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[previous article] [next article]Lotus 1-2-3 Manuals for Sun
ECN #725 User's Guide 12.40
Quick Reference
Introducing 1-2-3
Quick Start
Configuration Guide
Tutorial
Task Summary
ECN #726 User's Reference 26.70
Using 1-2-3
Commands
Functions
Macros
Glossary
Appendixes
Index
Release Notes
Attention, one and all! ECN now has Lotus 1-2-3 for our Sun workstations!! "So what?" you may say, "I am an engineer. I don't use spreadsheets." WAIT JUST A MINUTE! If this is your attitude, or even if you are already a Lotus fan, I urge you to read this article to see what Lotus 1-2-3 has to offer on any of the Sun workstations on ECN. Lotus 1-2-3 for Sun is an exact implementation of Lotus 1-2-3 for PC's with enhancements for the Unix and network environment. If you are not familiar with spreadsheets already on ECN such as 1-2-3 or sc, here is a brief rundown. A spreadsheet is a computer environment which organizes data (numbers, labels, formulas, etc.) into rows and columns. It can be easily used at its lowest level to enter data in tabular form, but it has much greater power. The true utility of a spreadsheet is demonstrated when it is used to do calculations with data stored in cells. Depending on the particular spreadsheet, the calculations can range from addition of columns or rows of numbers to higher level math.
For more ideas on what spreadsheets can do, READ ON, check out the Lotus manuals (ECN #725 User Guide and ECN #726 Reference Guide) from your site specialist, check the man pages for sc on ECN or consult any of several books in Potter on spreadsheets, ie. Mathematical Applications Of Electronic Spreadsheets by D. Arganbright or An Engineer's Guide To Spreadsheets, Word Processors & Data Base Managers by J.M. Moore and W.E. Hammer. The remainder of this article is divided into sections concerning features, startup, roadmap and an example.
Lotus 1-2-3 has many more features than a general spreadsheet. There are too many to mention, but the following features are those which should be most useful. Consult the manuals for more information.
Before you begin to use Lotus 1-2-3, you must first include the line setenv PRINTER xxx in a .login or
Next you need to start Sunview or Suntools since that is the windowing system under which Lotus 1-2-3 runs.
Then, in a shell tool window, run the setup123 program by simply typing "setup123". This program asks a series of questions about your particular Sun environ- ment and creates a .l123set file in your home directory. This is an example of a .l123set file.
1001 Lotus 1-2-3 Version "1.0"
1002 Base Directory "/usr/123"
1003 Printer Interface "lpr {file} #{site}"
3000 Printer "Apple LaserWriter Times/Helvetica"
"310 l13pps00.dvr ps00alw0.pdb"
1004 Graphics Driver "Sunview Graphics Display"
"sunview l_lrf.bun"
1011 Display Char. Set "US ASCII" "l_ascii.bun"
1005 Country Driver "USA English Numbers First"
"l13cUSF3.cbd"
1012 File Character Set "US ASCII" "l_ascii.bun"
1006 Resource Language "USA English" "USA-English"
1007 Help Language "USA English" "USA-English"
1008 File Name Mode "UNIX file name mode" "0"
1010 Keyboard "sun"
When using Lotus it is assumed that you know all the Lotus names for the function and numeric keys on the Sun keyboard; see a discussion of the Lotus utility keyedit in the ECN #725 Lotus 1-2-3 User's Guide, Configuration Guide section for other keyboards. A partial list of keys is available through on-line help.
Finally type "123" or "123 & in a shell tool window to start Lotus. There are some optional command line parameters which advanced users may use, but most of the items should be setup by the setup123 program. See the Getting Started pages in the Introducing Lotus 1-2-3 for Sun section of the User Guide for more information.
For the rest of this article, when it is relevant, reference to Lotus function keys will appear in bold. For more information please refer to "online help" or the "keyedit print function".
Now that you have Lotus up and running, you need to know some basics about entering labels, numbers and formulas and using commands.
To organize your data better you will want to be able to enter data in a variety of locations. The active cell is denoted by the highlighted cell (cell pointer) and the coordinates of the active cell are displayed in the upper left hand corner of the Lotus screen. You can move to any cell in the active file(s) you are working on by using the keys for DOWN, LEFT, PG UP, HOME, GOTO, etc. Once you are in the cell of choice, you enter the data or formula by typing the characters and pressing return. Note that Lotus assumes the following conventions: (i) labels (text) start with a character or the format characters ', ^ or ", (ii) numbers or values begin with a digit or + and (iii) formula names begin with the @ character. Remember that the main purpose of spreadsheets is to do calculations, so you can include coordinates of cells as variables in other cells; see the example for details.
