Email: roizen@ix.netcom.com        Feedback Welcomed             Can answer questions        Coperate on something? References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T/Maker                         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter Roizen Links:            The Download Page                                                        My other  idea:  WildWords Crossword Game    This is as easy as it can get.  Get an overview of this interface with a click here. Please avoid prejudging the capabilities of T/Maker. T/Maker: What do you see or imagine? I see myself in a classroom at Fairmeadow Elementary School circa mid-fifties. A teacher stands at a blackboard with chalk in their hand putting up simple problems in arithmetic. All students are paying attention. No one doubts this is worth learning. Tennis shoes came in high tops or low tops. The label on clothing was Sears of JCPenny. In retrospect I am thankful for that lack of choices. But not now, when it comes to spreadsheets. Algebraic spreadsheets? An "Excel with formula" search turned up this image.  An Average and Percent column are calculated along with four column totals. There is an arrow that points to the formula for the 10.6 value. As a Rorschach Test, I suspect more people would shout "Bingo" than "Percentage."  This formula is convoluted to the extent I feel guilty using it. But as a David battling the Goliaths of institures and software powerhouses, I cannot afford the luxury of professional courtesies to them. Calculating that in T/Maker? Now let's do the equivalent of Excel in T/Maker. Will use three "calculation trails" to compute the 14 derived values.  When you read a bit more, you will get a full explanation. But with even a quick look at these trails you can probably guess how things work. Trail 1 to the right calculates the totals of columns C and D. Trail 2 below calculates Averages from the Total and the Count. Trail 3 calculates the Percent of the Grand Total (D7) for all car models. The slightly grayed green cells show the locations where the trail is used or reused starting with Step 1 at the designated location. With Excel you put algebraic formulas in the pidgeon holes they calculate. With T/Maker a trail consist of steps that let you walk around the landscape of your spreadsheet drawing in values, placing new values, or just doing an operation along the way. They typically serve a particular purpose with a logical starting point and a logical ending point. The ability to see the trail and data in one view over the landscape of your spreadsheet makes all the difference in the world. It's just a click to flip between the trails. Though most anything can be calculated, the "T" in "T/Maker" stands for "Table." It does a nifty job of getting those correctly specified with a minimum of intellectual stress. I personally have no fear of algebraic notation, cosines, or logarithms. I just choose for myself the easiest, least abstract, most trusted, and even fun way to do math. I would not be surprised nor embarassed to see a sixth grader in a coffee shop using the same tool. Which approach would you explain to 5th graders to encourage learning math? ( Rhetorical } Everyone should have a math tool. That includes people who never have or never will study algebra, or flunked or forgot it. Learning the tool should start with steps that are immediately rewarding. You don't want to risk a quick stumble or students wondering "what-for?" out of the gate.  Adding up five numbers may not be a dramatic start but it sits on the path to a household budget. New elements of T/Maker can be introduced as they are required to solve problems. In practice is better than in theory. Nothing about learning T/Maker early does anything but smoothen a transition to algebra for those on that path. A higher level of word problems can be introduced to develop critical thinking since the supporting arithmetic by hand is not needed. Memories in T/Maker are like named variables in algebra, but the user chooses the names. It's also programmable, has conditional logic, and can be used to learn a bit about all sorts of subjects. That could expose students to domains they might venture into one day. It fosters experimentation, trial and error without regrets, and progressive learning. At this time very few people have ever heard of T/Maker. If you find this crosses the threshold of interesting, and you know a teacher or maybe a group connected to math education, please share it with them. My email is noted at the page top, and I respond if asked.

Some say teach everyone algebra. Others say let many learn practical math. Meanwhile graduating seniors and the population at large are setting new lows for numeracy measures. And, how do you do this "practical math" easily when every spreadsheet is driven by the abstract notation you are trying to avoid? Answer: come up with a new tool founded in arithmetic. The tool here does good work, dempnstrates a completely new approach, and is the best I can do on my own. So, why me? How did I get here? Why am I suggesting this thing that no one else ever even imagined? Answer below, but you are welcome to skip it.  It's is just history.

