Long time no see

We are proud to announce, that ScientificPlotter is facing a huge and continuous download statistics in the Android Market. And we are pushing ScientificPlotter even further:

There are several things going on right now. First we are currently working on a new website for ScientificPlotter, to give you an even better startup with our app. Second, there is a big update rolling out shortly with some new improvements, making ScientificPlotter even more functional and indispensable. 

I can give you a short sneak peak about the new highlights: 

• Arbitrary derivation
• Roots & extrema
• User defined functions and constance
• First steps in writing little scripts by using the unique id of a history item in your input
• ... 

And we are still not finished. There have been big reply and feedback and we are still implementing some of the best suggestions from the community.

 ScientificPlotter will be facing after the final release a revamp in the UI, give us your thoughts about it, what do you wish the UI should look and feel!

Endian Ogino

Common tasks and how to do them with ScientificPlotter

As a user of ScientificPlotter you are getting the full experience of having a multifunctional application in your hand. ScientificPlotter distinguish between a numerical input and a formula in Cartesian-/Polar or Parametric-space.

So let's see what you can do, you can..:

• type in an arbitrary calculation, e.g. 1/ln(5)  and see what you get

each entry in the history consist of its unique id, 
the expression you entered and the appropriate result 

•  type in a function with the variable 'x', e.g. e^sin(x) 

 in this case  ScientificPlotter will assume you want to plot a function in Cartesian-space and

 will plot the function above in respect to the variable x

• type in a function with the variable 'u', e.g sin(5*u)^2

 in this case  ScientificPlotter will assume you want to plot a function in polar-space 

and will plot the function above in respect to the angle 'theta' in the given bounds

•  type in a function with the variable 'u' and in the form [f_1(u);f_2(u)], e.g. [sin(u)*u;cos(u)*u]

in this case  ScientificPlotter will assume you want to plot a function in 
parametric-space this time 'u' plays the role of a parameter not a angle!

In all cases above you are given the possibility to use a free scalable parameter 'k', so this can become very useful. Let us give you a brief introduction:

• What if you want to plot sin(x) but with different frequencies? With our new parameter just type in sin(k*x) and hit the go button and a new pop-up window will show up asking you for three values: the start-value, the stop-value and the step size 

so for instance if start is 1 stop is 3 and step is also 1, 
'k' will go from 1,2 & 3 and you will plot sin(1*x); sin(2*x); sin(3*x)

And of course it is possible to draw several functions together; all you need to do is separate them with a semicolon, like 'function1; function2', e.g. x*sin(x);x;-x

Endian Ogino 

ScientificPlotter - an security overview

Security has become more crucial nowadays and specially on a mobile phone. Because of that, we want justify the permissions ScientificPlotter claims.

As you can see on figure the figure below, that we tried to keep the permissions as few as possible, basically there are only two permissions we need

Storage

This permission came up with a somewhat antiquated idea. Nowadays everything is shared over common ways: email, bluetooth, sms/mms, Picasa and so forth but if you just want to save the plot to your SD Card than this permission allow us to do it. In principle this is only for saving screenshots on your SD Card in a specific folder called ‘ScientificPlotter’.

Network communication

This permission is very important and we use it very dutiful. Well I don’t have to tell you that this permission gives us full Internet access, but what for? We have built in an open-source error reporting framework called ACRA (Application Crash Report for Android). This rather powerful framework is for the case which hopefully never should occur, a bug. When an unexpected error occurred forcing the application to stop, ACRA send a notification to your notification bar, asking you for allowance to send the error report. And because the system is open-source you can convince yourself that it does nothing evil. 

A common error report 
  

The information we send consists of hardware and software information, as there are the manufacturer, the model, the firmware, the Android version, how many memory was available as the error occurred, when does it occurred and the significant stack trace which give us access to the root of the error. 

Advertisement

As you probably noticed ScientificPlotter is ad-supported by the Mobclix ad-exchange service. To ensure that the advertisement banners are provided properly, the Mobclix SDK needs additional three permissions. These three permissions and their description are extracted from the manual:

android.permission.INTERNET	Used to retrieve ads
android.permission.GET_ TASKS	Used to determine if the application is the top app, to prevent ads from loading while the app is in the background.
android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE	Used to obtain a unique device identifier.

Endian Ogino 

ScientificPlotter on the Samsung Galaxy Tab

Hello everyone, I recently got the chance to run my app on a Samsung Galaxy Tab, because this is by far the only tab which got Market access. This was a great chance for me because I had tested ScientificPlotter on a variate of devices but a tablet was still unreachable. To make a long story short, ScientificPlotter managed to cope with the tab. Everything just runs smoothly and nice looking like on a normal mobile device. Here are some pictures I made with my Droid

Endian Ogino

Interview with Robert K.

As mentioned earlier, we have started a new survey about ScientificPlotter. Today we're interviewing Robert K., maker of the Android app Sticky Note Cork&Orc. They have a cool concept that allows you to save your notes easy and well-arranged. A demo of his app can be found on Youtube.

In an interesting conversation with Robert, he was so kind to give us a short interview, let's get into it:

-How do you heard about ScientificPlotter?
*Through the AndroidPIT-Forum

-How often do you use ScientificPlotter?
*As often as I require it, mostly several times per day

-Which kind of input you prefer?
*The calculator buttons.

-How do you like the interaction model in the plot window?
*I had no problems with it so far.

-What feature are you missing?
*At moment I'm pleased with the current set of features. I'm looking forward to any new update though.