Take time to look at Command Section of the ECN #726 Lotus 1-2-3 Reference Guide which shows the Lotus screen, lists the first level Lotus menu commands, and shows the relevant command trees for each first level command. Lotus menu commands are invoked either by first typing "/" and then the first letter of the command, or by moving the highlight to the command via the arrow keys and pressing "return". The exact steps depend on the specific command, so consult the following example, the tutorial or the specific sections of the manuals for details.
The following is a fairly simple but instructive example of a Lotus 1-2-3 session. The Tutorial Section in the ECN #725 Lotus 1-2-3 for Sun User's Guide provides an exhaustive set of examples and an excellent array of Lotus screens to assist in identifying different screen areas. Before diving right in, I would like to again direct your attention to the Reference Guide mentioned in the previous section for lists of first level commands and the relevant command trees for each first level command. The remainder of this example is discussed in terms of the problem statement, a discussion of the tasks in the solution and the actual Lotus commands for the tasks in the solution.
Let us suppose that you have some experimental data that has a sinusoidal tendency with an unknown amplitude and phase which was collected as a function of a known parameter. Your X-Y data is currently stored in the file datafile. For the purpose of this example, the data was generated by the following C program.
#include#include #define PI 3.141592654 main() { double x_value, y_value; double amplitude, phase; double amp_noise_sgn, amp_noise_mag; double pha_noise_sgn, pha_noise_mag; double net_amp, net_pha; int i; long random(); amplitude = 100.0; phase = PI/2.0; for (i=0;i<500;i++) { amp_noise_sgn = ((random()&01) == 0) ? 1 : -1; pha_noise_sgn = ((random()&01) == 0) ? 1 : -1; amp_noise_mag = ((double) (random()&1023))/1023.0; pha_noise_mag = ((double) (random()&1023))/1023.0; net_amp = amplitude* (1.0 + amp_noise_sgn*amp_noise_mag/5.0); net_pha = phase* (1.0 + pha_noise_sgn*pha_noise_mag/2.0); x_value = ((double) i)/200.0; y_value = net_amp*sin(2.0*PI*x_value + net_pha); printf("%lf%lf0,x_value,y_value); } } The program was run by cc program.c -lm;a.out > datafile.
Suppose you would like to an idea of how sensitive guesses of amplitude and phase are for a nonlinear regression program with which you will fit the data. You would like to get an idea of goodness of fit both quantitatively and visually; thus you chose Lotus for the task.
Here is a step by step discussion of what you will do:
Now is the time for you and Lotus to solve the problem.
a. enter the function: GOTO c3 ENTER
+$g$2*@sin(a3*2*@pi+$h$2) ENTER
(Items g2 and h2 refer to the guessed amplitudes
and phases and a3 refers to the xvalue.
The $'s force absolute referencing to these cells
during the copy command used later.)
b. load amplitude and phase guesses: GOTO g2 ENTER
80 RIGHT @pi ENTER
c. see how many data values there are: GOTO a3 ENTER
END DOWN (note that data are in rows 3-502)
d. move back: HOME GOTO c3 ENTER
e. copy the formula for column c: / C ENTER (to accept
the range Lotus selected) c4..c502 ENTER
(Move around in this column. Note that the formula
has changed as you wanted.)
a. calculate the residuals: GOTO d3 ENTER
+c3-b3 ENTER
b. copy the formula: / C ENTER d4..d502 ENTER
c. square the residuals: GOTO e3 ENTER
+d3*d3 ENTER
d. copy the formula: / C ENTER e4..e502 ENTER
e. calculate the sum of squares: GOTO g4 ENTER
@sum(e3..e502) ENTER
f. reformat the cell for easier viewing: / R F S 2
ENTER ENTER
a. turn the graph on so that you can see the results
of your efforts updated: GOTO a3 ENTER / W W G
b. set the graph type to XY: / G T X
c. set the x axis range: X . END DOWN ENTER
d. set the raw y axis range: A RIGHT . END DOWN ENTER
e. set the theoretical y axis range:
B RIGHT RIGHT . END DOWN ENTER
f. set the residual y axis range:
C RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT . END
DOWN ENTER ESC ESC
g. move the residuals down: GOTO h4 ENTER 300 ENTER
h. get rid of the symbols for all the lines:
/ G O F G L Q Q Q
Now move to the amplitude and phase cells by yourself
and play with the numbers to see how Lotus recalculates
the columns and updates the graph. End with an amplitude
of about 100 and a phase of about 1.57.
graph
This example demonstrates some aspects of Lotus. The program has much more power for you to use. Enjoy yourself and make use of the tools provided!