************************************************************** ** ** ** ___ __ ___ __ ___ ** ** | | | | | | | | | | | ** ** | ___ | | |___ | | | | | | |___ ** ** | | |--| | | |--| | | | | ** ** |___| | | ___| |___ | | |___|___| ___| ** ** ** ** ** ** A program by James Hansen, for the masses. ** ** Protected by the GNU/GPL. ** ** Version 2.6 ** ** ** ************************************************************** Contents: i. The GNU/GPL (short version) ii. Included Files 1. Purpose of Gas Laws 2. Installing Gas Laws 3. Using Gas Laws 4. Removing Gas Laws 5. The History of Gas Laws 6. The Future of Gas Laws 7. Credits 8. Contact information i. The GNU/GPL (short version) This software is protected under the GNU/GPL. This General Public License states that this software is free to distribute, as long as credit is duly given to its original author, and all files are transported together. The GPL is listed in the file gpl.txt ii. Included files Files included with this release are this README, gpl.txt, and the file known as gaslaw.exe 1. Purpose of Gas Laws It was my intention to write a program for Chemistry and Physics students that would allow them to check their work in the area of the laws of the gases. It is not intended to be substituted for the old-fashioned hand-method, but rather as an accurate system to check any work done by hand. The reason that it is not a valid substitute is the fact that it does not keep track of the number of decimal places (it goes out six places, regardless), but will do the mathematics correctly for all eternity. In conclusion, any Chemistry students or Physics students using this program will only be punished in the fact that they do not know how to do the work themselves come test-time ;) 2. Installing Gas Laws Simply make a directory or use any directory you wish. Place this file as well as the file called gaslaw.exe into that directory. The installation is now finished. 3. Using Gas Laws Double-click on the file called gaslaw.exe, you will see the startup screen with a question asking if you wish to continue. Enter a Y. The next screen will present you with a list of choices, each representing one of the four Gas Laws (Boyle's, Charle's, Pascal's, or the Combined Gas Law). After you make your selection, you will be presented with another screen, asking you to choose a premutation of the Gas Law. Once the premutation has been chosen, you will be asked to enter units. Remember that units must match, that is, the problem must have the same pressure units throughout, the same volume units, the same temperature units. In a situation where temperature units are involved, Celsius units will be automatically converted to Kelvins. After that, the program will do quick calculations (in about 10 or 11 nanoseconds), and show you its results on the screen. It will give you a prompt asking if you would like the data placed into one of the four corresponding files. If you say yes, it will either create the file or open it if it exists, and enter the data to the file. These files (boyle.txt, charles.txt, pascal.txt, or combo.txt) will hold the data and are a great way to do a large amount of calculations and use the data as input for a graph (Version 2.5 now creates graphing/table files boyle1.csv, boyle2.csv, charles1.csv, charles2.csv, pascal1.csv, pascal2.csv, combo1.csv, combo2.csv, combo3.csv). The location of these files will be the directory in which the program is located. Whenever you are finished, select an exit option from any of the various screens. 4. Removing Gas Laws To remove Gas Laws, simply delete it, and any files it created, from whichever directory it's in. 5. The History of Gas Laws 8/15/01 Project begun with intent of being a well rounded program. 8/21/01 First version of the project is completed. Full of bugs. Errors in some functions, such as those of Boyle's Law, that cause crashes of the program. 8/30/01 Fatal error in the Boyle's Law functions removed, program runs well to an extent. Version 1.0 is finished. 9/7/01 Work on Version 2.0 begun. Intent is to remove bugs, improve performance, and increase capability. 9/8/01 Solved "catching" problem, where the program would teminate after the succesfull completion of a function. Also intergrated a conversion algorith that would "catch" any Celsius measurement and convert it to Kelvin. Also fixed an error in the function's return by changing the return value. 9/9/01 Version 2.0 completed. Work started on Version 2.1. Menu system modified slightly for looks. Version 2.1 completed and compiled with success. 10/1/01 Version 2.5 completed. CSV file generation working. Now creates 2 CSV files that can be imported to Excel to map the trend of large amounts of data for every law. 10/12/01 TI-89/92+ Versions currently under way. Still learning many of the intricacies of TIGCC, the calculators' native C language. Working on the graphics generation with sprites, which is something new for me. The C++ version is also in progress, and I'm thinking it will be the version that holds constants because of its support of function overloading. I expect the C++ version to be done sometime soon, since I can recycle much of my C code. 10/30/01 Recompiled the C verion of GasLaws to make it smaller and faster. 6. The Future of Gas Laws Plans for Version 3.x will be to convert the program to C++ to enhance capability, to add a windowed mode, and to add a graphing capability. Also I have plans for an installer program, but that is far in the future. Versions in C will still be maintained, but mainly as a command line venture, with a smaller set of capabilities, but with a greater portability. Visual aspects will be added to the C files if I can find a book or class that will teach me Visual C. Versions of the programs will be denoted in this fashion: V3.xC for the C version, V3.xCpp for the C++ version. Also in the works is a version for the Texas Instrumetns calculators, TI-89 and TI-92+, this is a little closer than most of the plans listed above. More current plans will be to integrate an ability to institute a function to allow a constant set of variables to be set to make more specific graph files based on curves and a way to create a function based on data. This may have to wait for later C++ versions. 7. Credits Most of the actual programming was done by myself, James Hansen. But I have to credit the people who gave me insights and ideas, plus the knowledge to do this. Greg Perry - Author of Absolute Beginners Guide to C Richard Heathfield, Lawrence Kirby, et al. - Authors of C Unleashed, a very good book with good concepts on program ability, etc. Howard Kurs - Professor of CSCI 1101-90 at Normandale Community College for giving me tools of logic design to use in the construction of my program. Wayne (Pete) Hansen - For buying my compiler, testing various stages of the program, and lending programmer's insight. Mr. Jay (Tim) Kelly - For teaching me this chemistry mumbo-jumbo in the first place. Mr. Joe Perusich - For getting me started in all this programming stuff with the broken Cisco 2500 series router. 8. Contact information If you find any bugs, or wish to obtain a copy of the source file, I can be contacted at: gateman9@mn.rr.com Just send an e-mail with your request or bug and I will get back to you. I hope you enjoy this version of the program (and any future versions) and use it whenever you aren't quite sure of your work, or just want to cheat :)