Copyright: Copyright © 1995 Neil J. Rubenking
Citation: Copyright © 1995 Neil J. Rubenking


Contents
 TAPECALC Help Contents

Overview

For help with a particular portion of the calculator, click on the image above.

Mouse Operation

Keyboard Operation

Menu choices

File Menu

Edit Menu

View Menu

Help Menu


Overview

Want to see a live dinosaur? Just launch the Windows Calculator accessory (CALC.EXE). It’s a refugee from the early days of Windows - certainly not up to the standards of Windows 3.1 applications. Its buttons aren’t even true buttons; they’re just painted on. The keyboard equivalents for those buttons are neither memorable nor consistent. And worst of all, it doesn’t provide any way for you to enter a series of figures and then go back and check your work.

TapeCalc is a Windows calculator for the modern world. Its buttons depress visibly when you click them with the mouse, and provide visual feedback by also depressing visibly when you press the corresponding keyboard key. It maps most operations to function keys, rather than the mish-mash of alphabetic keys, punctuation, and control keys used by CALC. And the results of your calculations are stored on a "tape", so if the answer doesn’t look right you can double-check your input.

If you want to perform XOR operations on hexadecimal numbers or take the hyperbolic sine of pi, stick with CALC.EXE’s Scientific mode. TapeCalc is meant for real-world tasks like balancing a checkbook. Set it to display results in fixed-point mode with two decimals, then start adding deposits and subtracting checks and withdrawals. Double-check your result by comparing the numbers on the tape with the numbers in your checkbook

TapeCalc isn’t very different from a common four-function calculator. You enter numbers by clicking on the number buttons or pressing the number keys on the keyboard. Typed the wrong digit? Press the backspace button (the one with the left arrow) or the backspace key on the keyboard. Enter an operator (plus, minus, times, divide, or power), enter another number, and press equals to get the answer. Simple! Each element of your calculation becomes a line on the tape. By default, the tape holds 255 lines, but you can set its length anywhere from 40 to 1,000 lines. When the tape fills up, the oldest lines simply disappear.

You can use TAPECALC with the mouse or with the keyboard. When you press keyboard keys, you'll notice that the corresponding button on the screen depresses visibly, giving you feedback that you've pressed the right key.  Also, when you press one of the five math operator buttons, it lights up to let you know which operator is pending.  If you hit plus when you meant times, no problem!  Just press the right button and watch the highlight change.

For help with a particular button or type of button, click the button with the mouse and then press F1. Or simply look up the button type by name in this help system.


Mouse Operation

Click on the buttons with the mouse to use the calculator. For help with a particular button, click on the button and then press F1. Or, if you prefer, jump to the Contents page of this help system and click on the image of the button.

Click on the NumLock button to turn NumLock on and off.

Click the large up-arrow next to BackSpace to advance the tape.


Keyboard Operation

Every button on the calculator corresponds to at least one keyboard key. You can use TAPECALC entirely from the keyboard. The key set is similar to that used by the Windows calculator, but all of the operators are mapped to function keys.

BUTTON	KEY
digits 0 to 9	0 to 9
decimal point	period or comma
functions + - * / ^	+ - * / ^
percent	%
equal	= or Enter
reverse sign (+/-)	F2
square root (√)	F3
reciprocal (1/X)	F4
memory clear (MC)	F5
memory recall (MR)	F6
memory store (MS)	F7
memory plus (M+)	F8
clear all (C)	Esc
clear entry (CE)	Del
backspace (←) advance tape (↑)	BackSpace F9


TAPECALC.INI

TapeCalc's INI file has three sections called [Options], [Position], and [Font].

The [Options] section stores the values of the three options that you can set in the Paste Options dialog, along with the fixed/floating point mode and the state of the Tape Visible menu choice. A typical [Options] section might look like this:

[Options]

TapeLength=60	The tape holds 60 lines

PasteAddWhere=2	When pasting from the clipboard, insert an operator at the end of each line

PasteAddWhat=0	When pasting from the clipboard, insert the + operator

TapeVisible=-1	The tape is visible

FixedFloat=1	Fixed - 2 decimals mode

The [Position] section simply stores the top and left corner coordinates of the main window and the options dialog.

The [Font] section stores the name and size of the selected font, along with whether or not the font is bold, italic, or both.


File Menu

New tape	Clears the tape. Press Ctrl+N for a shortcut.

Save Tape	Saves contents of tape to a file. If two or more rows are highlighted, it saves only highlighted rows. If no file name has been selected, it has same effect as next choice.

Save Tape As...	Prompts for a filename (default extension .TAP) and saves tape contents to file.

Exit	Exits program.

