| ILLUSTRATING SHADOWS focusing on education and interesting practical aspects of sundial design |
| Illustrating Shadows ~ ISBN 0-9765286-8-1 ~ Lib Cong 2005900674 300+ pages of hands on, empirical, geometric, trigonometric, CAD, and spreadsheet dial design with 100 pages of charts, tables, formulae, and lists of useful information THIRD EDITION ~ Table of contents. This edition has expanded tables, more formulae, and more detailed chapters on CAD, vrml. The best book on gnomonics. Much new material. You get a free CD of booklets, spreadsheets, VRML/WRL files, templates, etc with the book. FOR A FREE SAMPLE... try Simple Shadows PayPal here to buy. Illustrating More Shadows ~ ISBN 0-9765286-9-X ~ Lib Cong 2006930654 This book continues Illustrating Shadows, and focuses on garden dials using common masonry supplies, clay, and glass, with emphasis on many calendar line techniques, and inclined decliners, while providing details on the use of DeltaCAD programming including the animation of many sheets as parameters vary. Sample here. Get CD here. |
| Book purchase options are here... |
| Email comments or questions to the author at: illustratingshadows at yahoo dot com |
| programming JAVA sundials sun dials |
| MAIN TURBO-CAD FILE PAGE ( vbs macros, notes on programming, and tcw files ) |
| MAIN PYTHON PAGE (JAVA alternative) |
| Feb 23, 2008 |
LISP (free 2D system available from... see url below) (several dial programs)
The ProgeCAD CAD system is around 80mb, is free, and supports LISP.
http://www.progesoft.com/compra/index.asp?left=prodotti/eng_progecad2008smart&abspage=1&lang=eng
While this is a free CAD system, please note the desire of the providers to solicit donations.
This LISP program should also work in AutoCAD, since no special quirks were used in writing the h-dial, v-dial, and v-dec programs, and since ProgeCAD is
compatible with AutoCAD.
Dial programs in LISP specifically for ProgeCAD ~ ~ ~ Download this file which has the data input panels (they need to go to the CAD's Program Files folder),
programs (which can go anywhere), and some notes you should read if you want to get things up and running. LISP also uses Polish notation in its
programming. This LISP trigonometry support is such that hours below the dial plate line can be wrapped to an opposite quadrant, one reason for only
showing usually 0700 to 1700, another reason being that as the hour line angle approaches 90 degrees, the TAN functtion provided, fails. I have put code in
to handle tan(90) abd tan(0), but have not put in the code to ensure extreme hours go to the correct quadrant, see DeltaCAD programs for how I did that. I use
DeltaCAD for my programmed dialling, TurboCAD for my other drafting and 3d work, these programs are here for you to get the best out of ProgeCAD. It is
free, works well, and is programmable. These programs can help get you on the road to programmability with CAD.
I added a vertical (non declining dial) also in LISP and tested in ProgeCAD. It is in the zip file above.
I changed atoi to atof function, better notes, and fixed up line sense for vdial
I added a vertical declining dial in LISP and tested in ProgeCAD. It is in the zip file above.
I improved the notes on ProgeCAD and its TOOL panel. And the horizontal dial
There is a non CAD free LISP system by http://www.franz.com/newtolisp/index.lhtml Allegro CL 8.1 which is some 80mb, however it has the usual
project build process, great for large applications, but less helpful for simple projects. I have not done anything with it.
I am not inclined to pursue LISP any further. Back in 1967, Bryan Higman in "A Comparative Study of Programming Languages" wrote of LISP that its time had
past, that was some 40 years ago, and expresses a point I felt in my early days in computer programming as much as it expresses my thoughts today.
Biased though they may be. BUT to be fair to ProgeCAD from ProgeSOFT, they also support Visual Basic in there purchased version, and a number of other
featrures.
___________________________________________________________________
PBE model of programming ~ ~ ~ (programming by example).
