Upgrade Function Grapher

Share icon

Wed, 06/02/2010 - 12:27 pm

I don't know how many other people find the Function Grapher package useful, but it's an easy way to get a quick look at a function. (It's one of the packages listed at the bottom of the Analysis menu items.

However, although it is an easy way to look at a function's graph, it is a bit clunky for exploring a function's behavior. As it stands, you have to re-enter a parameter value to change it. This makes it hard to "scan" parameters.

How about the following: when defining parameters in a function, one could supply minimum and maximum values, and the program could create a slider control. (Actually, one could set default values, say 0 and 1, and create the slider when the parameter was created.) Having a slider for each parameter would take a bit more screen real estate, but I think it's worth it.
This sounds like a good idea. Another problem with the function grapher is that it puts every single function in the menu. I usually have over 2000 compiled functions open in procedure files at one time, and so construction of the menu takes several seconds every time I click it. Maybe it would be better if it only looked for functions in the main procedure file, functions with a FitFunc keyword, and maybe functions with some other prefix like "Grapher_".

Rick

June 3, 2010 at 12:41 pm - Permalink

Good ideas...

John- it is a bit clunky the way the list edits. I like your idea; I'd have to think pretty hard about how to implement it so that it handles a large number of parameters correctly.

Rick- Would a filter string work? Maybe a menu that allowed you to select FitFunc, All, Filter, ...

John Weeks
WaveMetrics, Inc.
support@wavemetrics.com

June 3, 2010 at 04:29 pm - Permalink

[quote=johnweeks]Good ideas...

John- it is a bit clunky the way the list edits. I like your idea; I'd have to think pretty hard about how to implement it so that it handles a large number of parameters correctly.

Personally, I would think that the Function Grapher is best for relatively straightforward situations, where there is a manageable number of parameters to look at. My guess is that if you had a mechanism that looked ok for half a dozen parameters (and worked but got clunky with more), that would be useful. In practice, I'm usually interested in looking at one or two parameters at a time. I guess I am thinking of something where the code would add a slider each time one increased the number of parameters in the function.

June 4, 2010 at 04:37 pm - Permalink