History:  While the world produced cell-based algebra spreadsheets (starting with VisiCalc), unusual choices resulted in a task on my desk that was fundamentally different. I was working at the World Bank where slight changes in some budget numbers led to recalculations with a math program and a retyping of those numbers in a document. They had just gotten a new machine running Unix. I tried an approach of putting instructions using arithmetic in the left margins and above various rows. These could be removed by a filter before printing. Thus the numbers in the document could be recalculated within the documents themselves saving time consuming steps. It was very appreciated. I thought it was a pretty good idea and wanted to pursue programs for micro computers, but, alas, management had no interest. I bought a computer myself instead of a new car and spent the proverbial year of free time in the basement. In the process, I had to switch to CBASIC, add a screen editor, word processing, and a host of other useful functions. I published T/Maker in 1979 with a better math feature and greatly enhanced by all the other stuff. Some people give it credit for being the first ever office suite of programs for a personal computer. Later in 1991, I extracted the math part and added cells in a version for Windows. In 2020 a system update killed these tools. Jumping ship to a regular spreadsheet would have been a betrayal of worthy ideas, fond memories, and surprising success. So I resurrected and expanded this one-of-a-kind syntax targeting it for students and others with no knowledge of, or inclination to learn, algebraic notation, and thus no existing spreadsheet to use. Am I a madman on a mission? I am on a mission and might be the one person in the world who was destined to create this page, at this time, with this approach. The lead-up described is accurate and spans more than four decades. It's hard to say that is not a form of destiny! This latest version again took me one year to code but I no longer have a basement. Sketch from Programmers At Work, Microsoft Press, (c) 1983 Not the best title for the 1991 version!

 

Interface and Syntax:  Please read with attention and focus on the examples. T/Maker is a spreadsheet with a new and different attitude. What is the process of calculating all about? Usually you have some numbers and hope to derive a new one based on them. Maybe your annual sales from monthly figures? Maybe the average number of eggs per day laid by your chickens? Who knows? Aside from the numbers to start with, you will need basic arithmetic symbols representing known operations with two numbers: + adds two numbers, / divides a first number by a second, etcetera. So what should one look for in a software program intended to do calculations especially for those without algebraic abilities? Easy ways to write and understand the math operators and the sequence in which they are executed. Shortcuts to designate numbers used and created with minimal characters or even just clicks thus avoiding error-prone column-letter / row-number names. If you could see the above side by side with the data used on one screen with an intuitive display, that would be a godsend. Allowing calculations to be placed in locations that clarify the intent instead of always in the cell where the result is to be displayed. Having a tool to walk through and display the results of each operation one by one to build your confidence you got it all right. All these charms are afforded by T/Maker. I should mention that I have always tried to avoid a standard manner to doing something. T/Maker offers options. That flexibility has generally been appreciated by those who enjoy exercising some judgement. But there are others who prefer hard and fast rules -- one and only one way. Believe it or not, there are people who hate to draw a blank tile in Scrabble, because it creates more to think about. Let's start with a giant calculator which can, if needed, display tons of buttons sitting on top a screen of green and white boxes in two dimensions. Formulas are not written in T/Maker as in algebra. Rather, you compose things called Calculation Trails. These are specified in the green boxes. The white boxes hold the text and numbers you want to see or print when not fiddling with the math. Each trail is made up of steps which are numbered and executed in number order. One step is like a sequence of buttons pressed on a calculator. T/Maker does the step moving left to right. Unlike a formula, one trail can calculate many values. Also there is no need for parentheses or confusing rules of precedence. You can see some Basic Operators in the middle of the toolbar. There are tool tips to learn most everything. The exclamation point ! operator enters a value into the calculator. But which value? In T/Maker there are choices to make. A key to understanding T/Maker is learning to read the operator symbol and see immediately what value is designated with it. That value is most often used in conjunction with the value already in the calculator. When the symbol requires such a value and none follows the operator, T/Maker takes the value from the adjacent white column. Step 1 sets the value in the calculator to 2. Step 2 adds the value 3 to the calculator since the operator is followed by a constant. The presence of 55 in the white cell is not relevant. Columns in T/Maker are named from A to Z. When an operator is followed by a single letter, the value used will be the one in the column named. In step 3 the value in the calculator is multiplied by the value in column D which is 5. As with step 2, the number in the adjacent cell is of no consequence. With experience, you learn to choose among possibilities to achieve a clear and tidy presentation of what is going on. There are things called "Functions" that typically take the value in the calculator and replace it with a value derived from it. "sqr" is one that replaces the calculator's value with its square root. An equal sign = is an Output operator and is followed by a designation of where to place the current calculator value. The same is true of the number symbol #. The difference is the = also clears the calculator to zero while the # leaves the value in the calculator unchanged for further manipulations. T/Maker's calculator offers memory storage slots you can name yourself. A memory name must start with two letters optionally followed by more letters and numbers. They must not be the same as a keyword in the toolbar. Choose them for their rememberability. They are immensely valuable for intermediate results. In Step 4, the square root value in the calculator is placed in a memory named SaveIt. Step 5 enters 4 in the calculator, adds the value in the SaveIt memory and puts the result in cell C6 -- column C row 6. Cell names are discouraged. They have no intuitive value and often lead to mistakes. Yet, they are the way algebraic spreadsheets specify most values. Step 6 determines the area of a circle from its diameter using the built-in memory pi. Sometimes it's best to do a whole calculation in one green cell. In Excel, the formula to do this would be put in cell C8 as: =((b8/2)^2)*PI(). That might as well be Greek for millions. If you remove the parentheses, =b8/2^2*PI, you would get a different result. Math groups all over the Internet are filled with puzzles that are nothing more than a series of operators without parentheses. They say you are a genius if you can figure out the default order of operations and the number the formula yields. That's like starting an artful tapestry class with three days of practice threading needles. For FYI Sake: "Special" functions require multiple input numbers as with a mortgage payment (amount, interest rate, length of loan). By convention the parameters are placed in fixed name memories. "Flow Control" allows impromptu exits from or restarts of various calculations. A "When" clause describes a conditional test so different situations can be handled by different calculations. T/Maker's calculator is completely programmable and useable to create simulations, perform binary searches, etcetera. Whiz kids will not be stifled.  Still, giving a completely ignored audience a way to do daily life bookkeeping and calculations sans algebra is the top priority.

