Asymptote 1.0 Press Release
Brains Software Announces Asymptote(TM) Version 1.0 for the Macintosh;
Scientific and Engineering Graphs Made Easier
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico - June 22,1994 - Brains Software today
announced the release of Asymptote, a Macintosh graph-processor(TM)
designed to produce true publication-quality graphs for scientists and
engineers. Asymptote version 1.0 for the Macintosh features a
powerful scripting language that is flexible and easy to use.
The design goal for Asymptote version 1.0 was to give scientists and
engineers the tools they needed to produce sophisticated and highly
customized graphs. "We spent a great deal of time researching the
kinds of graphs scientists and engineers need to make," said Margaret
Tivnan, Director of Marketing at Brains Software. "With Asymptote
1.0, users can control the finest details of their graphs." Asymptote's
programmable scripts make it easy to automate the graph-making
process. Users can write scripts to run unattended in the background,
or they can write interactive scripts that prompt them for input.
Asymptote 1.0 is a fully What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG)
Macintosh application, so users can view their graphs on screen
(through multiple levels of zoom) exactly as they appear when printed.
Asymptote is System 7 savvy and supports Publish and Subscribe and
QuickTime. With Publish and Subscribe, users can make changes to data
in a Microsoft Excel worksheet while Asymptote automatically plots
their new data in the background. Asymptote can also be controlled
remotely by any Macintosh on a network. With QuickTime, Asymptote
1.0 users can create a slide show presentation of their graphs or
animate a sequence of graphs to make a movie.
Asymptote 1.0 has a powerful vector calculator that can calculate
statistics and manipulate data before plotting. Users can fit
polynomials, interpolate with a spline or smooth data with a fast
Fourier transform. For the greatest number-crunching performance,
Asymptote exploits the power of Macintosh computers with a math co-
processor. Asymptote can plot any number of points, and its powerful
text editors can open data files of any size (limited only by available
memory). Asymptote's text editors also include sophisticated features
such as GREP.
Asymptote 1.0 for the Macintosh has the following features:
* Create scientific and engineering graphs
-- Log-log, log-linear, linear-log
-- Multiple x or y axes
-- Plot points, lines, arrows, polygons, histograms or labels
-- Plot as many points as you have memory in your Macintosh
-- Plot error bars or upper/lower limit arrows at each point
-- Error bars or arrows can be different in all four directions
-- Plot log errors on log-log graphs
-- Plot as many graphs as you can fit on a page
-- Stack graphs in columns, rows or panes
-- Read point symbols from a file or calculate them
-- Draw grid lines
-- Shade under curves or histograms
-- Draw axes ticks and tick labels inside or outside graph
-- Use decimal, scientific, hours-min-sec, or deg-min-sec notation
-- Specify number of significant digits to display
* Control fine details of scientific and engineering graphs
-- Sensible defaults with everything under your control
-- Adjust the sizes of point symbols, labels, and tick marks
-- Fill points with patterns
-- Rotate points and labels through any angle
-- Specify dash patterns (up to 6 on-off segments)
-- Draw true dashed lines that follow a curve
-- Use color anywhere on your graph
-- Control the line thickness (hair-line and larger) anywhere
-- Add labels anywhere; draw arrows from labels to points
-- Set tick mark spacing and tick mark notation
-- Draw axes with or without tick marks or tick labels
* Read data from ordinary text files
-- Read 1-D data directly from ASCII text files
-- Skip any number of header or footer lines
-- Read from rows or columns
-- Read the errors, symbols and labels for each point
* Edit data and scripts with advanced editors
-- Fully featured text editors with undo
-- File size limited only by memory
-- Up to 32 files open at one time
-- Configure font, font size and tab width
-- Auto indent, auto scroll
-- Fast Search and Replace in multiple files
-- GREP for sophisticated Search and Replace
* Manipulate data or calculate functions to plot
-- Simultaneously operate on all the elements of 1-D arrays
-- RPN (HP) style notation
-- Highest possible precision (96 bits)
-- Trigonometric functions: sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan
-- Mathematical: y^x, 10^x, e^x, sqrt, log, ln, factorial
-- Other : hms, frac, int, abs, rand and more
-- Uses math co-processor (if your Macintosh has one)
-- Specify stack depth, length of vectors and number of registers
* Analyze data
-- Select point symbols based on the results of a calculation
-- Smooth with an FFT
-- Interpolate with a spline
-- Fit up to a 9th order polynomial with errors
-- Bin data to make histograms (frequency distributions)
-- Sort data before plotting
-- Calculate basic statistics (max, min, mean, std.dev., sum)
-- Display statistics on your graphs
* Preview graphs on screen
-- Graphs on screen look exactly as they do when printed
-- Examine the finest details with multiple levels of zoom (x32)
-- Full screen mode for presentations; set background color
-- Read values from the graph with cross-hair cursor
* Produce camera-ready hard copy
-- True publication-quality graphs on high-resolution printers
-- Save your graphs in high-resolution PICT files
-- Create PostScript, and EPS files with LaserWriter 8 driver
* Automate graph-making with scripts
-- Perform repetitive plotting tasks automatically
-- Scripts can run completely unattended in the background
-- Create interactive scripts that prompt users for input
-- Automatically search for files to open
-- Control execution with for, while, if-then-else commands
-- Pass arguments to scripts or macros
* Share data automatically with other applications
-- System 7 savvy, AppleEvent aware
-- Subscribe to data published by other applications
-- Graphs update automatically when you make changes
-- Publish your graphs for use in other applications
-- Control Asymptote from any Macintosh on your network
* Create QuickTime movies
-- Make a movie of a sequence of graphs or create a slide-show
presentation
-- Control movie speed, image size and bit depth
-- Color, gray scale or black & white
-- Loop and play movies forwards and backwards
* On-line, context-sensitive help system
-- On-line help answers your questions quickly
-- Lots of practical examples
-- Personalize the on-line help with your own comments
* Extensive User's Guide
-- Tutorial, helpful hints and lots of examples
-- Reference section and fully cross-referenced index
System Requirements
Asymptote 1.0 requires a Macintosh running System 6 or later, with a
minimum of 1 MB RAM and a hard disk. System 7, 4MB RAM, a math co-
processor, QuickTime, LaserWriter driver version 8 or later and a color
monitor are recommended.
Pricing and Availability
Asymptote 1.0 for the Macintosh is being offered at $295 ($199 Student
Price*) and is available immediately from Brains Software.
-- Volume discounts and multi-user versions are available.
-- 30 day money-back guarantee
-- Unlimited e-mail, fax or phone support
-- VISA and MasterCard accepted
*Must include a photocopy of a valid student ID and
department affiliation with order.
All prices listed are in U.S. dollars.
Shipping & Handling:
Cont. US: $5 (Ground), $9 (2-Day), $20 (Overnight) -- via UPS
HI & AK: $15 (2-Day) $27 (Overnight) -- via UPS
Foreign: $33 except Canada: $7, Mexico: $9 -- via US Mail
New Mexico residents:
Please add 5.8125% tax
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BRAINS Software
Internet: brains at world.std.com
AppleLink: BRAINS
9445 Bent Rd. NE
Albuquerque, New Mexico
USA 87109
Phone/Fax: (505) 828-9055
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Asymptote, graph-processor and the Brains logo are trademarks of
Brains Software. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
