FreeForm V1.0

FreeForm is yet another contribution to the still growing zoo of scientific calculators for the Palm. It is designed to be simple, but "complete" and it can be scripted for repetitive tasks.

Proceed directly to:

Introduction
Download and Installation
Using FreeForm
Scripting FreeForm
Scripting Examples
Contacting
Known Bugs

Introduction

As can be seen from the huge number of caluclators for the Palm, a lot of people seem not to be satisfied with the existing choices... Well, the same with me. Over all the years I had gotten used to my old scientific calculator I got in school -- I wanted something like that for the Palm.

This caluclator should run on my old Palm Professional (PalmOS 2), have all the standard scientific functions and maybe even be programmable for these calculations that have to be repeated with only different numbers. So one day I started reading the PalmOS and Code Warrior docs and here it is: "FreeForm", my contribution to the still growing zoo of calculators.

I'll explain the name later on.

Download and Installation

The current version is 1.0, compiled at June 23rd, 2002.

Click here to download FreeForm, a "tgz"ed version is available, too. Unpack and install it in the usual way.

The minimum hardware requirement is a Palm device or compatible with PalmOS version 2.0 or higher.

FreeForm needs "MathLib", so you have to have or install MathLib before trying FreeForm. FreeForm checks for MathLib, but reacts not very gracious if it's missing (that's another ToDo item). Now you are warned.
If you don't have MathLib yet, you can download it for free from http://www.radiks.net/~rhuebner/mathlib.html.

Libraries are supported only for PalmOS 2 and higher, so sorry for you who still have a working Palm 1000 or the like. Floating point math would be too buggy on these machines, anyway.

Using FreeForm

Actually I tried to design FreeForm in a way that you should not need a manual -- at least for the basic functionality. I will not explain how to use a standard scientific calculator, but only mention these features that usually are not possible with hardware buttons:

* Your first impression is probably something like: "scientific calculator? Where's the sine???" Here: some of the buttons activate a popup menu, from which you choose the "hidden" functions:

Through "Sto" (Store), "Rcl" (Recall) and "M+" you have access to 10 memories. "func" is an assortment of functions that are less often used than "+" and "-" and in the "trig" popup ... ? Yes, there's the sine.

* Constants: I included my personal selection of fundamental constants, see the "Pi" button. I followed the standard, i.e., the physicists', conventions for their names.

* Angles: FreeForm can deal with degrees and radians (sorry, I never needed the "new degrees" over the last 15 years...): just point to the "Deg" (or "Rad") text above the buttons to find another popup. "R>D" and "D>R" are functions that convert radians to degrees and back without switching the context.

* Minus: I decided to use three buttons for the various types of "minus signs": "(-)" is used for entering a negative number or exponent, it's simply a character; "-" (next to the "+" button) is the binary minus and "+/-" changes the sign of the displayed number. This is a function, so don't use it to enter a negative number.

* Copy'n'Paste: "Copy" copies (as expected?) the displayed number to the clipboard. "Paste" is a bit more complex. I decided that trying to extract a meaningful number from an arbitrary clipboard text was about as complicated as executing the clipboard. That's the way to "program" FreeForm -- see the next section. The "Exec" button has the same effect as "Paste", they both execute the clipboard.

* Graffiti: You can use stylus input for numbers and the simple, i.e. one-letter, keys like "+" or "=" (equivalent: the "return" stroke)

* Not a difference: results can range between about +/-1e-270 and +/-1e270, but you can enter only exponents with up to two digits. If this is a serious(!) limit for you, then feel free to contact me.

This is about all you need to know to use FreeForm as a calculator.

Scripting FreeForm

The same result as pressing buttons can be acchieved by writing down the labels of these button in a memo, e.g., then copying that text to the clipboard and pasting it into FreeForm. The "Exec" button is a shortcut to the "Paste" menu entry. This is not what I would call "programmable", but it has the same effect. I decided to call it "scriptable".

So the basic procedure is simple: a script can be something like "+3=" for adding three to the displayed value or "x^2 + 25 = sqrt" (square it, add 25 (5^2) and calculate the square root of that sum).

The general rule is that the label of each button ("sqrt", "+/-", ..), or the entries of the popup menues ("asinh", "x^y", etc) are used verbatim and in the order in which you would hit the buttons(!) -- without any quotes, of course. Mostly.

But:
* "(-)" is just written as a minus in front of the number
* "EE" can be replaced by "e", so write 1.234e-5, e.g.
* a line break has the same effect as "="
* Use the entries of the popups, not the label on the respective buttons: "Sto0" is recognized, "Sto" not. Or: what should be the result of "trig"? For the constants only use the name without the units (in the square brackets).

* some keys don't make sense in a script: "DEL", "AC" and "Exec".
* Capitalization is unimportant in a script, the spacing, too. And anything from a "#" up to the end of the line is ignored, i.e., treated as a comment. This is where the name "FreeForm" came from: write down the keys in a virtually free form...

Some keywords only make sense in a script (or call it "program" ;-), that's where it becomes interesting:

* When a script is running, the display itself is not updated. You can force an output by the keyword "show".

* The display is saved at the moment right before the evaluation of a script starts; this value can be restored by the keyword "disp". If the script starts with a number (technically: if the first character of a script one of [0-9.]), an implicite "=" is added before the script, but not in all the other cases.

* Branching: if the display shows (i.e., would show, see above) a non-negative number and the token "if" is encountered, execution jumps by the number of lines, that is saved in Memory 0. Otherwise execution continues right after the "if". So: Store the offset in Mem0, then calculate the condition and only then add "if". Please have a look at the examples.

* unconditioned loops: "goto" jumps by the (rounded) number that is displayed, it does NOT use the value of Mem0. I know that this may be confusing.

When a script is running and you tap the screen you are asked if you want to interrupt the script. Or continue...

Scripting Examples

Copy the complete lines (do this on your Palm!) including the (last) line break, then use paste (Menu) or the "Exec" button to run the script.

# Add 3
+3

# Convert to degrees V1
*180/(2*pi)

# Convert to degrees V2
r>d

# Add up all the integers from 1 to the displayed number
2 +/- sto0 # for jumping back two lines
0 sto1 sto2 # init counter (Mem1) and sum (Mem2)
1 m+1 = rcl1 m+2 # increment counter and add to sum
disp - 1 - rcl1 = # how far did we come already?
if # go back by two lines, if... (Mem0 is -2)
rcl2 # ready, show sum

Contacting and Misc Stuff

FreeForm is free of charge (though I was tempted to ask you for some five bucks... ;-) ), because I could use so much really good free software; but I retain the copyright and I don't intend to make the source public.

You may use and distribute FreeForm freely in it's archived form, i.e. including this readme file and any other additional files. If you want to include it into a compilation of software or put it onto a CD, please ask for my explicite permission.

If you find a bug, have a comment or suggestion, please feel free to contact me at tihamer@mac.com.

If you send me a mail, I can inform you about updates, otherwise you have to check at homepage.mac.com/tihamer/FreeForm.

I did not explicitely denote Trade Marks and the like, but that does not mean that I do not respect them.

Enhancements and Bugs

Added/Fixed 23.6.02

Fixed 14.5.02

Thanks to Apple for hosting this site at "iTools"! -- this site was, of course, "Made with a Mac".

Last update 23.6.02, Tihamer