal to
	less than		  not less than
	greater than		  not greater than
	less than or equal to	  not less than or equal to
	greater than or equal to  not greater than or equal to

Matrix Operators
	assignment
	exchange
	+, -, *, ^ (inverse)
	determinant
	complex conjugate
	transpose
	augment
	matrix element
	row vector extraction
	column vector extraction

Vector Specific Operators
	dot product
	cross product

Numeric Functions
	Numeric Property
		least common multiple
		greatest common divisor
		integer divide
		modulus
		ceiling (next larger integer)
		floor (next smaller integer)
		integer part
		fractional part
		numerator
		denominator
		real part
		imaginary part
		argument (angle in complex plane)	
	Trigonometric Functions
		sin	cos	tan
		sec	csc	cot
		asin	acos	atan
	Hyperbolic Trigonometric Functions
		sinh	cosh	tanh
		sech	csch	coth
		asinh	acosh	atanh
	Logarithms
		ln	log
	Small Primes (less than 100,000,000)
		is small prime
		small prime factorization
		previous small prime
		next small prime
	Random Number Generator
		randomize
		random normal deviate
		random (depending on argument, 
			can return any of the numeric types)
		random exclude functions (exclude zero,
			zero and one, or integers)
	Miscellaneous
		Newton-Ralphson root polishing
		if
		Heaviside Step Function
		Kronecker Delta
		completely antisymmetric tensor (rank 3)
		derivative	integral (hot keys)
		iterated sum	(hot keys, uses standard Greek
		iterated product         sigma or pi notation)

Matrix Functions
	Creation
		zero matrix
		identity matrix
		sub matrix extraction
		sub vector extraction
		display matrix (user fills in matrix elements)
		diagonal (creation or extraction)
		ones vector
	Random Matrix Creation
		random data using normal deviate
		random creation and filling with a numeric type
		random exclude functions (exclude zero, 
		   zero and one, integers, singular matrices, 
		   singular matrices with zero, zero and one, 
		   or integers)
	Matrix Property
		rows		columns
		max		min
		sum		mean
		variance	standard deviation
		trace
	Sorting
		reverse order of rows
		sort vector 
		sort matrix columns depending on
				elements of particular row
		sort matrix rows depending on
				elements of particular column
	Equation Solving Aids
		rank
		minor
		adjoint
		Gauss-Jordan pivot
		echelon form
		echelon transformation matrix
		particular solution	homogeneous solution
		singular value decomposition (multi-function)
		eigenvalues and eigenvectors
		Gram-Schmidt orthonormalization
	Interpolation and Extrapolation		
		linear interpolation
		spline functions (linear, parabolic, and cubic)
		matrix interpolation (using spline results)
		single point interpolation (using spline results)
	Curve Fitting
		slope and intercept
		regression analysis (calculate ANOVA matrix, 
			confidence intervals for beta, 
			confidence intervals for predicted y)

Statistical Functions
	General
		histogram
		permutations  (hot keys, uses common	
		combinations        subscripted P or C notation)
		gamma function
		incomplete gamma function
		natural logarithm of the gamma function
		error function
	ANOVA
		one way ANOVA
		two way ANOVA
		two way ANOVA with interaction
	Rank Statistics
		statistically rank a matrix
		Wilcoxon rank sum
		Mann-Whitney
		sign test
		Wilcoxon signed rank
		Kruskal-Wallis
		number of runs
		Friedman
		Spearman's rank correlation
	Statistical Distributions
	  There are in general three related functions for each
	  distribution provided in the scratchpad. (These
	  functions should eliminate much of the need to search
	  through distribution tables in textbook appendices.)
	  1. Calculates the value of the distribution function at
		a specified x, z, t, etc.
	  2. Calculates the cumulative value of the distribution 
		function up to a specified x, z, t, etc.
	  3. Calculates the particular value of x, z, t, etc. that
		corresponds to a specific cumulative value of the 
		distribution function (eg, 0.95, 0.99, etc.).

	     Distributions provided:
		Binomial
		Geometric
		Hypergeometric
		Exponential
		Normal
		Chi-Square - there are two addition functions in
		  the scratchpad that calculate the chi-square 
		  values of contingency tables
		F
		Poisson
		Student-t
		Kolmogorov-Smirnov

Financial Functions
	Five value problems - many financial problems involve five
	  interdependent variables: present value, future value,
	  number of payment periods, interest per payment period,
	  and the payment amount.  By supplying 4 of these five,
	  this function solves for the fifth.
	Interest on payment range for a five value problem	
	Principal on payment range for a five value problem	
	EFF to APR	APR to EFF
		
Linear Programming
	maximize an objective function subject to constraints
	minimize an objective function subject to constraints

Fast Fourier Transforms
	transform
	inverse transform
		
I tried to show an example of each function's use (although I 
did not often use real world data) so I think you will
find that a careful study of the many example files (perhaps 
coupled with some cut and paste) will provide you with a good
foundation for exploring on your own with the R-Tek Scratchpad.  

Registration Fees (version 1.08)
$15 US - see orderfrm.wri using Windows Write or Wordpad 
		for additional details.

Registered users will receive the current version of the 
R-Tek Scratchpad on a 3.5" HD diskette that will include a key 
file to remove the nuisance registration incentives. The key
file will continue to function with any maintenance updates
to the scratchpad until its next major revision. Registered 
users will also receive a quick reference guide to the
scratchpad (a 36 page booklet).


Thank you for your consideration of the R-Tek Scratchpad!

Walter C. Riley
