KSEG v0.401

Now that I wrote the kseg_help_en.html file, this is kind of outdated.
Read that file instead--it is much more readable.  For help to
work, make sure it is in the same directory as the language
files (*.qm)

----Old README:

This document has all the non-intuitive stuff.  It's very dense. 

------------------Stuff in v0.1:--------------------------

RIGHT-CLICK to construct points!  I expect that will be the most
common problem--in order to construct anything you must first have
points.

Select objects (by clicking or dragging--multiple objects by holding
shift) and make new objects.

To construct a locus, select a point on a path (circle, line, arc,
segment, or ray) and an object that depends on that point.  The locus
that the object traces will be constructed if you hit ALT+O, which
is a shortcut for New/Locus

Hold CTRL and drag a point to reconstrain it.  You can drag a point
off a line, or circle, for example, and move it onto an intersection.
Experiment with this--it is very useful.

----------------Stuff in v0.2:------------------------------

To create a calculation involving measured values, double click on one
of the measurements.  Then enter the formula.  You can use functions,
such as sin, cos, floor, exp, etc. in it.  To insert other
measurements or calculations, click on them in the sketch.

Constructions are sort of like macros: you first define them, and then
play them back in a sketch or in another construction.  A construction
can have different types of objects.  Most objects are normal
geometric objects, the same as you would have in a sketch.  You can
mark some objects given, (meaning the construction will be performed
on them) and then in order to play the construction, you will have to
select objects of the same type as the givens.  For example, if you
want to make a construction that creates a circumcircle given three
points, you would draw three points, construct their circumcircle, and
then mark the three points as given (using the construction menu).  To
play the construction in a sketch, you would just select three points,
select the construction from the play menu, and a circumcircle will
magically appear.  See the circumcircle.sec example file for this.

A lot of the power of constructions comes from their ability to be
recursive.  To recurse in a construction, select a set of objects of
types corresponding to the givens, and choose Recurse from the
Construction menu.  A loop will be created.  Notice that once you have
loops in your construction, the set of givens is fixed.  To change the
givens, you must first delete the loops (they would become invalid
anyway if the givens were changed).  When you play back a construction
with loops, a dialog will appear asking for the desired recursion
depth.  Be careful: the size of a construction may be exponential with
depth and KSEG will easily let you exhaust your memory--make sure you
don't construct too many objects.

Another type of construction objects are final.  They are only
constructed at the greatest recursion depth.  They can be well used
for cosmetic purposes.

The "initial" type of objects is the most difficult to understand and
use.  Even I often have trouble telling what they may do.  If you are
not a super-power KSEG user, skip the rest of this paragraph and don't
use them.  The idea behind initial objects is to let you save memory
by constructing them only once and keeping them the same across the
entire recursion tree.  So if you need the same independent
subconstruction at all depths, you can mark it as initial.  You can
also confuse the hell out of yourself.

Often, when dealing with constructions, you will not be allowed to do
something which you think you should be able to do.  While there are
certainly bugs, most of the time you really shouldn't be able to do
it.  Just think about it for a while and it should become clear why.

All of this is way easier done than said.

-------------------Stuff in v0.3-----------------------------------
Quick play is a way of having quick access to a bunch of
constructions in a directory through the menu without loading
each one--it's useful if you've created a library of constructions
and want to use them without loading them.  Just choose the
directory from the menu (Play/Quick Play) and when your selected
objects match the givens for a construction, the construction
becomes enabled in the menu.

*IMPORTANT*:
In order to allow this (quickly scanning tons of constructions
without wasting time or memory), I've had to change the file
format for constructions.  So constructions written by a version
of KSEG before 0.3 will not be available from the menu.  Just
load them and save them again and they'll be saved in the new
format.

I have now allowed the marking of a measurement or calculation to
be used for scaling or rotation (this means you can do things
like scale by the value of an angle and other horrible things).
While this violates the Euclidean nature of KSEG by allowing you
to create constructions you wouldn't be able to with just a
compass and a straightedge, it provides extra flexibility and
even a clumsy way for some analytic geometry.  But be careful
with this in the classroom, so that students don't trisect angles
or square circles by mistake.


Play around with KSEG to find out more features.  Have fun with it
and be sure to tell me if you like it or have success using it in
the classroom!

	-Ilya Baran
	ibaran@mit.edu
	http://www.mit.edu/~ibaran/



