Subject: Announcing PICT2

From: Roger Hockney <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 12:22:33 +0000

ANNOUNCING PICT2
                         ++++++++++++++++

The prototype Parkbench Interactive Curve Fitting Tool (PICT1) that was
demonstrated at the Southampton meeting of Parkbench in September was
difficult to use on small screens because the image was too large and
could not be reduced in size to suit the users' screen size. Sorry, I
had developed it on my own 1600x1200 display without realising that most
users considered 800x600 as large!

Well the new version PICT2 that is now on my web page allows for the
full range of screen sizes: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, >=1600x1200, and
also allows the user to customise his own display by selecting a font
size and screen width and height. So the new version should be usable by
all -- I hope!   

Another problem at Southampton was that the display workstation was very
old and too slow in MHz to do the job. I use a P133 Pentium and the
graphs lines move around instantly, but if you only have a 20MHz machine
for example the response wil probably be too slow to be useful for real
curve interactive fitting. There is nothing I can do about this except
to suggest that you use the need to use PICT as an excuse (I mean
justification) to upgrade your equipment.

PICT2 still relies on the use of New COMMS1 to compute the least square
2-para fit and the 3-point fit fot the 3-para. The next step will be to
put these features in PICT but that is a fair amount of code to get
right and I thought it best to solve the screen-size problem first. But
remember the key point about PICT is that it allows Interactive manual
fitting and display that is not otherwise available.

To try out PICT2 turn your browser to:

             http://www.minnow.demon.co.uk/pict/source/pict2a.html

and follow the instructions. When you have a good PICT Frame displayed,
press the HELP button for a description of the button actions.

Please report problems, experiences (good and bad), suggestions to me
at:

             [email-masked]

I need feedback in order to improve the tool.  

Best wishes to you all

Roger
-- 
Roger Hockney.  Checkout my new Web page at URL   http://www.minnow.demon.co.uk
University of   and link to my new book: "The Science of Computer Benchmarking"
Westminster UK  suggestions welcome. Know any fish movies or suitable links?