   

Caveat: The hyphen symbol in a T/Maker trail is always interpreted to be the subtaction operator. If you want to put a negative constant into a trail, you must use the underscore character. Suppose the intent in row 1 column A is to multiply 5 by minus 3 and put the result in column B. After entering the 5 into the calculator, T/Maker finds the asterisk multiplier. That operator is followed by a hyphen which is interpreted as a subtraction operator. Since the * is not followed by a value, it is assumed to refer to the value in the adjacent white cell. Thus 5 *7 -3 results in 32. In row 2 this intention is written as it should be so the result is -15. Columns C and D show a similar misunderstanding with the power operator.  There is also a function "neg" which reverses the sign of the value in the calculator. This could have been used for the column A and B example.  !5 *3 neg. You would spot this mistake in the debugger when the * or ^ operator was used with the adjacent white cell value.

 

Mistakes: Nobody makes them except for everyone! Not many authors of spreadsheets enjoy talking about mistakes. It is estimated that 90% of spreadsheets have some error in them. You are probably not in a position to lose $6.2 billion like the "London Whale."  But confidence in the calulations you make is bound to be important. Also, I am not suggesting T/Maker for Goodman Sachs and other financial services. T/Maker gets a head start in reducing its error rate.  The syntax is easier to read and more in-your- face. The specific order of calculation is set by you in a left to right manner. In a formula, the computation might start somewhere in the middle of nested parentheses. In T/Maker you can also minimize the use of cell names owing to other options. Taking advantage of this reality, T/Maker has a special debug mode. You can watch in work live with the link below. The Next Op button will be pushed every few seconds. There are other ways to advance on the light orange bar. The left upper side shows the trail, the particular application of it, and the step currently involved. The most interesting items to watch are the changing values in calculator and cell along with the operators as T/Maker chews through them. When looking for bugs you can make a mental guess as to how the calculator will change on the next button push. If that is not confirmed by advancing then you did not write your calculation correctly or the one you made in your mind was flawed. The Debugger will do all the calculation trails up to one you have on the screen. This makes relatively quick to check a trail you just wrote. Oh! A click on the image above will take you to the article. Use the Pause and Play buttons of your media player as desired. The numbers and the trail are meaningless which makes this a good test of your understanding of the syntax. Can you guess the approximate value of the number to come up in the calculator. Watch the video with a click here..

