Podcast: Download

This episode features SynTrend, originally released in 1983, and again in 1985 by Synapse.  SynTrend is comprised of two titles, SynStat and SynGraph.

Box and Supplement Scans

Scan of the front of the box:

 

Scan of the back of the box:

 

SynStat in Action

At boot …

 

Main Menu:

 

Manipulate Data

The menu:

 

Edit

The loading screens from the 1983 version:

 

The loading screens from the 1985 version (in a different text mode, and does not offer the additional informative text after the actual disk load is complete):

 

The editor has a spreadsheet type entry (ENTRY mode).  Press ESC for the menu:

 

Editor menu:

 

Command menu options:

 

After data has been loaded from a file:

 

Label mode allows changing of the column labels:

 

Save File

Change the drive number with SELECT.  Use RETURN to continue:

 

Enter the file name:

 

Wait for it to write the file:

 

Define command

Using the DEFINE menu option with data already loaded:

 

Selecting the number of columns:

 

Math commands

The math command sub menu:

 

LN (Logarithm) of a Column:

 

Using FORMAT option:

 

Load File

Use SELECT to change the drive number.  Use RETURN to continue:

 

Entering the filename.  Why no directory or file picker?

 

RETURN

Returning to the main program menu.  It must be reloaded from disk:

 

Whoops!  Wrong disk inserted:

 

Format

You can only format a disk in drive 1:

 

Subtle reminder to put program disk back in after formatting.  Notice top line of screen:

 

DIF To SynStat

Follow the prompts.  This works like SynStat To DIF:

 

SynStat to DIF

Follow the prompts:

 

Analyze Data

Loading the Analyze Data module:

 

Describe

Choose the file:

 

Choose the data:

 

Loading:

 

Processing:

 

Descriptive Results

 

Regression

Choose the file:

 

Choosing independent variable:

 

Error encountered:

 

Choosing dependent variable:

 

Regression Results

 

SynGraph in Action

Main Menu:

 

Edit Data

Put the data disk in the drive:

 

Select the data file:

 

Editing the data points:

 

Create

Select the CREATE option to create a data set if none exist on disk:

 

Editing the data points:

 

 

View Graph

Select the data disk:

 

Choose the previous graph to view:

 

Graph Data

Graph type menu:

 

Bar Graph

Creation:

 

Season 1 results:

 

Season 2 results:

 

Line Graph

Creation:

 

Season 1 results:

 

Season 2 results:

 

Graph Menu

The menu invoked among all graph types being demonstrated from the Line graph:

 

When printing, select the printer type:

 

When Saving, insert the data disk.  The name will either be GRAPH (if you didn’t enter one), or the name you input during graph setup:

 

Scatter Plot

Creation:

 

Scatter results:

 

Pie Chart

Creation:

 

There are a maximum of 12 slices:

 

Pie Chart results:

 

Files

Contents

SynTrend uses Atari DOS 2.0 compatible disk format.  The contents of a disk can be seen in this screenshot:

 

The files are:

• DAT files are data files.
• IDX files are index files for the data.
• DIF files are Data Interchange Format files.
• SCR files are previously plotted graphs.

 

Printing

SynStat Analysis – Regression:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-statanal-s1-regres-1.pdf

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-statanal-s1-regres-2.pdf

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-statanal-s1-regres-3.pdf

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-statanal-s1-regres-4.pdf

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-statanal-s1-regres-5.pdf

SynStat Analysis – Descriptive:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-statanal-s1-descript.pdf

SynGraph – Bar Chart:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-graph-bar-s1.pdf

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-graph-bar-s2.pdf

SynGraph – Line Graph:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-graph-line-s1.pdf

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-graph-line-s2.pdf

SynGraph – Pie Chart:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-graph-pie-s1.pdf

SynGraph – Scatter Plot:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/s3e02-prt-graph-scat.pdf

 

Show Links:

• My Extra-Life Donation: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=222214
• Inverse ATASCII Extra-Life Team: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=30376
• Rob (2600 GBG Podcast) Extra-Life: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=228392
• Bill (Atari Party / XEGS CBC Podcast) Extra-Life: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=211166
• Rick (Intellivisionaries) Extra-Life: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=215601
• Inverse ATASCII S1 E6 Synapse SynFile: https://inverseatascii.info/2014/12/16/s1e6-synapse-synfile/
• Inverse ATASCII S1 E9 Atari Statistics I: https://inverseatascii.info/2016/03/08/s2e09-atari-statistics-i/
• Inverse ATASCII S2 E10 Atari Graph-It: https://inverseatascii.info/2016/03/15/s2e10-atari-graph-it/
• Inverse ATASCII S2 E11 APX Enhancements to Graph-It: https://inverseatascii.info/2016/03/17/s2e11-apx-enhancements-to-graph-it/
• Atari Mania: http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-syntrend_29363.html
• Manual @ Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/SynTrend
• Synapse Software Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synapse_Software

 

 

Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.