Apple computer software

a. Apple II. The Apple II computer introduced color graphics and made a visually-based implementation of Larry Segerlind’s finite element computational software feasible for elasticity and for Poisson’s equation. (The original software used command line control – having neither graphical input or graphical output.) Both graphical input and output were implemented on this early computer. Remarkably, useful instructional problems could be solved on this computer, despite having such limited (64K) memory. The book’s camera-ready manuscript was prepared locally and published by John Wiley & Sons.

b. Macintosh. We ported the finite element software to run on the more advanced Macintosh with its integrated “what you see is what you get” graphical windows environment.

1. StomateTutor: This HyperCard-based application presented research results from Cooke’s plant biomechanics research. StomateTutor was recognized nationally as recipient of the national “Excellence in Teaching Materials” award by the Amer. Soc. Engr. Educ. in 1991.
2. MacRegistrar: This database program made possible the importation of class lists from the university registrar, stored student grades, computued course grades and digitally exported these end-of-semester grades back to the registrar. This was used widely at Cornell, especially with larger courses.
3. MacPoisson: This finite element program solved Poisson’s equation, i.e., steady state heat conduction, electrostatics, magnetostatics, ideal fluid flow, etc. of research interest complexity. This software was honored as recipient of the “Best Engineering Software Award” by EDUCOM (national competition, all fields of engineering, all computer platforms) in 1989.
4. MacElastic: This companion to the MacPoisson computational program solves classical, two-dimensional elasticity problems. MacElastic and MacPoisson were featured at the “roll-out” of the Macintosh II in Los Angeles. Our entire finite element software collection was listed in EDUCOM’s ‘101 Success Stories’ national competition.
5. MathWriter I: This was a formatter for two-dimensional mathematical expressions for pasting into a word processor as a graphic. A converter [MW2TeX] was created to produce command line-based TeX code for high quality typesetting of mathematical expressions.
6. MathWriter II: An ambitious expansion of MathWriter I was a full-featured word processor for authors of mathematics- laden manuscripts and provided editable, ‘what you see is what you get” formatting of mathematical expressions within the body of the manuscript.
7. ExamBuilder: A database for storing test items was created as an adjunct to MathWriter. Tests and answer sets could be assembled from these test items and be printed using MathWriter.
8. DiscoverPro: A generalized database program for managing bibliographic data was created. It handled traditional text-based content, as well as the emerging video materials. Automated formatting for various journals was supported.
9. DocuView: A spin-off from DiscoverPro was also created as a standalone application for viewing documents and videos.

PC computer software

PC-Registrar, PC-Poisson, PC-Elastic and QuikBase were created for the pre-Windows environment computers. DiskManagerPC provided an enhanced operating environment to allow standalone PCs to be used effectively in a multi-user, instructional classroom setting. [Note: The PC manuals will be scanned and added later.]