RELEASE NOTES FOR MATHCAD 5.0 AND MATHCAD PLUS 5.0 


These notes provide last minute information on this version
of Mathcad as well as corrections to the documentation.

              CONTENTS:
     1:  Preparing to Install
     2:  Windows Swap File 
     3:  Incompatible DLL dialog - when upgrading from Mathcad 4.0
     4:  Incompatible DLL dialog - when upgrading from Mathcad 3.1
     5:  Compressed Drives
     6:  DOS 21 Error
     7:  What are WIN32S Libraries
     8:  Incompatibilities
     9:  Installation with Program Manager substitutes
    10:  Updates to documentation
    11:  Compatibility with older versions of Mathcad
    12:  Deleting unnecessary files

1: PREPARING TO INSTALL --------------------------------------------------

Before installing:

  1. Make sure that you have at least 15 MB free on your
     hard drive. For Mathcad PLUS, you should have 16 MB 
     free.

  2. Make sure you have disabled any virus checking
     software.

  3  Make sure your system is set up to run Windows 3.1 in
     386 enhanced mode or Windows NT.  The installation script 
     will not run otherwise.

  4. Make sure you have shut down all other applications.

2: WINDOWS SWAP FILE -----------------------------------------------------

If you see a dialog box saying

"WIN32S requires Windows to run with virtual memory enabled.
         Re-install WIN32S"

  1. Open up the Windows Control Panel and double-click on
     the 386 Enhanced icon to bring up a dialog box.

  2. Click on the Virtual Memory button.

  3. Click on the Change button and create a permanent 
     or a temporary swap file. We recommend that the 
     swap file be at least 8 MB.

  4. Close all dialog boxes by clicking OK and restart
     Windows.

WIN32S libraries require that a portion of your hard disk be
set aside for a "swap file." It uses this file to create
"virtual memory."

Since virtual memory makes use of the hard disk, it is
slower than actual RAM. You can improve its performance by
creating a permanent swap file. Such a file makes use of
contiguous blocks on your hard disk.

The size of a permanent swap file is constrained by the
smallest of the following three limits.

  1. The amount of contiguous hard-disk space. You can
     increase this by de-fragmenting your hard disk using any
     of a number of commercially available utilities.

  2. 50% of your free disk space.

  3. Four times the amount of RAM on your system plus 4MB.
     Thus, 3MB RAM allows no more than 3MB*4 + 4MB or 16MB
     of swap file space.

3: INCOMPATIBLE DLL DIALOG BOX -- Upgrading from Mathcad 4.0 --------------

If you have previously installed any of the MathSoft add-ons listed 
below and are upgrading to Mathcad 5.0 (not Mathcad PLUS 5.0) you 
will see a dialog box listing the names of any add-ons having incompatible 
DLL files. Possible add-ons are:

     Signal Processing Function Pack
     Differential Equations Function Pack

When you see the INCOMPATIBLE DLL dialog box, continue the installation
and when the installation is complete follow the instructions below.

All Function Packs require Mathcad PLUS 5.0. They are not designed 
to work with Mathcad 5.0. For additional information on Mathcad PLUS 5.0 
please call MathSoft at 1-800-MATHCAD and ask for Customer Service.

To avoid further error messages, rename the *.DLL files located in the
\WINMCAD\EFI subdirectory  to be *.DXX.  Only rename the *.DDL files
that are listed in the dialog box.  Mathcad will no longer try to load them.

4: INCOMPATIBLE DLL DIALOG BOX -- Upgrading from Mathcad 3.1 --------

If you have previously installed any of the following MathSoft add-ons 
you will see a dialog box listing the incompatible DLL files. These include:

      Signal Processing Function Pack
      Treasury of Statistics, Vol. 1:  Hypothesis Testing 
      Treasury of Statistics, Vol. 2:  Data Analysis 
      Applied Mathcad Quarterly Magazine

When you see the INCOMPATIBLE DLL dialog box, do one of the
following:

If Upgrading to Mathcad 5.0

      Continue the installation and when the installation is complete 
      follow the instructions below.

       Add-ons listed above other than the Signal Processing 
       Function Pack should be re-installed.  When you do so, install 
       them as if you had Mathcad 4.0. If  the installation for the add-on 
       doesn't provide such an option, call Technical Support at 
       1-617-577-1778.

