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VISTA Compatibility To make Converge fully VISTA compatible, hundreds of internal changes were made, most of which will not be noticed by previous users. For example, many hundreds of instances of an incompatible and obsolete font were rewritten using another font and replaced with corresponding prompts repositioned and resized. The most common problem associated with this font was very great difficulty in installing Converge. Another example is that the previous help system and Derive and Mathcad student labs were also obsolete. These were previously written for and compiled by a Classical help compiler. All these help systems had to be translated for and compiled by a modern HTML help compiler.
Go to top It is a
good exercise for calculus students to try to visualize the general shape of
the graph of a function, given the graphs of the derivative of the
function. After you select Calculus then Derivatives, you
can see a new menu choice that enable students to do this. It is: After the graphs of F’ is drawn, Converge will freeze the graphing and then plot one point on the graph of F with a large dot.
You can now use the graph of F’ to visualize the general shape of the graph of F. Try to
visualize the graph of F from left to right, one section at a time. After
you think you know the general shape of the graph of a particular section,
hold down
Go to top This feature is independent of the math program you configure for use with Converge. You can use this feature to: Export Converge functions of the type Z = F(X,Y) for immediate graphing by DPGraph, versions 2003 to 2008. Open ASCII DPGraph equation (.dpg) files, edit the equations (and many other parameters in these files), then cause the revisions to be graphed in DPGraph and/or save these revisions in a DPGraph file. Enter your own equations (in explicit or implicit form) and send them to DPGraph for immediate graphing. One new
feature with respect to DPGraph is that you have to option to bypass the
Export to DPGraph window by clicking For example, if DGGraph is running and in Converge you see
then if
you click
and you can use the four arrow keys to rotate the DPGraph graph, and the PgUp and PgDn keys to zoom in and out. This also works for the Partial Derivative with respect to... submenu choices of the Calculus Menu of Converge. For example, if you see then if
you click
and you
can use the arrow keys to rotate this DPGraph graph in four different
directions. For another example, if you click
then in DPGraph you immediately see
and you
can rotate and zoom in and out of the graphs. Converge generally communicates with DPGraph by inserting characters in the Windows keyboard buffer, just as if a user typed the keys for these characters. (When the user types keys on the keyboard, the characters for those keys are entered into this buffer and then processed by Windows when Windows is ready to use them.) On some tablet computers, however, this method of communication does not work consistently. In this case, if you turn on the Export on via the Windows clipboard option
in the Export to DPGraph window, the graphing environment is inserted by Converge into the clipboard, so you can paste it into the appropriate place in DPGraph. To use
the clipboard to transfer graphs, after you click
1. In DPGraph, click Edit.
3. Click Execute. The sections of the Converge labs that involve the use of symbolic algebra software have been rewritten so that they work with Maple 11 and Maple 12. So if you configure Converge to work with Maple, all the non-Converge activities, examples, and problems in the Converge labs will involve the use of Maple. The Converge labs also include many more problems for students to solve using Converge or other software. In Converge 10.0, you can transfer graphs, equations, tables, and matrices to Word 2007 just as previous versions of Converge transferred such objects to Word. What's new is that the Converge Labs toolbar provided by previous versions of Converge (for previous versions of Word) has been very greatly expanded. Instead of accessing the Converge macro buttons via a Word 2007 "Add-In", which would mean that these buttons would not normally even be visible, these buttons are added to the Word 2007 Quick Access Toolbar Because the Converge macro buttons are installed into the Quick Access Toolbar, you will see and have instant access to all the following Converge macro buttons at all times when you are using Word 2007. Some of these buttons are convenient for students doing the Converge labs, other buttons are convenient for preparing Word documents that contain math expressions, and many buttons serve both purposes. For
example, the button The Converge macro buttons appear on the Word 2007 Quick Access Toolbar as:
After all these macro buttons are installed, you can view their tool tip text phrases, experiment with them, and delete any button you don't need by right-clicking on the button and selecting Delete. These buttons are as follows:
Interface with Maple 11 and 12 Transferring Functions from Converge to Maple The easiest way to do this is to click one of the Main Menu buttons:
This
click will cause the current function of X in Converge to be translated to
Maple format and then copied to the clipboard. If you click Make sure you are in Math mode in Maple, for example if above the Maple work area
you see
Click Another way copy the current function in Converge to the clipboard is:
