PRISM version 1.0 (March 1996)
==============================

Author: M.A. Karolewski 
e-mail: karolewski@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg (good for 1996 only)

Copyright: The author retains copyright of the PRISM package,
but permits users to reproduce it as they see fit.

What it does: 

PRISM is a data-processing DOS program for those involved
with spectroscopy, graphs, time-series etc. It also includes
features specific to secondary ion mass spectra. PRISM's
companion program, MDIPLOT, is a no-frills Windows 3.1 utility for
plotting hard copies of data saved from PRISM.

The best way to get a feel for PRISM's functionality is to
position the menu bar over the item of interest, then hit the
F1 key for contextual Help. Suffice it to say that you can
use PRISM to smooth, filter, differentiate or integrate a single
graph/spectrum, or carry out arithmetic operations involving
two graphs/spectra. If you are a mass spectroscopist, you can
use PRISM to simulate/fit your experimental data. (If you are
not, you can simplify your menu by loading the NO-MASS desktop
file in the EXAMPLES\DSK directory.)

The examples directory contains sample data files (.DAT), compressed
('frozen') data files (~*.DAT) (configuration files (.CFG) and desktop 
files (.DSK).  You can read the sample data files into prism
immediately.

Help documentation: PRISM comes with a context-senstive, on-line
Help system, which is accessed by pressing the F1 key. To get
a text version of the help document, you should open a help 
screen (F1 key, then optionally, F5 key to zoom it); then hit
Alt-W to write the ENTIRE help system to disk as a file HELPTEXT.TXT.
You can then load the latter into your word processor for
printing.

Installation: You should receive the PRISM package as a compressed
file (prism10.zip). Uncompress it using the command: 
   pkunzip -d prism10
(which recreates the directory structure). You can optionally add
the path \prism to your autoexec.bat file.

Start-up: Start PRISM from the directory containing your data files
by the command prism or (\prism\prism if you didn't modify your
autoexec.bat file). Use the Data|Read option to load a .DAT data
file, then hit F2 to view it (or choose a menu option to process
the data).

The author will endeavour to respond to queries put to him by
users of PRISM.