       All Function Packs require Mathcad PLUS 5.0. They are not 
       designed to work with Mathcad 5.0. For additional 
       information on Mathcad PLUS 5.0 please call MathSoft at 
       1-800-MATHCAD and ask for Customer Service.

If Upgrading to Mathcad PLUS 5.0
       Ignore the message and continue the installation.  All Add-ons listed
       above should be re-installed.  When you do so, install them as if you
       had Mathcad 4.0. If the installation for the add-on does not provide
       such an option, call Technical Support at 1-617-577-1778.

If you do not successfully reinstall you may encounter the
error message "Cannot find MCAD.DLL" or "Cannot find
EFIUTIL.DLL." These messages are benign. They merely
indicate that you have an older 16-bit DLL on your system.

To update to a 32-bit file, please call MathSoft Technical
Support at 617-577-1778 between 9:00 and 5:30 Eastern
time. 

5: COMPRESSED DRIVES -----------------------------------------------------

If you're using a disk compressor such as Stacker, we recommend
you create a permanent swap file on your host drive. This will 
significantly improve performance. See section 2 above for 
information on how to create a swap file. Note that a permanent
swap file, unlike a temporary one, can exist only on your host
drive. It cannot be created on your compressed drive.

If you're using DBLSPACE, DOS 6.0's compression utility,
Windows will be able to create a permanent swap file only on
your host drive. If you don't have the space to create a
permanent swap file there, you can still run Mathcad by
creating a temporary swap file on your compressed drive.

6:  DOS 21 ERROR----------------------------------------------------------

If you see a dialog box saying "DOS Error = 21" when starting up Mathcad
or Mathcad PLUS, do the following:

1.  Exit to DOS and execute the file - "_mcad.bat" found in your
WINDOWS\SYSTEM subdirectory.  If this file does not exist, call
MathSoft Technical Support at 617-577-1778.

2.  Restart Windows.  You should be able to run Mathcad now.

These steps will correctly give Windows access to the version of 
the WIN 32S libraries shipped with Mathcad 5.0.  These files are needed to 
run Mathcad 5.0 or Mathcad PLUS 5.0 successfully.

7: WHAT ARE WIN32S LIBRARIES -----------------------------------------------

The Mathcad installation script automatically installs
Microsoft's WIN32S libraries. These Microsoft libraries
permit Mathcad to use a limited subset of Windows-NT
features. The 32-bit data path made available through the
WIN32S libraries makes Mathcad run significantly faster.

Once installation is complete, you'll find the WIN32S
libraries in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WIN32S directory.

8: INCOMPATIBILITIES -------------------------------------------------------

Shareware
  Certain shareware memory monitoring software may be
  incompatible with Mathcad. If you are running such software
  and experience unexplained crashes, try disabling any memory
  monitoring software you have running.

Anti-virus software
  Most anti-virus software will interfere with the
  installation program. Be sure to disable any such software
  before installing Mathcad. You can re-enable anti-virus
  software after Mathcad is installed.

Math coprocessors
  If you get obviously inappropriate error messages when
  running Mathcad, for example an "illegal range" pointing to
  a simple range variable assignment, you may have an
  incompatible coprocessor.

  Some older 80387 coprocessors made by IIT have this
  property. If you have an IIT coprocessor, call IIT customer
  support at 800-832-0770 to inquire about a replacement.

  Some older computers are equipped with an 80287 coprocessor
  and an 80386 CPU. Although fundamentally incompatible, this
  combination works for many software packages. However,
  because of its extensive use of the coprocessor, Mathcad
  tends to expose even minor incompatibilities in this
  configuration.

Printers
  If you can't choose Print from the File menu and you have an
  HP-Deskjet 500C printer you may need to upgrade your printer
  driver to version 3.0 or later. To do so, call HP at 208-
  323-2551.

Print Spoolers
  The print spooler WINJET comes with a file WINSPOOL.DRV.
  This is incompatible with the WIN32S file having the same
  name. When you attempt to install Mathcad with WINJET
  installed, the installation program quits about halfway
  through the process.

