METROCATE: Units Conversion Version 1.8 A measurement unit conversion and reference package from John Mayes 94 Majoribanks St, Mount Victoria, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND To start: A>METROCAT (Then press return/enter key) DETAILED DESCRIPTION METROCATE is an educational resource and utility for teachers, students, engineers, scientists and anyone interested in the science and history of measurement. The registered version provides a data file of over 720 (and growing) measurement units, both ancient and modern, common and uncommon, together with conversion factors. Included is a facility to convert nominated quantities of any unit to any other compatible unit. So that the package can be customised to meet individual needs you can add additional units to the data file or edit any unit provided. Over twenty types of unit are catered for. Among these are length, mass, time, temperature, volume, pressure, power, energy, torque and currency. METROCATE is easy to use with simple menus and prompts. The package will run on all IBM compatible PC's with MS DOS and does not require colour or special graphics. It will auto-detect hardware in use to take advantage of available facilities such as colour. DISPLAY OF NUMERICAL INFORMATION Floating point numbers can be input in decimal or exponential notation. eg:- Decimal Exponential (e followed by power of 10) 123000 1.23e5 0.000078 7.8e-5 523.98 5.2398e2 Generally the British standard is used for display but exponential notation is used for small or large numbers. These can be inspected from within the package by using 'List to Screen'. SIGNIFICANT FIGURES IN OUTPUT The significant figures available in conversion factors is used to control the number of significant figures in the output. This provides realistic results where conversions between units of different precision are being made. The number of significant figures output is 1 less than the least precise conversion factor in use. UNIT DISPLAY PAGING Fast or slow paging through conversion lists is available. Slow paging uses the up and down arrow keys. Fast paging uses the PgUp, PgDn, Prev or Next keys. In addition different sections of the listing can be reached by typing the initial letter of the unit name. Provison for use of a mouse is also made. ALTERING CONVERSION FACTOR Conversion factors are presented in alphabetical order of name. Therefore please note that a name changed using the editing facility may result in a changed position in the list. DESCRIPTION OF UNIT To avoid inappropriate conversions (eg length to seconds), all conversion factors are classified and assigned a 'Type' according to classification. Only legitimate conversions are presented at the 'Convert Units' Option. Standard SI symbols are combined to form a 'Type' in the form normally used for SI units but modified to overcome problems with display on a VDU. Multiplication of symbols is indicated by display with a gap (eg N m). Division of symbols is expressed by a solidus - '/' (eg m/s). Powers are indicated by a number in brackets to the right of the symbol it refers to. (eg m(3)/s refers to cubic metres per second and kg/m(3) refers to kilogram per cubic metre). CURRENCY CONVERSIONS Currency conversions are included to broaden the use of METROCATE. Conversion factors should be brought up to date using the Alter option before use. All conversion factors provided are related to the United States dollar (factor = 1) but any base can be used provided all conversion factors used relate to that same base. FILES ON THIS DISK METROCAT.DOC Package documentation. This file. METROCAT.EXE Starts and runs package. CONVERT.DAT Main data file of measurement units. METROMSE.EXE Non-mouse version of METROCATE. To print this documentation - with your printer connected and turned on, disk in drive, drive door closed and normal DOS drive designation prompt (for example A>) on screen, type: COPY METROCAT.DOC PRN (then press return/enter key) PACKAGE INSTALLATION For intermittent use, METROCATE can run satisfactorily from floppy disk. It is recommended that, to enable you to recover from accidental disk damage, you backup the disk and keep the original in a safe place. To backup insert your DOS disk in drive A and close the drive gate. At the DOS prompt use the DOS diskcopy command as follows:- A>DISKCOPY A: A: (then press return/enter key) Follow the prompts as they are given. The SOURCE disk is the disk that METROCATE was supplied to you on and the TARGET disk is your new blank disk that you are copying to. For regular use METROCATE may be copied to hard disk where this is available. METROCAT.EXE and CONVERT.DAT are all that is required for operation and these should be copied to the same sub-directory on the hard disk. Should you find that METROCATE works unsatisfactorily on your machine then try using METROMSE.EXE instead of METROCAT.EXE. That is:- To start normally: A>METROCAT (Then press return/enter key) To start non-mouse version: A>METROMSE (Then press return/enter key) RESTRICTIONS Copyright 1991 John Mayes, 94 Majoribanks St, Mount Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand. Please copy and distribute METROCATE as you wish but in its original and unaltered form only. If your copy is not registered with me, and you like METROCATE, please register by ordering the latest version. An order form facility is built into the programme. With registration you will receive the latest data file of conversions, the latest program version and a printed manual. SHAREWARE This is a shareware software package and so please make copies for friends and associates. If you are new to computers you may not have heard the term SHAREWARE. Basically this means an author or group has prepared a software programme which you are free to copy and encouraged to share with others, but the author requests a REGISTRATION FEE. If you received this disk from a shareware distributor you have only paid a DISTRIBUTION/HANDLING FEE to copy and produce a disk of which NO PORTION goes to the author of the software. You are encouraged to pay the final REGISTRATION FEE which goes to the author of the software to recompense for the many hours of development work and to encourage further development. This fee is a matter of good conscience. The idea is that if the program is useful, you become a registered user of the program. LIMITATIONS Please Note: Care has been taken to ensure that conversions are as accurate as possible but some errors and differences of opinion are inevitable. There are differences of opinion among professionals and historians about the exact values and meanings of some units. The author accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or the results of application of conversions obtained using METROCATE. Any feedback on conversion factors is very welcome and substantial adopted suggestions will be recognised by supplying the next update free of charge. FUTURE DEVELOPMENT I plan to develop METROCATE into a major measurements unit reference by adding text descriptive material about each unit and fast search facilities. In addition I plan to provide a facility to allow users to design their own unit types for conversion of less common types of units not presently available in the data file. Also new units and facilities will be added regularly. Registered users will be offered updates at reduced prices. Requests for technical support, from all users, are welcome. To become a registered user please use the order form built into the package. John Mayes Ph/FAX Local (04) 384 5549 94 Majoribanks St Ph/FAX Intl + 64 4 384 5549 Mt Victoria Wellington NEW ZEALAND 20 February 1993