Introduction (version 1.6)

Unit Calculator - version1.6 build 41
Thanks for your attention to Unit Calculator. I hope you find Unit Calculator useful and find practical use for it.

UC is a unit converting application.
Unit Converter is a program that can help you in various ways.
What it does is; converting one type of unit to another type of unit within the same dimensions. You can go visa versa, whatever you like.
Unit Converter has a quick search and find functionality. And you can use Unit Converter in a handy minimized mode.
Furthermore Unit Converter can tell you a little about related units and their proportions.

Unit Converter version 1.6 is freeware.

Unit Converter uses the RPNCalculator.dll © At Honig. You can use this dll in other programs as well. It accepts complete RPN formula’s as input and output’s the answer. It can even invert the complete RPN formula.


I hope you like it.
At Honig
At's Software



Note that when installing:
Although UC does not overwrite or change any windows files or information it has to have access to the registry. Also UC uses RPNCalculator.dll which is an activex dll and needs to be registered. Uninstall information is added.
 

      Introduction
      License and Liability
      Program explanation
             Main screen
             Group definition
             Find
      Units and more
             Origin of units
             The value of units
             Unit abbreviations
             Country name abbreviations
      Contacting At's Software
             Support
             At's Software website
      RPN Calculator
             RPN Calculator introduction

Unit Converter consists of three major parts.

· The UC program itself

· The datafile containing all the conversions

· A RPN calculator doing the hard work

This Help first explains the workings of Unit Converter
Then help explains a little bit about Units information
and additional, some information about support contact and the RPN calculator.

Please read and search this help or the website first before asking for support.

Unit Converter is freeware.
Notes on Unit Converter, further on described as UC

License agreement
This license applies to any version of UC or part of it. This means all files in the installer or the installed version.
You may not change whole or part of this program or the accompanying file or remove part of it.
You may not copy, zip or part of UC other then the complete installer.
You may only distribute the installer of UC. Distribution on any printed / electronic media is only allowed after written permission by the author.

You may not distribute or let others distribute UC and charge money for it, or charge distribution costs or any other fee for it.
This software and the accompanying files are provided "as is" and without warranties as to performance or merchantability or any other warranties whether expressed or implied.
No warranty of fitness for any particular purpose is offered.
The author is in no way responsible for damages coming from the direct or indirect use of the a mentioned program or any other part of affiliated programs or files.

No claims can be forwarded whatsoever.
The unit conversion factors are checked but no responsibility or claims (direct or indirect), resulting through the use of UC can be accepted, be it positive or negative. The user should check conversions on their correctness before using them.

Please report misuse

As soon as you start Unit Converter you are in the main screen of it. Here you can select dimensions, units and do your calculations.

Units are always part of a 'dimension'. A dimension is a specific combination of certain natural phenomena Top midst is the dimension selector. This is a listbox where you select the dimension you want your conversion to be done. When you hover over this listbox you can scroll right away without the need of clicking it first. When the cursor is hovering above the listbox you can type a character at the keyboard which will make the list go to that part of the dimension list that starts with that character. When you click the dimension you want the left and right listboxes are filled with units from that dimension. You can select units in the listboxes the same way as selecting a dimension. Hovering alone is enough to make scrolling possible. Of course you can scroll by making use of the regular scrollbar. When you have select a unit it's description has become visible in the lower half of the main screen, right above the value entry boxes. You have to select a unit in both listboxes. Now you can use unit converter to convert from and to the unit you selected Enter the value you want to convert, below it's unit description. This can be on either side of Unit Converter, depending where your source unit is located. Then click the arrow button located in between the value entry boxes. There are two of them. Each pointing in the direction the conversion is done. Click the one pointing opposite to where you have entered your value. The conversion will show on the opposite side. When you click one the other arrow button nothing should happen since that should result in the number you put there. Once you have selected units to convert from and to, you can switch the Unit Converter gui to a small version in which you can still make conversions, but that does not occupy as much screen.

You can switch back to full mode using the full button

As in each application in windows you can minimize the Unit Converter window. To do this click the minimize button.


You can reactivate Unit Converter like any other application by clicking it's button in the windows taskbar. In the left upper part of the main screen you find the menu. By clicking File once, you call the primary popup menu.

This popup menu gives you two options: Load List and Exit. Load List gives you the possibility to load a new units database without restarting. A standard windows dialog-box will guide you to your selection. Exit will end Unit Converter. This can also be accomplished by pressing the x button top right.

Top left next to the File menu item you find Help.

