Contemporaneous symbolic and numeric presentation

• US 7,613,754 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2005
• Issued: 11/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Yu, Jinsong, Kunz, William Ben
• Primary Examiner(s): Malzahn; David H
• Application Number:
  US11/171,143
• Publication Number:
  US 20060235911A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,588 Days
• Field of Search: 708/174
• US Class Current: 708/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/02 manually operated with input through keyboard and computation using a built-in program, e.g. pocket calculators
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/10 Complex mathematical operations function generation by table look-up G06F1/03; evaluation of elementary functions by calculation G06F7/544
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/025 with electrically operated apparatus or devices

Abstract

A piece of software running on either a computer or a calculator for receiving a mathematical expression is described. The mathematical expression is evaluated to obtain its symbolic result. If the symbolic result can be resolved to its numeric result, the software executes to obtain the numeric result. The software displays contemporaneously the symbolic result and the numeric result.

Claims

1. A method for presenting mathematical calculations, comprising:

employing a processor executing computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium to implement the following acts;

receiving a mathematical expression as input to a computer-executable program; and

displaying contemporaneously a symbolic result comprising at least one symbol, based at least in part on resolution of the mathematical expression by performing a symbolic calculation on the mathematical expression, and a numeric result comprising at least one floating point number, based at least in part on resolution of the symbolic result to the numeric result, which corresponds to the symbolic result, when the symbolic result and the numeric result are both obtainable and not identical to each other.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of displaying comprising displaying the symbolic result when the numeric result is not obtainable due to the symbolic result containing the at least one symbol comprising at least one unknown variable.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of displaying comprising displaying the symbolic result when the numeric result is not obtainable due to the numeric result being an error, infinity, or not a number.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of displaying comprising displaying the symbolic result when the symbolic result is identical to the numeric result.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of displaying comprising displaying a symbolic form of a list or a matrix based at least in part on determining that respective numeric results associated with respective elements in the list or the matrix is not to be shown, or displays both symbolic and numeric forms of a list or a matrix based at least in part on determining that at least one respective numeric result for at least one element in the list or the matrix is to be shown.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of displaying comprising displaying contemporaneously a plurality of respective numeric results, based at least in part on a plurality of respective values applied to the mathematical expression comprising a function, and a plurality of respective symbolic results, based at least in part on a plurality of respective symbols or values applied to the mathematical expression.

7. A computation device for calculating mathematical expressions, comprising:

a microprocessor on which a piece of software is executing for receiving a mathematical expression as input and for resolving the mathematical expression to its symbolic result and numeric result; and

a display on which the input, the symbolic result, and the numeric result are simultaneously presented when the symbolic result and the numeric result are both obtainable and not identical to each other, the symbolic result comprising at least one symbol, the symbolic result determined based at least in part on a symbolic calculation performed on the mathematical expression to resolve the mathematical expression to the symbolic result, the numeric result comprising at least one of an integer or a floating point number, the numeric result determined based at least in part on resolution of at least one of the symbolic result or the mathematical expression to the numeric result, which corresponds to the symbolic result.

8. The computation device of claim 7, wherein the display includes a user interface screen in which an input is shown on a first line, a symbolic result is shown on a second line below the first line, and the numeric result is shown on a third line below the second line.

9. The computation device of claim 7, wherein the display includes a user interface screen in which an input is shown superjacent to a symbolic result and a numeric result, the symbolic result being adjacent to the numeric result.

10. The computation device of claim 7, wherein the display includes a user interface screen in which an input is shown adjacent to a symbolic result and the symbolic result is shown adjacent to the numeric result.

11. The computation device of claim 7, wherein the display includes a user interface screen in which a symbolic result is shown subjacent to an input and a numeric result, the input being shown adjacent to the numeric result.

12. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for implementing a method for presenting mathematical calculations, wherein the instructions are executed on at least one processor, the method comprising:

receiving a mathematical expression as input to a computer-executable program; and

displaying contemporaneously a symbolic result comprising at least one symbol, based at least in part on resolution of the mathematical expression by performing a symbolic calculation on the mathematical expression, and a numeric result comprising at least one of an integer or a floating point number, based at least in part on resolution of the symbolic result to the numeric result, which corresponds to the symbolic result, when the symbolic result and the numeric result are both obtainable and not identical to each other.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the act of displaying comprising displaying the symbolic result when the numeric result is not obtainable due to the symbolic result containing the at least one symbol comprising at least one unknown variable.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the act of displaying comprising displaying the symbolic result when the numeric result is not obtainable due to the numeric result being an error, infinity, or not a number.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the act of displaying comprising displaying the symbolic result when the symbolic result is identical to the numeric result.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the act of displaying comprising displaying a symbolic form of a list or a matrix based at least in part on determining that respective numeric results associated with respective elements in the list or the matrix is not to be shown.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the act of displaying comprising displaying both symbolic and numeric form of a list or a matrix based at least in part on determining that at least one respective numeric result for at least one element in the list or the matrix is to be shown.