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 - a user guide

It's release day! Earlier this day we release ScientificPlotter on the Android market and we gathered our first downloads. Since ScientificPlotter is release in the beta state, there are still a lot of work to be done, and hopefully with your support.

Now we would like to start with a series of posts about how to work with ScientificPlotter and how to get the most and best for you interest. But at first let us cover how to interact with the plot window:

The plot window overall consists of three axis (one x axis and two y axis), a label and a legend which are independent configurable. We implemented several touch gestures you can use to interact either with the window or with a single axis (except the long press gesture). The gestures and their functions are listed below: 

• Touche Move



When a finger is placed on the screen and then moved, you drag the plot resp the axis in this particular direction

•   Long Press

Holding your finger for several seconds on the area around the legend you can hide resp. show the legend

•  Single Tab

By single tabbing on the plot or an axis you zoom out all axis or only the desired one

•  Double Tab

By single tabbing on the plot or an axis you zoom in all axis or only the desired one

•  Pinch Zoom

Pinch zooming gives you a more comfortable way of zooming in or out the plot or a single axis

 

• DPad resp Trackball 

Last but not least, we make use of the dpad resp. trackball if available.  Those you can use to move the plot very precisely, by moving in the relative direction

 As you can see we tried to give you the full accessibility to our plot, so you can decide what you see and how you want to see it.

 We gratefully acknowledge the acceptance of gestureworks for using their gesture images.

Video tutorial #1 for ScientificPlotter

We manage to tape a video tutorial, which describes handling of the app. We worked hard to make the interaction as simple as possible you can convince yourself by watching the video

ScientificPlotter - A new experience of science in your pocket

You are an enthusiastic natural scientist, have fun in the world of mathematics or just need a good and enhanced calculator? Then we have the right app for you.

We are proud to present you and the world “ScientficPlotter – A new experience of science in your pocket”.

But what is ScientficPlotter and what can you do with it?

ScientficPlotter is a mobile application which was developed by a small group of physicist and a biotechnologist and tries to fulfill its purpose in the daily life of natural scientists. It was born from the need to have a handy possibility of displaying a mathematic formula. As the project advanced it soon became clear that ScientficPlotter turned into more than a simple plotter. 

We are proudly looking forward to the 01.11.2010, the release date of ScientificPlotter.

For those who are impatient we would like to release the present feature list, ScientificPlotter will be release in a beta state so if you are missing something don't hesitate and post it, it has great chance to be in the final version.

Features of ScientificPlotter
• calculator both standard and scientific mode
• all in real and imaginary space
• plot functions either Cartesian, polar or parametric
• free parameter with arbitrary usage
• two input modes regular/calculator
• native keyboard & automatic suggestions in regular input mode
• linear or logarithmic scale
• two y-axis
• calculate the Taylor-series of a function
• draw derivatives
• estimate the value of the function at a spot by just moving your finger over it
• change nearly every attribute of a plot
• and many more…