Apr 30, 2011 - .NET #5

Apr 30, 2011 - .NET #5

Greetings PLANETQUANTUM.COM visitor. :-) For the past few months, I've been in the back room of the PLANETQUANTUM.COM shop, working on WPF, custom controls, learning .NET, updating HyperF tables, and Quantum 2011.0 manual ideas.

GUI Front End for Quantum 2011.0

I am currently working on the GUI front end for Quantum 2011.0 . The Quantum 2011.0 GUI is a fairly thin WPF Window application, written in C# and XAML, which is a Window with a Menu, ToolBar, and client area for input and output, as you see below:

XAML: Quantum2011.xaml.txt .

Quantum is a dynamic programming language. Quantum users interact with the Quantum GUI Window in a Read-Eval-Print loop to do computer algebra, numerics, inline graphics, general programming, and Windows programming (WPF and XAML encouraged).

Plot2D and Plot3D Libraries

In the same Quantum 2011.0 window above, you can see some evidence of a Plot2D library I am working on. The Plot2D library consists of custom WPF controls such as PLot2D.Plot (which subclasses System.Windows.Controls.Panel), and Plot2D.Curve and Plot2D.Axes (which subclass System.Windows.Shapes.Shape). I make these custom controls into good .NET citizens by exposing dependency properties and relying on WPF layout mechanisms: FrameworkElement's MeasureOverride, ArrangeOverride, OnRender, FrameworkPropertyMetadata, etc. I am also working on a Plot3D library.

Upcoming Quantum 2011.0 Manual

I've been doing some work on the Quantum 2011.0 Manual. Since the venerable Microsoft Help Compiler has been discontinued, I've been looking at alternatives. Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop is one alternative. I've discovered that when I follow the HTML Help Workshop's seemingly easy instructions to convert my old Quantum.hpj project ("File", "New", "Project", "Convert WinHelp project") to a new HTML Help project, I did not get a new useful upgraded Quantum help project, but instead a disaster bearing a close resemblance to an Ariane rocket explosion.

While I am mulling this situation over, I am also looking at other Help documentation generators. Upgrading the Quantum Learning Manual pages is generally pretty easy, but there are some sticking points which I need to fix.

WPF Resources

For readers who would like to learn more about WPF, I can recommend the following two WPF books:

Nathan, Adam (2010) "WPF 4 Unleashed", (SAMS), Pearson Education, Inc.

Podila, Pavan and Hoffman, Kevin (2009) "WPF Control Development Unleashed", (SAMS), Pearson Education, Inc.

Readers who want to learn WPF in depth should get Nathan Adam's "WPF 4 Unleashed" book. I am grateful to Christian Mosers for his very instructive WPF Tutorial web site.

Thanks to Certain People

I'd like to take today's news occasion to thank some people that have measurably assisted PLANETQUANTUM.COM in various ways. These people are: Lewis Cole (early Quantum tester), Igor Rivin (early Quantum tester), Vladimir Bondarenko (constant web site commenter, promoter, test and work motivator), John Maxwell Campbell (discovered errors in the HyperF tables), Andrej Grebenc (HyperF table suggestion), Daniel Lichtblau (ISSAC 05 news and updated hyperlinks), and David Jeffrey and Pratibha (for granting me the honor of being an ISSAC 05 coauthor).

I am also thankful to all my PLANETQUANTUM.COM web site visitors, the visitors who just browse or download my papers, and the visitors who sometimes drop me an email. Thanks for visiting! :-)

Kelly Roach