WingZ

OK, here's my gripe. I wanted to graph some stock prices by date (pretty unusual application this). My data were irregularly spaced, so I had to use an XY presentation (really esoteric now). Once a week, I need to extend my graph to reflect the latest closing prices (can I be the first?). First problem: nowhere in the three manuals nor the online help (ever feel there is TOO MUCH documentation?) does it say that a date range can be the X part of an XY graph. Solution: It can, but not directly. Try to make a graph using a date column and a numeric column, then change its type to XY, and it bombs. But make an XY from two numeric columns, then change one series range to the date column, and voila! Y versus date, all nicely labelled. Next problem: Having made my graph, I add a row to the spreadsheet and try to extend the graph. Chart, Range was no use at all. Series, Range was ineffectual because the graph was always based on the number of data points when it was first created. Trying to trick the system by inserting a row into the middle of the range didn't work. Starting from scratch and specifying each range as the entire column also did not allow me to extend it later: again, the number of data points seemed to be fixed when the graph was first created. Solution: Make a script to build the graph from scratch each time. Sorry, I haven't actually done this yet, I'm back working with Quattro 1.0. It's trivially harder to get logarithmic vertical scales (did I mention that?), but at least you can tell it what you want to do, and it does it. Next problem: Given a chart, there seemed to be no way to go back and reveal the data ranges from which it was created. Solution: I don't have one. Comment: WingZ has the potential to be a powerful product but seems to be marred by numerous gotchas and incomplete documentation. Questions: Am I missing something? Are other users struggling with the object-oriented interface? Is Excel any better? WingZ version 1.1, Windows 3.0, DOS 5.0, VGA. -- John Tombs at Teltronics/TCT <jtt@tct.com>, <uunet!pdn!tct!jtt>