When you have clicked Help once a popup menu containing three items. First item is Help. Clicking this will guide you to this help. Second item is the about. Here you can check which version of unit converter you are running. Which database is loaded and which RPNcalculator you are using. Third item is Credits, This is where you can read the credits that go to people or institutes that contributed valuable information or freeware that were useful to the creation of Unit Converter.

The find screen will popup Type the text you search for in the textbox in the upper part of the find screen. When you press Enter, the units database is searched for the occurrence of that string. The results are listed in the find-listbox.

When you move your cursor over the varied found items in the listbox, you get an automatic tool tip telling you which dimension it is from. Below the listbox you find two quit self explainery buttons: Dump Left and Dump Right. If you find the unit you were looking for in the listbox, you can select it by clicking it once. After selection, by single clicking it, you can choose whether you want this unit on the right or left side of the main unit listboxes of the main screen, by selecting: Dump Left or Dump Right. A standard double click on the preferred selection in the main listbox of the find screen will automatically put that selection in the left unit listbox of the main screen. After selection, the find screen disappears.
 

People have always felt the urge to think in quantities. It brightens the abstract image and makes it possible to weigh all kinds of things. How far is it, how heavy, how long. Presumably because of that weight factors where introduced quite soon in Human history. And because every habitat or society did this the diversity is enormous. Lots of Units dissolved into each other and lots of them have disappeared altogether.
But many remain. Units are almost as divers as Languages. Sometimes they sound alike but mean something different. Most of the times they sound different but mean the same. Most of the units are not unique to a region. Luckily we all interpreted time as the same quantity,
or didn’t we?

So bigger and bigger regions started to use the same units. But the bigger the region, the harder you get it to switch to a alternate quantity for the same dimension. Napoleon persuaded a lot of people, but there still are a lot of units for the same dimension.
Nowadays SI tries to set a standard, but history remains.
It is interesting to see what diverse units are, to find out how they compare.
Sometimes we have to know, sometimes we like to know.

Units or their origin are not explained by Unit Converter. Explaining is of course just as interesting, maybe even more. But this is not (yet?) done in this program or it’s help.
If you want to have more information about a unit itself, it’s background or history you can find plenty on the web.
The site of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a very good place to start. Thanks go to Russ Rowlett who has done an immense job in arranging and archiving them.

http://www.unc.edu/%7Erowlett/units/index.html

There are Units that are so much alive that they are constantly changing, like money for example. In future versions I plan to embed them as well, but you would need a open Internet connection or link to keep them up to date.

Then there are other units not implemented. That may be because:

· They have no (known) counterpart, so they are not incorporated because there is nothing to convert them to.

· They have no solid background and values are to unsure to incorporate them.

· They have no mathematical (known) relationship with counterparts so it is impossible to include them

· My RPNCalculator is not yet able to use the conversion needed to convert.

Unit Converter is a freeware project and units are gathered from all over the world. I try to check them whenever is possible, but sources differ sometimes.
At this moment the number of incorporated units is far from complete, even though there are several hundreds of units are available right now.
If you find any wrongly calculated units or know of missing units, please let me know.
For information, suggestions and bug report about the program, feel free to contact me.

If you have units to contribute please let me know. But always accompany your additions with information which makes it possible to verify the correctness.
 

Unit Converter is a freeware project and units are gathered from all over the world. I try to check them whenever is possible, but sources differ sometimes.
At this moment the number of incorporated units is far from complete, even though there are several hundreds of units are available right now.
If you find any wrongly calculated units or know of missing units, please let me know.
For information, suggestions and bug report about the program, feel free to contact me.

If you have units to contribute please let me know. But always accompany your additions with information which makes it possible to verify the correctness.
 

symbols   A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z

To keep the unit list in the main program orderly, country names are abbreviated.
This is done according to ISO 3166: Country Names and Abbreviations.
All names have two indicators. Where it was necessary to use a abbreviation not in ISO 3166 Unit Converter uses abbreviations existing out of three indicators

A     B     C     D     E     F     G     H     I     J     K     L     M     N     O     P     Q     R     S     T     U     V     W     X     Y     Z

For support you can e-mail me at: athonig@12move.nl
I will try to react as soon as possible.
This program is tested on Windows XP and Windows 2000, both a trademark of the Microsoft corporation. They seem to work fine on both platforms.
 

If you like you can visit my website.
You can check for newer versions of Unit Converter or you can check out other programs that are there for download.



Please visit: http://home.deds.nl/~jh1996/AHH/home.htm
 

You might be new to RPN, or maybe you are already familiar with it, in any case this RPN Calculator might be of interest for you.
RPN Calculator is an dll which comes with the Unit Converter program. But it is not limited to it. You can use it in other application as well.
to be continued