INQUA Working Group on Data-Handling Methods

Newsletter 1: June 1988

SPECIFIC PROGRAMS

The programs we use at the University of Arizona are written in Basic and Turbo Pascal for the personal computer. All of them are in the public domain, and already have been traded with other palynologists. But first a WARNING. These programs are constantly being updated, primarily from basic to Turbo Pascal. More importantly they are NOT BULLET-PROOF. The error-handling procedures are fairly robust in the Compiled Basic programs, but new "undocumented features;" i.e., bugs, are discovered every time a new student uses the program.

We have two main programs, a spread sheet for data entry and editing, and a plotting program that drives the Houston Instruments DMP-40 plotter. Here are their main menus:

POLNSPSH.PAS (MAIN MENU):
  Read Pollen Data Matrix
  Change Names of Pollen Types
  Edit Pollen Data
  Create New Data Base
  Write Pollen Data to Disk 
  Send Data to Printer
  QUIT 
  during data entry:
  (F1)  = Help
  (F2)  = Enter Data by Columns
  (F3)  = Enter Data by Rows
  (arrows) = Move Cell to Cell
  (PgUp PgDn = Screen up, Down
  (Ctrl RtAr) = Screen Right
  (Ctrl LfAr) = Screen Left
  (Ins) = Enter or Change Value
  (Home) = Change spelling of Pollen Type
  (Del) = Add/Delete Row/Column

POLPLOT.BAS (MAIN MENU):
  (1) READ POLLEN DATA MATRIX
  (2) SELECT POLLEN TYPES
  (3) WRITE POLLEN DATA TO DISK
  (4) LABEL DIAGRAM
  (5) DRAW DEPTH AXIS
  (6) DRAW CURVES
  (7) ADVANCE PEN
  (8) DRAW SEDIMENT COLUMN
  (9) CLOSE FILES AND QUIT

I have also written a series of support programs that use the POLNSPH file type. Most of these are in Basic and will be rewritten using Borlands (R) Numerical Methods programs for Turbo Pascal.

POLUTIL.BAS:
    COMPLETE POLLEN SUMS
    CALCULATE CONC. OR INFLUX
    CALCULATE RATIOS
    DATA TRANSFORMATIONS
    SAVE DATA TO DISK
POLREGRIN.BAS
    REGRESSION AND CORRELATION
    PLOT DATA ON SCREEN
    PLOT DATA ON DMP40 PLOTTER
    DATA TRANSFORMATIONS
POLCURV.BAS
    COMPUTE B-SPLINE SMOOTHING
    FFT CONVOLE, DECONVOLVE
    COMPUTE FFT SPECTRAL ANALYSIS
    POLYNOMIAL FIT
DIGITIZR.BAS runs a HI hi-pad digitizer.
    SET HORIZONTAL (Percentage) SCALE
    SET VERTICAL (Depth or Time) SCALE.
    ENTER POLLEN PERCENTAGES.
POLSORT.BAS sorts pollen types of POLNSPSH files.
MAP.BAS draws maps with the DMP-40 PAK2DAT.PAS converts POLNSPSH files (*.PAK)
    to DECORANA or SAS files.
DISSIM.PAS calculates dissimilarity indices between selected types to two data
    sets and prints shaded diagrams of dissimilarity.