  To circumvent this problem, do the following:

  1. Comment out the following lines in the [386enh]
     section of your SYSTEM.INI file by preceding each 
     line with a semicolon.
       DEVICE: = LMHERALD.386
       DEVICE: = LMMI.386
       DEVICE: = LMCAP.386

  2. Reboot the computer.

  3. Install Mathcad.

  4. Uncomment the above lines by removing the semicolons
     you placed in the SYSTEM.INI. file.

  5. Reboot the computer.

9: INSTALLATION WITH PROGRAM MANAGER SUBSTITUTES ---------------------------

Norton Desktop
   If you see an error message saying "Can't open group" you
   should:

      1. Open File Manager and locate "MATHSOF0.GRP." This
      is usually in your \WINDOWS subdirectory.

      2. Drag this file from the File Manager to your desktop.

PC Tools
    You may find that icons for the tutorial and for the Electronic
    Books are missing from the MathSoft Apps group. To add these 
    icons manually:

       1. Choose New File from the File menu.

       2. In the text box next to "Command Line" type the 
       appropriate filename from the list below:

          TUTORIAL\TUTORIAL.EXE for the Tutorial
          HANDBOOK\DESKREF.HBK  for the Desktop Reference
          HANDBOOK\SAMPLER.HBK  for the Book Sampler

       These will generally be in the \WINMCAD directory. Click
       on the Browse button if necessary to help you find them.

     3. To add the appropriate icons, click the Icon button and
        open HANDBOOK\EBOOK.ICO.

    For more information, contact Central Point Software directly at
    503-645-6111.

10: UPDATES TO DOCUMENTATION ---------------------------------------------

     AUTOSCALE ON POLAR PLOTS
     The autoscale feature is not available for polar plots.
     When you leave a placeholder on the radial axis blank, Mathcad
     will always set it to the nearest major tick mark which 
     allows all the data to appear on the polar plot.
     
     LOG SCALE ON POLAR PLOTS
     When the radius of a polar plot is negative, Mathcad creates the
     plot using the absolute value of the radius.

     ZOOM FEATURE FOR POLAR PLOTS
     The zoom feature is not available for polar and x-y plots that are
     log scaled.

     GENINV FUNCTION IN MATHCAD PLUS 5.0
     The generalized inverse function, geninv(A), uses the built-in 
     Mathcad variable TOL when calculating the generalized inverse
     of matrix A.  To increase the accuracy of the geninv function, 
     lower the value for TOL.  After changing the value of TOL, 
     recalculate by clicking on the geninv function and pressing [F9].
     
     CHOLESKY FUNCTION IN MATHCAD PLUS 5.0
     The Cholesky function, cholesky(M), for matrix decomposition
     uses the upper triangular matrix of matrix M, rather than the lower
     triangular matrix.  The documentation states that the matrix M 
     must be positive definite.  However, it is the symmetric matrix 
     formed by reflecting the upper triangle of matrix M about the 
     diagonal which must be positive definite.

     NEW FEATURES SECTION IN USER'S GUIDE
     The new features section discussing additional features to Mathcad's
      dimensional analysis has an error.  There are no additional units
      added either to Mathcad 5.0 or Mathcad PLUS 5.0.

11: COMPATIBILITY WITH OLDER VERSIONS OF MATHCAD ---------------------------

     TITLES ON GRAPHICS
     When this version of Mathcad opens a document created
     by an older version, any graphics region in that document
     will have "Show titles" disabled. When adding a title to
     one of these graphics regions, make sure "Show titles" is
     enabled. 

     DISPLAYING MATRICES
     If you load a document created in an earlier version of 
     Mathcad into Mathcad 5.0 or Mathcad PLUS 5.0, any matrices 
     in the document will be displayed as matrices, rather than as 
     scrolling output tables. To display a matrix as a scrolling output 
     table, select the matrix and choose Numerical Format from the 
     Math menu. Click in the box beside Display as Matrix to turn 
     the option off. Then click OK.

12:  DELETING UNNECESSARY FILES ------------------------------------------

If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Mathcad, some
unnecessary files may remain in the \WINMCAD directory. These
files will not affect the operation of Mathcad.

However, if you need to free up disk space for any reason, you
can delete the following directories from the
\WINMCAD\HANDBOOK directory:

     GETSTART
     STANDARD
     TUTORIAL
     SAMPLE

You can also delete the following files located in the
\WINMCAD\HANDBOOK directory:

     GETSTART.HBK
     STANDARD.HBK
     TUTORIAL.HBK
     SAMPLE.HBK
 
You should no longer need these files or the contents of these
directories. They are updated in new directories when you
install Mathcad 5.0 or Mathcad PLUS 5.0.