Note that numbers in saved tape will not be right-aligned, and will be separated by a single tab from the operator that follows.


Tape Visible

Check or un-check this menu item to show or hide the tape. TAPECALC maintains the tape even when it is hidden. The state of this option is saved in TAPECALC.INI and reused next time you start TAPECALC.


Help Menu

Contents	Jumps to contents page of help

Search for Help On	Jumps into help system's search dialog

Help On Help	Standard help on how to use help

About TapeCalc	Copyright and publication information


Copy

If two or more lines of the tape are highlighted, choosing this item (or pressing Ctrl+C) copies the highlighted lines to the clipboard. Otherwise, it copies the entire tape to the clipboard. In either case, it omits any blank lines at the beginning of the highlighted area. If only blank lines are highlighted, it leaves the clipboard unchanged.

To copy only the contents of the display window, press Ctrl+R or select Copy Result.


Paste

Paste numbers from the clipboard into TapeCalc. TapeCalc accepts the digits, decimal, binary operators, percent, and equal. Treatment of other characters depends on how you set paste options.


Options
Paste Options

Select Paste to paste the contents of the clipboard into TapeCalc. TapeCalc accepts only the digit characters, decimal point, binary operators, percent, and equal. Just how it deals with the characters it does not accept is controlled by options you set in the Options dialog

Add Where

If No additions is selected, other characters are completely ignored. For example, pasting the string "2 apples 2 + 3 oranges 3 = fruit salad" will simply calculate 22 plus 33.

If Add after each Number is selected, all rejected characters except the comma are replaced by the operator specified in the Add What group. For example, if the + sign is selected and you paste "2 3 4" into TAPECALC, it will calculate the sum of 2, 3, and 4.

If Add after each line is selected, all rejected characters are ignored except for the carriage return character, which is replaced by the selected operator. This can be useful when adding up a column of figures copied from a word processing program, for example.

Add What

You’ll notice that only the four basic operatiors +, -, *, and / are available to be automatically added between numbers or at the end of the line. It just doesn’t make sense to paste in a series of numbers using each as a power!

Tape Length

When TAPECALC's tape "fills up", the oldest lines just disappear. The default tape length is 255 lines, but you can set it anywhere from 40 to 1000 lines. The box in which you enter the value accepts only numeric input, and values outside the range from 40 to 1000 will simply be adjusted to fit in that range.

All of these values are stored in TAPECALC.INI and reused next time you start the program.


Tape Font

If the numbers on the tape are difficult to read or just unpleasing to your eye, select a new font. TAPECALC attempts to adjust the format of its numbers so they will fit into the tape's width using the selected font. However, the format of numbers already present on the tape will not be changed. Thus if you switch to a larger font, some numbers already on the tape may be cut off at the left.

You can select a font from 6 points to 20 points in size. The selected font information will be saved in TAPECALC.INI and reused next time you run TAPECALC.


Fixed/Floating Point

TAPECALC keeps track of numbers internally with the greatest accuracy it can manage. However, you may not need to see a dozen decimal places, and may in fact find too much detail distracting. Options on TapeCalc's View menu let you choose between floating point and two fixed point representations.

Floating Point	Numbers are displayed with as many decimal places as needed. For example, press 7, then 1/X, and you will see 0.142857142857143.  (If you have selected a particularly large font, you may not see as many digits as shown here)

Fixed - 2 decimals	Numbers are displayed with exactly two decimal places. This mode is convenient for calculations involving currency. Press 7, then 1/X, and you will see 0.14. However, if you press 1/X again you'll get back the original 7 - TAPECALC is merely rounding off the number it displays.

Fixed - 4 decimals	Numbers are displayed with exactly four decimal places.

In the fixed-point modes, if the number becomes too wide for the tape it will be converted to scientific notation. In floating-point mode, if the portion of the number to the left of the decimal becomes too wide for the tape, it will be converted to scientific notation.  TAPECALC will store your choice in TAPECALC.INI and reuse it next time you start the program.


Number Buttons

Use the ten digits and the decimal point just as you would on a pocket calculator.


Memory Buttons

The four memory buttons are used to store partial totals. When something is stored in memory, TapeCalc displays a large yellow M just above the memory buttons

MC	Clears memory

MR	Recalls contents of memory.

MS	Stores current number in memory

M+	Adds current number to memory. (To subtract from memory, press ± and then M+)

For example, to calculate (2*3) + (4*5) + (6*7):

Press 2 * 3 =, then MS

Press 4 * 5 =, then M+

Press 6 * 7 =, then M+

Press MR

Note that M+ and MS use the number in the display window - they do not complete any pending calculation. If you want to store the result of a calculation, be sure to press equal before pressing M+ or MS.

