Table Of Contents
This is a checklist of things to watch out for when you first use Graph IDE. You may want to used Graph IDE a bit, including reading this manual, and then come back to this section later to pickup on things that you missed.
- When you first launch Graph IDE it will present a default Document. That document is probably not configured the way you want it and you will have to reconfigure it each time you make a new document. That is unless you set the default document by following the instructions in the Document section.
- Graph IDE is multiplatform and runs on Mac, iPad, iPhone and Windows in various modes including headless. Because those platforms have different characteristics, not all features described in this manual are available on each platform. For the most part Graph IDE performs very similarly on each platform and when there is a difference then that difference is pointed out in the manual section, preferably at the top of the section.
- The first thing you should do is look at the ► menu. That menu is comprised of sub-menus and each item in the menu can be hovered over (do not select an item) to quickly pan the available palettes. Each of those palettes are a Document so by panning each one you can quickly see, within a couple of minutes, what Graph IDE can do. When you see a palette that you want to investigate further then click the menu item to select it. That places the palette on the screen permanently and then you can drag the graphics from that palette to another document, drop it and then work with it.
- Graph IDE has tools to make data visualization documents and when those tools are not good enough then it has bigger tools and then bigger tools until finally you are immersed in swiss-army-knife hand-to-hand combat directly with data representations. That is because Graph IDE is, for all practical purposes, a different way of doing things. It "inverts" the normal thought process in order to produce a highly scalable system. Given that as the case, you might want to start off with the Chart Tasks and enter some data and then export your representation to a Graph IDE document to mark it up.
- A lot of uses are repetitive. That is: Once a graph is made then that graph becomes a standard for your use and you will want to use that type of graph over and over again. Palettes greatly speed up the process of making standard graphs as you can make your own palettes that are accessible from the palettes menu.
- The Movies show and express things that simply can not be relayed well in this manual. That is because Graph IDE is more about an idea than a means of construction. It is the idea that is a means to an end and the movies bring out some important concepts.
- Graph IDE (aka: The face of the Vvidget project) represents just a fraction of the functionality of the underlying paradigm, less than ten percent. Embedded in Graph IDE are logic systems that haven't even been invented yet (outside of VVI) even though those logic systems were "invented" three decades ago. The Programming and Custom Application sections begins to unmask some of the nature of the underlying system. Once you become accustom to the facilities of Graph IDE then you may wish to start programming it to gain even more functionality.
- The Point Tags show some of the nature of the recursive design of Vvidget (Graph IDE) and are an interesting implementation. With the Point Tags implementation, the issue of markers are solved as an element of a graphic can be a graphic, ad infinitum.
- The Tables are a main way of entering numerical data in textual representation (base 10 numbers). The cells of a table accept atomic elements (such as two numbers for a 2D point) which is a bit unusual. You can right-click or click-hold a column header of a table to place that table in component mode which is the most usual presentation.
Graph IDE is a delivery system for you. It is intended to provide a kernel for your work from which you can expand upon and not be trapped into. Early versions of the Vvidget system (and Graph IDE) were so intensive (included a manual of a few thousand pages) that even the most robust team of programmers at the largest corporate sites could not digest it. This present incarnation attempts to deliver that functionality in a much more tractable way. Hopefully, as you become accustom to the features, you will find more and more value and utility.