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3-way TANGRAM installation notes
Requires 2 minutes, 45 Mbytes of disk space
(the product requires 11 Mbytes - the rest are some 30 sample cubes used by the demos - these can be disposed of, later)
Download tangram8.exe from the homepage and execute it.
This will install a desktop icon, a program menu shortcut and seven fonts. The Windows registry will be unaffected. No reboot is necessary.
[If you use a multiuser Windows (Win 2000 or later), remember that you may need Administrator or Power User rights to install applications and fonts]
Should you have any problem with the installation or should you prefer to have full control over what happens, note that installing by file-copy is just as fast. If you prefer this route, simply unload the file tangram8.zip and unzip it in c:\tangram (or where you like).
Then copy the shortcut file "3-way TANGRAM" to your desktop (where it will appear as an icon).
[ You can do this by dragging it with the mouse or with the standard file-copy keys Ctrl-Ins Shift-Ins]
If you have installed in a directory other than c:\tangram you can now edit the icon to reflect your choices.
[In detail: Locate the TANGRAM icon on your desktop, right-click it, choose Properties, choose the Shortcut tag, update the first two input fields 'Target' and 'Start in' ]
For example, if you installed in d:\temp , the whole 'Target' field becomes
d:\temp\dyalogrt.exe d:\temp\tangram.dws maxws=128000 aplk=apl_usand the 'Start in' field becomes
d:\temp
Then install the seven fonts in the TANGRAm subfolder \fonts (e.g. in c:\tangram\fonts).
[In detail: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Fonts > File menu > Install new font. Locate the TANGRAM folder and its subfolder \fonts and press Select All > OK ]
That is all.
The maxws= parameter (in the 'Target' field of the shortcut) is the amount of RAM memory that TANGRAM claims (in kilobytes). You might have to adjust it if your computer has less RAM or, viceversa, if you want to enhance TANGRAM's performance on a larger machine.
A thumb rule is to set maxws= to about 80% of the installed physical memory. (enter a value in kbytes, for example: maxws=64000)
[To find how much RAM you have, you may open Windows Explorer under ? Help > About Windows ]
The evaluation version should be sufficient to explore the product on the existing databases.
However, it will not create any new databases. To enable this function, simply apply for a password by Email.
The product has no expiry date.
The product entails a stand-alone Excel add-on so that Excel can read TANGRAM cubes (typically for distribution to other users or for pretty printing).
A brief manual is in tangram\xl5\readerman.pdf
These are fool-proof step-by-step instructions to run the simplest demo (after you have successfully installed the product!).
The procedure opens a 3-way database containing sales data and shows simple ways to analyze it.
Follow these steps:
You may rerun a procedure and experiment with different answers (step 7. above). Or you can see more advanced tutorials in libraries example2, example3. [See 'Libraries' 'Switch to lib' in the menubar].
Each library has a procedure 'RUN_ALL' that groups all procedures that do not require a complete product installation.
If you are really fearless, you may choose 'Data Analysis' (at step 4. above) and explore the product.
The basic idea is that you have a cube of data and labels and every command transforms it into a different cube. The simplest orientation tool is SUMMARY, to see the effect of your commands on the labels.
Use the standard Windows procedure.
[In detail: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove appl. > Tangram > Remove]
If you prefer, delete the TANGRAM directory and the desktop icon. Delete the seven fonts from the Control Panel. No trace remains in the Windows registry or anywhere else.
The user manual (in Acrobat format) is included (tangram\userman.pdf). If you need to download a free Acrobat reader, point your browser to www.adobe.com/acrobat
Many users find that the manual is hardly necessary for a hands-on session. Most dialogue boxes are intuitive, with the exception of Column Selection, which is Tangram-specific.
The evaluation version assumes you have a US-English keyboard .
If you have declared several national keyboards to Windows, make also sure that the active one is US-English.
[Left Alt-Shift toggles between national keyboards]
If you are a programmer, note that Ctrl-N will switch to the APL keyboard and Ctrl-O will restore the text keyboard. If, for some reason, you end up in the APL keyboard, use Ctrl-O to activate the US-English keyboard.
The licensed version of TANGRAM also contains National Keyboard Support.
3-way TANGRAM is both for end-users and OLAP developers. It is an open ended system with a lot to discover.
If you are a professional developer, you may want, in due course, to replace the run-time interpreter (dyalogrt.exe) with the development version (dyalog.exe).
This will make the underlying language (Dyalog APL) fully available and more productive for ad-hoc developments.
The main disadvantages of the run-time interpreter are that the application is brutally closed in case of non-trapped errors (possibly with a loss of your recent work) and that all programming work must be done via the trapdoor of the EXECUTE command.
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