The behavior of TapeCalc’s MS and M+ buttons is slightly different from that found in CALC.EXE. In CALC.EXE, once you press MS or M+, the number you’re entering is frozen, and typing another digit or backspace will wipe it out and start a new number. In TapeCalc, if you press MS or M+ while entering a number, you can continue entering. For example, if you type 12345679, MS, backspace, 8, the display will show 12345678.


Operator Buttons

TAPECALC is a five-function calculator - it performs the usual addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and also calculates powers. If you press the wrong button, don't panic! You can change functions as long as you haven't started to enter the second number in your calculation. For example, press 2 - * / + 2 = and you'll get 4.

When an operator button is "pending", it lights up. If you see a lighted operator button, that means you still have time to change your mind.  If you press equal while an operation is pending, the pending operation is discarded.

The Power Operator

The power operator ^ may not be entirely familiar, as it's not present on a standard four-function calculator. To calculate the cube (the 3rd power) of a number, enter the number, press the ^ key, enter 3, and press equals. When the power in question is a number with no fractional part and X is not a negative number,

X ^ Y	Multiply X by itself Y times

X ^ - Y	Multiply X by itself Y times, then divide 1 by the result

X ^ 1/Y	Calculate the Yth root of X (the number that, when multiplied by itself Y times, yields X)

To take the cube root of 8, for example, you'd enter 8 ^ 3 1/X =.

If X is less than zero, Y must be a number with no fractional part.  Otherwise the calculation will result in an Overflow.


Miscellaneous Buttons

C	Clear everything, ready for a new calculation (Escape)

CE	Clear the current number (Del)

←	Backspace - delete the last digit (Backspace)

↑	Advance the tape (F9)

±	Reverse the sign of the current number (F2)

√	Take the square root of the current number (F3)

1/X	Take the reciprocal of the current number (F4)

There is an important difference between the operation of the reverse-sign button and the two that follow it. If you take the square root or the reciprocal of a number, the only thing you can do after that is choose an operator or finish the calculation. If you press +/-, you can still continue entering digits.

The NumLock button indicates the current state of NumLock and also lets you toggle NumLock on and off.  It's present for your convenience when you're using the mouse. Naturally, its keyboard equivalent is the NumLock key on the keyboard.


Percent Button

The percent button is normally used to add or subtract a certain percent from a number. For example, 59.95 + 40 % will return 59.95 plus 40% of 59.95. In fixed 2-decimals mode, the result would be 83.93. Entering 8 - 25 % will return 6, which is 8 minus 25% of 8.  It doesn’t make sense to use percent in this way with the other three operators, so TapeCalc just doesn’t let you do it. However, when you’re entering the first number of a calculation, you can use the percent key to quickly divide the number by 100. For example, 50 % * 36 is 18.


Equal Button

In general, you press the equal button to finish a calculation. The result is available to begin another calculation. If you start entering numbers, the result is wiped out.

The Windows CALC.EXE program has some surprising behavior built into the equals button. If you press a number, an operator, and equals, CALC performs the operation using that number as both parts of the operation. For example,  2 * = is the same as 2 * 2 =.  Press equal yet again and CALC repeats the calculation again.  For example, to calculate 2 to the 10th power using CALC.EXE, you would press  2 * = = = = = = = = =.  And using CALC.EXE, the result of  is  1 + 2 + 3 + =  is 12!

TapeCalc saves you from having to remember and understand this peculiar behavior.  If you want to calculate a power, you simply use the power operator button (^).


Copy Result

Choosing this item (or pressing Ctrl+R) copies the result (the number in the display window) to the clipboard. To copy all or part of the tape, select  Copy from the edit menu.


Highlighting

To highlight part of the tape, simply drag the mouse across the rows you want to highlight. Note that the left or right portion of the row from which you started dragging will not display as highlighted - instead, it will have a dotted rectangle around it.

To highlight part of the tape using the keyboard, use the arrow keys to move the dotted selection rectangle to the beginning of the area you want to highlight, then hold Shift while moving with arrow keys to the end of the area. The line from which you started will again not be highlighted - it will simply retain the dotted rectangle.


Edit Menu
Copy

Paste

Copy Result

Paste Options...


Memory Display

The large yellow M is visible whenever anything is stored in memory. The memory buttons control it. M+ and MS turn on the memory display, MC turns it off, and MR leaves it unchanged.


View Menu
Tape Visible

Tape Font

Fixed/Floating Point


Display Window

The Display Window shows the number you're entering into the calculator. When you've completed a calculation, it shows the result. Numbers in the display window are shown in the fixed or floating-point representation selected from the View menu.