TouchPlot app for iPhone and iPad
Developer: Pierre-Henri Jondot
First release : 30 Jul 2008
App size: 1.13 Mb
TouchPlot is a powerful grapher with a long list of features :
- formula editor with custom keyboards along with prettyprint display of the formula being entered. Since version 4.0, an alternative algebraic formula editor is provided, and the learning curve is now much lower.
- symbolic differentiation
- numeric integration with graphical display
- user-defined, easy to manage, libraries of functions
- representative curves of functions with a focus on accuracy and speed, with several modes for inspection (zeros, extrema, intersection and values, definite integration)
- calculation of first terms of iterative sequences, and graphical representation of them
- parametric curves in cartesian and polar coordinates
- (numerical) solutions of ordinary differential equations (first and second order) with vector fields
- user defined constants with sliders to observe how a curve is changed by a parameter, or to adjust initial conditions of a differential equation particular solution...
- logarithmic scales if needed, adjustable separately for horizontal and vertical axis.
- drawing of equations, inequations solutions, contourplots, gradient fields, and 3d-plotting of surfaces with equation z=F(x,y).
See the website for documentation, tutorials and activities, videos.
P.S. : heres a hint for those who dont know : you can get a screenshot of the current view by pressing home+lock buttons.
P.P.S. : if despite the embedded documentation and the tutorials on the website you encounter a difficulty, you can get support through email. The adress is very easy to be found in the website as well as in the embedded documentation. (See About section).
Latest reviews of TouchPlot app for iPhone and iPad
TouchPlot makes beautiful graphs without complicated instructions or a cluttered interface. Multiple graphs are a snap. Parametric plots are delightfully easy. Finding zeros, and extrema couldnt be simpler. Direct Polish is no trouble at all; just think ahead. As a bonus, equations are nicely formatted. This app almost makes graphing on a calculator obsolete. Tiny quibble: After typing a function, touching "OK" sends the user back to the menu for the function. But after clearing a function ("C"), touching "OK" does not send the user back to the menu for the function; touching "C" again sends the user back. I believe thats inconsistent. After a function is cleared, the user should go to the function menu after touching either "C" or "OK." Suggestion for enhancement: Drag and zoom menu only: double-tap the screen when the menus are visible gives a cross-hair that can be moved with your finger and a readout of the cross-hair position becomes visible. Of course the touch functions (changing the graphs view by sliding one finger, or spreading two fingers) become inoperable while the cross-hair is visible. Double-tap the screen (menus still visible) and the cross-hair disappears. Usual touch functions return to normal.
This is a pretty nice plotting app and will hopefully get even better. The slider bars for manipulating constants are very useful; the UI for this is more straightforward than what you find in many computer graphing packages, though I find the sliders hard to put my fingers on sometimes. The pinch interface for zooming in on functions is especially slick. The equation entry system is a bit of a challenge at first, though it makes equations that are nice to see. Hopefully an equation system similar to Apples Grapher.app can show up eventually. As of 8/8/08, here are some features that I hope will show up later: - More special functions (e.g. gamma function and its log, digammas, beta function, Bessel functions, hypergeometric series, probability distribution functions, etc.) - A way to get the numerical value of a function at x. - More plots at once. - Inequalities.
This is a really cool app. The formula editor isnt really that difficult to figure out. There are also helpful tutorials on the authors website. It creates some really nice graphs. For the price and the functionality of this app, it is well worth it.
if there was ( ) in the function editor it would be much better.
I use mathematica / matlab on Mac. I wanted some handy tool to plot on the road, and this looks to be a good candidate. Plots are pretty nice. The setting of the equation is not quite what I like, but is OK. I want two features added to make this one much easier for me to use. One is to save the entire setting, including equations, boundaries, etc, by a name. Later I load the setting by selecting from a list. I often use same functions with small modifications, and, for now, I have to start anew, each time. Second is, somehow, I want to edit the equations. I wrote a complex formula, examined, and found I missed a sqrt. I dont want to start from a scratch. The programmer is very responsive and I believe this software will become much more handy, soon.