ReadMe File For 3D-XplorMath 10.0
                      November 20, 2002

                  

3D-XplorMath version 10.0 is a follow-on, Carbonized version of the
well-known Macintosh mathematical visualization tool, 3D-Filmstrip.
This is the first "Carbonized" (i.e., OS X native) version of 3D-Filmstrip. 

Note that while 3D-XplorMath runs native under Mac OS X, it can also
run in the Classic layer and will run under Mac OS 9 and even Mac OS 8.6,
but in the latter two cases you must have CarbonLib (available from Apple)
in your extensions folder. It has been tested extensively under OS X 10.1.5
and reasonably well under Jaguar (OS X 10.2) and OS 9.2 (and not at all 
under OS 8.6).


					A)  Installation. 
  
The standard distribution of 3D-FilmstripX comes as a stuffed file called
3DXplorMath.sit. This expands into a folder called 3D-XplorMath ƒ that
contains the following items:

    i) This ReadMe file,
   ii)  the application file, 3D-XplorMath
  iii)  a folder called “Settings Folder”,  and 
  iv)  a folder called “3DFSdocs”.

It is important to leave 3D-XplorMath inside its original folder, since when 
running it expects to find various files that it needs in the same folder that
it is running from. Of course you can make an alias to 3D-XplorMath and 
place it anywhere to make it easier to launch the program. 


					B)  What is 3D-XplorMath?

3D-XplorMath is a tool that creates striking, high quality visualizations 
of mathematical objects and processes that runs native under MacOS X.
It is a Carbonized version of a Classic (Mac OS 9) program called 
3D-Filmstrip.

3D-XplorMath has built-in algorithms for displaying mathematical objects of 
many different types or "categories" (plane curves, space curves, surfaces, 
conformal maps, polyhedra, ordinary and partial differential equations) and 
also for displaying various animations associated with these categories. But 
3D-XplorMath provides content as well as viewing and animation tools. Each 
category has a "Gallery" of many  pre-programmed objects, and also easy to use
methods for entering new User Defined objects from the category. The Gallery 
items are selected from a menu, while user defined objects are created without 
any programming by entering algebraic formulas in a dialog.

While the program started out as a research tool, written by mathematicians 
for other mathematicians, it has gradually morphed into a program that should 
also be of interest to anyone with an interest in mathematics and who enjoys 
experimenting with and visually exploring and learning about new mathematical concepts. The way to think of 3D-XplorMath is as an Interactive Museum of 
Mathematical Exploration, the various Categories being different galleries of 
the museum.

The original concept, design, and algorithmic content of 3D-XplorMath was 
a joint effort of Hermann Karcher and Richard Palais. Most of the actual 
coding (in Object Pascal) was carried out by Richard Palais. In addition, 
a great many people have contributed their ideas, suggestions, algorithms 
and documentation. See the Acknowledgements selection in the Help 
menu, the About 3D-XplorMath selection from the Apple menu, or the 
Acknowledgements section in the HTML documentation for further 
details about all of the people who have made valuable contributions to 
this project. 

If you find any bugs or have suggested improvements, please send e-mail to:
   
       Richard S. Palais
       Department of Mathematics
       Brandeis University
       Waltham, MA 02254
       palais@brandeis.edu
       Home Page: http://rsp.math.brandeis.edu/

The copyright to the program belongs to Richard Palais and Hermann Karcher, 
but there is a free license to use it for non-commercial purposes in education 
and research. 

					C) Recent News

   a) The 3DFS Consortium.
An informal group that goes by the name “The 3DFS Consortium” has taken 
over joint responsibility for the enhancement of 3D-XplorMath. Currently the 
members of the Consortium are: Benjamin Dauvergne, Martin Guest, Patrick
Iglesias,  Hermann Karcher, Michael Murray,Richard Palais, Chuu-Lian Terng, 
Matthias Weber, and Xah Lee.

   b) NSF CCLI Grant Support for Future Development of 3D-XplorMath.
The NSF has recently funded a three year CCLI Grant with Richard Palais 
as the Principal Investigator, whose purpose is to further improve 3D-XplorMath 
as a tool for integrating mathematical visualization into the undergraduate mathematics curriculum.
 

					D) WWW and FTP Availability.

3D-XplorMath has a Home Page on the Web, at the URL:

    http://rsp.math.brandeis.edu/3D-XplorMath/ 
  
and the latest release and beta versions are available by anonymous ftp 
at the URL:

   ftp://rsp.math.brandeis.edu/

We will also keep the latest publicly released version available on the net
at VersionTracker: 

   http://www.versiontracker.com/


					E) Documentation.

 The documentation for 3D-XplorMath is partially contained inside
the program file and partially contained in the folder 3DFSdocs
that comes with the standard distribution. Start the program and 
see “About The Documentation” (the first item in the Documentation
menu) for details.