Teaching T/Maker: It is not hard to do the calculations for a vareity of topics. These topics can also be supported by practical applications. Templates as well could be provided. The differences between a template in T/Maker and one in Excel are substanial. Each trail in T/Maker can be given a name and explained with an associated comment. Trails mimic the operations of a hand calculator which is easier to grasp than nested parentheses and cell names. PLUS, the user can walk through any and all calculations operator by operator. Modifications are also simpler to undertake and verify. Important Author's Message: My experience is that the best way to start solving something more that a table problem is to sketch it out with a pencil and paper. Put some circles on a page for intermediate results that make sense in terms of when they are needed (first ones closer to the top) and keep related results nearby. Maybe draw some connecting lines. Keep the math generally working from left to right or use shortcuts to keep a complicated calculation succinct in a minimum number of green cells. Experiment! Think of the paper as if you were standing in front of an easel and sketching an inpressionist rendering of a solution. T/Maker shares a factor with those three rules of real estate -- location, location, and location. It's visual format allows for a new dimension no other spreadsheet has. "Trail" is a great concept and name. It's not just about calculating a number for one box. It's a path from a logical starting point to a logical destination. Of course, this might be interpreted as BS to some extent it probably. But I really think hitting the keyboard before you have some sort of map will lead to wasted time and poor solutions. The above table has one trail that calculates the usual DIY values for three shapes. It's probable a substanial portion of the population would never use more geometry than this. The values and arithmetic needed are specified in full. I doubt another spreadsheet would even attempt such a display! You can see a variety of ways are used to reference values for the sake of a tidy and clear left to right presentation. This is learned with experience. As stressed before, a natural familiarity with each option is essential: + [white cell],  +3 [constant],  +B [column named],  +C7 [cell named], +ASquared [your memory name].  Go Step By Step with Debugger   28 Seconds  Pause/Play if needed

    

Real Geometry Example: BTW, just doing useful tables and solving problems with some intermediate values would already be a step up for millions. Here is a real example in geometry. I know that because I needed it myself. 30 4x4 fence posts were to be sunk in holes 9 inches in diameter and two feet deep. The question is how many bags of  QuikCrete should be ordered to fill the space in the hole with the pole in it. BTW, you can see a Steps Box here which shows all the steps for a given trail. Take a look at it now to understand what is going on. It's a handy feature under a variety of circumstances. Also note that memories with descriptive names are used for important values which may also be displayed. The trail is much easier to grasp when this is done. Go Step By Step with Debugger  56 Seconds  Pause/Play if needed

    

Arithmetic and Algebra While algebra may succinctly represent new amazing ideas, when it comes to calculating, that work is done with arithmetic. This table solves a quadratic equation. Values can be entered for coeffients A, B, and C. The Compute button is pushed to get the solutions if any. There is a first trail which is not shown. It clears the cells where results are placed and puts the pharse "No Solutions" in the cell A5. Trail 2 overwrites that if there are indeed solutions. If B-squared minus 4 times A times C is negative, Step 7 exits the trail to stop further calculations. Remember, a single letter is a column name not a memory. A memory must start with at least two letters. Imagine how much more confusing this would look if I used cell names instead of convenient memories. Also, it takes a greater level of effort to write the whole formula correctly than it does to write the series of step by step operations to calculate the values. Go Operator By Operator Through Both Trails with Debugger   53 Seconds  Pause/Play if needed Some Editorializing: I do believe everyone should know how to read a formula in algebraic notation for the sake of calculating something. Of course, parentheses should be favored over esoteric applications of precedence. Those people putting endless puzzles on the Internet based on that should spend a night in jail for Obstruction of Brain Cells. Regarding simultaneous equations, I always wonder how someone came to know the perimeter of a park and the length being twice the width, but never knew the park's outright dimensions? And while I am ranting, I think many can postpone learning complex numbers (e.g., the square root of minus nine) until a thermostat accepts them.

  

Here is a mix of subjects that could be explained more easily with T/Maker than with anything else: Teach simple charts: Which one makes your point best? Teach keeping track of bills and budgeting. Teach basic statistics: Why is the median often more informative than the mean?  Teach simulating roulette with the optimal strategy for a certain risk, reward, and lucky number. Believe it or not!   Note:  The above statistics operator/function relies on memory names that end with a question mark.  The memory name this represents is the result of replacing the question mark with the letter of the column it is found in.  It is sometimes handy  to have one trail that is used across multiple columns while working with and potentially leaving behind results with unique memory names for each column.