This section continues the "PBE" philosophy, namely "Programming By Example". Having started programming in 1966, and having written code for BAL, PL/I,
RPG, COBOL, ALGOL, APL, FORTRAN, C, BASIC, C++, LISP, and for operating systems from mainframe DOS, MFT, MVT, VS1, MVS, GCP (under VM), UNIX,
and various PC operating systems, I have become jaded enough to wade right in and see what works, rather than read several hundred pages of text that mix
the language with the object oriented concepts with the development system.
The major problems with current computer languages are:-
1. Manuals and HELP systems are designed for those who already know the system
2. They seldom if ever provide simple programs stipped to bare bones that take input, do something, display graphical output
3. They often have complex build processes, or, very large libraries. ProgeCAD does not, which is in its favor.
So, these web pages are intended to show practical solutions using systems other than the common ones, and to provide a basis for you to develop further.
These examples, give you that leg up.
The ProgeCAD CAD system is around 80mb, is free, and supports LISP.
http://www.progesoft.com/compra/index.asp?left=prodotti/eng_progecad2008smart&abspage=1&lang=eng
While this is a free CAD system, please note the desire of the providers to solicit donations.
This LISP program should also work in AutoCAD, since no special quirks were used in writing the h-dial, v-dial, and v-dec programs, and since ProgeCAD is
compatible with AutoCAD.
Dial programs in LISP specifically for ProgeCAD ~ ~ ~ Download this file which has the data input panels (they need to go to the CAD's Program Files folder),
programs (which can go anywhere), and some notes you should read if you want to get things up and running. LISP also uses Polish notation in its
programming. This LISP trigonometry support is such that hours below the dial plate line can be wrapped to an opposite quadrant, one reason for only
showing usually 0700 to 1700, another reason being that as the hour line angle approaches 90 degrees, the TAN functtion provided, fails. I have put code in
to handle tan(90) abd tan(0), but have not put in the code to ensure extreme hours go to the correct quadrant, see DeltaCAD programs for how I did that. I use
DeltaCAD for my programmed dialling, TurboCAD for my other drafting and 3d work, these programs are here for you to get the best out of ProgeCAD. It is
free, works well, and is programmable. These programs can help get you on the road to programmability with CAD.
I added a vertical (non declining dial) also in LISP and tested in ProgeCAD. It is in the zip file above.
I changed atoi to atof function, better notes, and fixed up line sense for vdial
I added a vertical declining dial in LISP and tested in ProgeCAD. It is in the zip file above.
I improved the notes on ProgeCAD and its TOOL panel. And the horizontal dial
There is a non CAD free LISP system by http://www.franz.com/newtolisp/index.lhtml Allegro CL 8.1 which is some 80mb, however it has the usual
project build process, great for large applications, but less helpful for simple projects. I have not done anything with it.
I am not inclined to pursue LISP any further. Back in 1967, Bryan Higman in "A Comparative Study of Programming Languages" wrote of LISP that its time had
past, that was some 40 years ago, and expresses a point I felt in my early days in computer programming as much as it expresses my thoughts today.
Biased though they may be. BUT to be fair to ProgeCAD from ProgeSOFT, they also support Visual Basic in there purchased version, and a number of other
featrures.
___________________________________________________________________
PBE model of programming ~ ~ ~ (programming by example).
This section continues the "PBE" philosophy, namely "Programming By Example". Having started programming in 1966, and having written code for BAL, PL/I,
RPG, COBOL, ALGOL, APL, FORTRAN, C, BASIC, C++, LISP, and for operating systems from mainframe DOS, MFT, MVT, VS1, MVS, GCP (under VM), UNIX,
and various PC operating systems, I have become jaded enough to wade right in and see what works, rather than read several hundred pages of text that mix
the language with the object oriented concepts with the development system.
The major problems with current computer languages are:-
1. Manuals and HELP systems are designed for those who already know the system
2. They seldom if ever provide simple programs stipped to bare bones that take input, do something, display graphical output
3. They often have complex build processes, or, very large libraries. ProgeCAD does not, which is in its favor.
So, these web pages are intended to show practical solutions using systems other than the common ones, and to provide a basis for you to develop further.
These examples, give you that leg up.