The syntax descriptions for each command tell you
what options the command has, what arguments it takes, and what
keywords and arguments are optional or required. For some of the
commands the syntax is complicated and can be difficult to follow. An
alternative method is to fill in a form tailored to the command. The
Wizard window has forms or "wizards" for each Statistics101
command. The Wizard window appears when you select the Help>Wizards
menu item or press the F2 key from the Statistics101 main
window. (If that menu item is disabled it is because your computer is not running an up-to-date version of Java. The Wizard module of Statistics101 needs Java version 6 or later to run properly. The rest of Statistics101 will run with Java version 1.4 or later. You can get the latest version of Java free at: www.java.com)
There
are two Wizard dialogs, one for commands (Shift+F2) and another for subroutines (Ctrl+F2).
Both are very similar except for their contents. The Subroutines Wizard
automatically generates its fill-in forms based on the parameter list of the NEWCMD
declarations. Therefore, if you create a subroutine and add it to the
default subroutine folder (Edit>Preferences...>General>Default folder for my subroutines:),
make sure to provide meaningful names for the parameters and include a
one-line description on the NEWCMD line. See the Help topic for NEWCMD). The following description speaks about the Commands Wizard, but it applies identically to the Subroutines Wizard.
The Wizard window has a tabbed panel at its left that contains two lists of all the commands. One list shows all the commands in alphabetical order. The other shows the commands listed by category. A single click on a command name in either list will install the wizard for that command into the central panel of the window. In the above illustration, the HISTOGRAM command is selected and its wizard is displayed. At the top of the Wizard window are two text fields. The upper one displays the full command after the form is filled in. The lower one displays the description of the command.
At the bottom of the Wizard window there are four buttons:
The Help button summons the full documentation in the Help Browser for the displayed command. You can also access help for the selected command by double-clicking the Command field or the Description field at the top of the browser. If you hold down the Shift key while clicking on the Help button, this page (Using Wizards) will be displayed.
The Append to Program button assembles the command from the form and appends the command to the end of the program text in the Statistics101 editing window.
The Insert at Cursor button assembles the command and inserts it into the Statistics101 editor at the location of the cursor.
The Copy
button assembles the command and stores it in the system clipboard.
You can then paste it wherever you wish in your program.
The last
three buttons also display the completed command in the Command
window at the top of the panel.
In each Wizard, all the labels and buttons provide tooltips describing the purpose of the related field. Hovering the mouse pointer over a label reveals the tooltip. The tooltips should help clarify how to fill in the form. If you have additional questions, you can click the Help button to get answers from the command's help text.
After you have filled in the form for a particular command, click one of the three buttons, Append to Program, Insert at cursor or Copy. If the wizard detects no errors, it will construct the command from the form, display it in the Command text field at the top of its window and then perform the action requested by the button. If the wizard detects an error, it will display a dialog informing you of the error so you can correct it. It only displays one error at a time, so if there are more errors they will only be reported one by one after you fix the earlier ones.
The graph command wizards (BUBBLEGRAPH, HISTOGRAM,
SCATTERGRAPH and XYGRAPH), by default use the Y variable name or the
Y-axis label as the title
of the graph's tab when the program is run. But you can set the tab
title using the TITLE
keyword. As shown in the above figure for the HISTOGRAM wizard, you can
check the Tab Label:
box, then fill in the text that you want to display on the tab. You
have the option to format the tab title for emphasis, setting its size,
color, bold, italic etc. using HTML codes. To make it easier for you to
add the HTML markup, click on the HTML button. That will reveal the following dialog.
As you type your text and HTML markup in the Tab Label: edit window you will see the immediate results in the Preview: space. When you are satisfied with the preview, click Done and the HTML line will be copied to the Tab Label: text window on the main graph Wizard window.
For guidance on the HTML syntax, click on the Help button. Do not precede your input with <html>; that will be added automatically when you press Done.
The Subroutine Wizard by default assumes that all arguments listed in a
NEWCMD command may be either variables or constants. The tooltips
assigned to the variable name labels in the Wizard will by default say
"Enter a variable name or a constant in the text field at right."
Output arguments must not be literal constants (e.g., 1.5 or 235),
because the subroutine cannot give a new value to a constant, and the
purpose of an output argument is to receive a new value. If you want to
notify the Wizard that an argument is an output argument, simply add
"Out" or "Result" anywhere in the name of the argument when you are writing your subroutine. For example, if
the argument name is "myArg", then any of these variations will signal
the wizard that it is an output: "myArgOut", "myOutArg", "outMyArg" or
"myArgResult", "myResultArg" "myArgResult". One consequence of using
this signal is that the tooltip for that argument in the wizard will
change to "Enter a variable name in the text field at right." More
importantly, the wizard will check the content of that field for
literal constants and if one is found, it will raise an error message
dialog allowing the user to change it.