Forms: With four different line styles plus the possibility of no line, you can design some nice forms. Allow text to span multiple columns when setting formats (Alignment "+" Spans). Text can be specified in an invisible ink format effectively blanking it out. This is useful when elements in a table are needed for calculations but not desired in a final print-out. A respectably looking estimate or invoice template could cetainly be made for the self-employed.

Printing:  Print the table in one of four fonts. Choose font style and size. Set a row height to tighten or spread out the vertical dimension. Decide whether or not to print lines. Options are available for row names and column names. Switch between landscape and portrait as well as set margins with two system dialog boxes called up with a button. The top of the page shows the length and width of your table in pages. In addition to marign adjustments, changing the size of the font and other items may affect these numbers. Use the Recalculate button to refigure the size when you have altered any items. I generally try for a minimum number of pages with the width of only a single page.

What was that? Sometimes you run across things in T/Maker that may seem a bit odd, but do have practical applications. Most programs have some sort of find and replace box for text. T/Maker's is shown below. In addition to being a feature you can call up on the fly, you can store a variety of instructions with the file itself. Suppose you do an invoice for someone with a list of purchases you made on their behalf. You might come up with abbreviations for items or the stores involved. When you start a new invoice you can call up an old one, throw away the data, and give the new file a new name while taking advantage of abbreviations in the file. Here is a video of a full screen while pushing the Do All Instructions / Cells Button .

The above should be enough to understand what T/Maker puts on the table.
What's below is just descriptions I am working on and should be ignored.
I need to look at the state of the built-in tutorial which I have not examined in years.
Other features, however interesting, are not needed to do the most common tasks.

If you made it to here, your comment would be especially appreciated.   Email: roizen@ix.netcom.com

Mortgages And Other  Functions That Require Multiple Parameters:  For mortgage payments and a few other common but complicated calculations, there are built-in procedures to do them. The table below might be used to calculate the monthly expenses of a potential home purchase. It could be done with one trail but is easier to explain with three. I put the trails under each other to avoid two operators positoned on the same cell or uses of memories for other than their usage in the mortage funcion. As T/Maker avoids parentheses the normal expression for functions with parameters can not be use. Stopper here for today.

 

Importing / Exporting Data You can import and export data to a T/Maker spreadsheet. The clipboard plays a central role in both situations. When importing you can load the clipboard from a file on disk or use the copy keystroke or menu item to copy a selected area from whatever. Next you can show the clipboard and examine or even change of its contents. After selecting an upper lefthand corner in your T/Maker table to accept the data, you can push a button to make the transfer for a given format. t time, you will choose from a number of possible formats to try. Open a table file or create a new blank one for the data to be imported. Click Export / Import menu, then Clipboard / File Controls If the data is in a file, use the Load Clipboard button. Otherwise make sure the data is in the clipboard. Push the Show Clipboard button to display the data. You may edit lines shown for whatever purpose. If you do, push Set Clipboard To: button to load your edited version. For this example, I made a selection from a web page and used the copy keystroke. I was unable to select the titles. Perhaps they are represented by a graphic and not text. Pushing the Show Clipboard button, the data appeared as in the listbox. I used the Select cursor on Row 1 Column A as the strarting position to load the table. Then I chose the White Space Delimited option to transfer the data to the table. You can see the first two rows below. Picking data out of a web page works or does not work depending on how the HTML in the web page is written. As you can see, there are a number of Clipboard to Table options. You can try one after the other.  Push the Explain button for more details. If you can get a CSV file, use it. If not, you can inspect the clipboard to see what might work.  The Export / Import menu also has some cursors to fix problems that might occur on individual rows. Exporting Data: Load the table from which data is to be exported. Click Export / Import menu, then Clipboard / File Controls Use the Select Cursor to select an area (click first and last cell) Hint for above: use Page Up, Page Down, etc. to move screen Or, push Select All button. Enter CSV Character for separating values in CSV Format. (Above does not have to be a comma) Check Export Raw Values or leave blank for formatted values. Choose a Table to Clipboard option. Clipboard will then show in area below. You may edit lines shown for whatever purpose. If so, push Set Clipboard To: afterwards to load your changes. To save clipboard as a file, push Save Clipboard option. A dialog box will allow you to set a folder and file name.    Moving Data:    Save the file as it is first.  Duplicate or move data in a table by exporting it. Then import it to the new location.    Erase the old data when that operation is completed. Don't save anything until you are sure.    BTW, one backup file is kept with zzz prepended to the file name if you set that option in the Options Menu.