This procedure will work whether part or all of the function in the Converge input box is highlighted or not. Then you can use the above steps to paste the function into Maple. Also, if you select Copy Selected Text to Paste in Maple after you right-click on the function, the highlighted part of the Converge function will be translated to Maple format and copied to the clipboard. Example 1: (Pasting over a highlighted expression) You may paste the Converge function into a non-empty math box in Maple, so long the Maple cursor or the highlighted part of the box is a proper location for a Maple function. Here are some examples: If you
see Example 2: (Pasting to the cursor position) If you
see Example 3: (Pasting a piecewise function) In
Maple, piecewise functions are defined using the piecewise function. This
function has the format: For example in Maple, the piecewise function defined by
represents the function
In a Maple piecewise function there is always an otherwise expression. (If you omit the otherwise expression when you enter the piecewise definition, Maple will consider it to be 0. For example the function defined by
represents the function
To
accommodate this Maple format (which does not exist in Converge), Converge
always translates piecewise functions to Maple format with the
otherwise expression which
displays in Maple as If you
click As a real-valued function, this Maple function is equivalent to the original Converge piecewise function. Transferring Functions from Maple to Converge You transfer a function from Maple to Converge as follows:
This procedure will work whether part or all of the function in the Converge input box is highlighted or not. Also, if you select Paste from Maple after you right-click on the Converge function, the highlighted part (if any) of the Converge function will be replaced by the translated to Maple function. Transferring Graph and Equation windows from Converge to Maple To
transfer the Converge Graph window to Maple, click
To transfer the equation window, right-click on the Graph or Equation window and select Insert Equation into Maple. Transferring Tables from Converge to Maple To transfer only some of the table rows to Maple, drag the mouse in the left column to highlight the left-column of those rows you want to transfer, right-click on the Table Window, and select Insert Table Rows into Maple. To transfer the entire table to Maple, make sure no rows are highlighted. (You can click on the table to clear any highlighting.) Then select Insert Table Rows into Maple. Here is an example of the result of transferring a Converge table to Maple. The table as it appears in Converge:
The table after it is transferred to Maple:
Go to top Since this feature was updated in 2004 for Mathcad 11, there have been some changes in Windows and Mathcad that adversely effect this feature. Mathcad no longer allows users to save Mathcad files in ASCII format, which enabled Converge to analyze to find all the Mathcad functions for import to Converge. Mathcad also stores functions in the clipboard in a proprietary binary format. This means that Converge can no longer transfer functions from Mathcad (ver. 12 or later) to Converge. Also, Converge exports functions to Mathcad by inserting characters in the Windows keyboard buffer, just as if a user typed the keys for these characters. On some tablet computers running under recent operating systems, however, this method of communication does not work consistently. To accommodate for this contingency in the Converge Labs for Mathcad, a Mathcad file is now provided that contains all the functions normally transferred from Converge to
Mathcad. So instead of clicking on
Go to top (This option is new for most users of Converge 9.) If you are using a tablet PC computer, then transferring functions via temporary files may not work well. In this case, users will want to select the option (see graphic below) to Transfer functions between Converge and Derive using the Windows Clipboard. If you check this box, Converge will NOT use temporary files to transfer functions between Converge and Derive. Instead, the user will use the clipboard to transfer the functions.
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until
you get the graph for that section.
which
is now (by factory default) displayed on the bottom of the Converge Graph
window. You can do this by turning on the following check box at the top of
this window:
and/or
Export: 
,
which opens the Equation Editor, will
always be visible and accessible in Word 2007.
For many users who have gotten used to using the Equation Editor, it will be
worth installing the Converge macro buttons just to have this one button
always immediately accessible.
(Copy Default Converge Function to Paste in Maple) or
(Copy
- in Parentheses - Default Converge Function to Paste in Maple).
,
and the Maple cursor is blinking in a Math input box, 
,
you may paste the Converge function into Maple.
in
Maple (or right-click in the input box and select Paste) to paste the
function into Maple.
and
you click 
in
the Maple integral template. Then you can press Enter to see an
antiderivative of the Converge function.
(the
Maple function definition template) and the Maple cursor is blinking at the
right of this box, when you click 
in
Maple, the translated Converge function will put at the right in math box
and the Converge function will now be defined as a function
in
Maple.
,
.
For example, if you just graphed the function file piece2.x and in
Converge you see
on
the Converge Main Menu and then click 
in
Maple to put this function in the clipboard (or right-click on the
highlighted function and select Copy). 
at
the bottom of the Graph window.
to
transfer a function from Converge to Mathcad, the student can open this file
and drag the function from this file to the Mathcad document he/she is
working in.