TVM again ;-)



#11

Hi,

just an information:

I've now completely rewritten my previous TVM-Solver (CHM-format, JavaScript program with HTML-UI) as usual Windows program (written in Delphi) -

the name is now TVM-Calc v13.0.

Despite of a nicer 'look&feel' (at least IMHO) there are now also a few small changes and one additional feature:

1) Instead of selecting Begin/End payments (and Anticipative/Decursive interest) by negative/positive values of the 2 parameters P/Yr and C/Yr,

these modes can now be selected by usual radio buttons (I guess that's a bit more convenient).

2) And there's now a new feature to directly convert from one interest rate to any other (e.g. from nominal to effective interest and vice versa).

As usual you'll find this new version (TVM-Calc v13.0) on my website:

http://fhub.jimdo.com/

If you find any bugs or if any of my English notations of financial terms are not correctly translated, then please let me know.

Also if you have any ideas for additional features which could be implemented, feel free to make any suggestions. :-)

(maybe variable payments/cashflows is one of the next features that I'll include?).

PS: Just made one minor improvement (now accepts decimal comma as well as decimal point for number input) - new version online now!

PPS: Tiny cosmetic change: label N0 instead of N0 (for the 'Offset' parameter) looks better - new version is online!

PPPS: Latest update includes now 2 versions with normal (96dpi) and bigger (120dpi) program sizes.

Franz


Edited: 26 Aug 2013, 5:13 p.m. after one or more responses were posted


#12

Thank you for this updated version much more convenient to use than the chm version!

Everything works great.

However, * on my laptop * - (and my laptop may be the problem) the N, I, PV, PMT, FV labels are not aligned with the input/result fields.

I'll try it this evening on my Mac.

Indeed a very nice update. Is the "Reset" button really necessary ?

Thanks again

Etienne


#13

Quote:
However, * on my laptop * - (and my laptop may be the problem) the N, I, PV, PMT, FV labels are not aligned with the input/result fields.

That sounds indeed very strange, I've no clue how or why this could happen on your computer!?

Oh, now I see that you wrote 'labels' but I guess you rather mean the 'buttons', right?

These buttons are (or should be) centered below the input fields, but the numbers in these fields are just left-aligned -

unfortunately I found no possibility to center these numbers. :-(

So maybe you mean this difference between then numbers and the buttons?

Here's an image how it _should_ look like:


Quote:
Is the "Reset" button really necessary ?

Well, of course not absolutely necessary, but if you have changed many of the TVM values and/or parameters it's quite convenient to reset everything to default values with one single click.

Franz


Edited: 25 Aug 2013, 10:43 a.m.


#14

Hello Franz,

Thank you for your answers.

yes, you're right, I meant buttons.

My Win7 laptop screen follows :

i will try changing the resolution to see if I can get better alignment

Etienne

#15

Well, I get the same result at :

1366 x 768 (recommended default resolution)
1280 x 768...and all the way down to 800x600.

Etienne


#16

Quote:
Well, I get the same result at :

1366 x 768 (recommended default resolution)
1280 x 768...and all the way down to 800x600.


I guess it's not the resolution what causes your problem -

I'd rather believe that you've set a bigger textsize in your Windows!?

Of course with any non-standard Windows textsize everything in the program will have big troubles ... :-(

And BTW, why is your program window so big?

(Ahh, now I see that you've maximized the program window, but what sense does this make when the program isn't bigger than the original/default window?).

And why does it have such a strange (darkgreen) window color???

Franz


Edited: 25 Aug 2013, 12:53 p.m.


#17

Thanks Franz !

That was indeed the cause.

My notebook textsize is indeed set at 125% for my sore eyes :-)

Setting it at 100% gets the buttons aligned back (in all window sizes).

As for the "strange" window color, I think it is my corporate theme...not a big issue.

thanks again

Etienn

Edited: 25 Aug 2013, 5:53 p.m.


#18

Quote:
That was indeed the cause.

My notebook textsize is indeed set at 125% for my sore eyes :-)

Setting it at 100% gets the buttons aligned back (in all window sizes).


Ok, good to know that it was not any issue in my program!

Since you are the best 'customer' ;-) of my TVM program (maybe even the only one?), I could make a special version just for you (with your 125% fontsize) if you really need to use TVM-Calc on this laptop and don't want to always have to change this textsize setting. Let me know if you want such special version ...
Quote:
As for the "strange" window color, I think it is my corporate theme...not a big issue.

I would never have believed that changing any Windows colors or using any special theme would also have any effect for programs, e.g. change the color of the background, because these colors are predefined in my program code.

But your darkgreen background is really ugly and it's almost impossible to read the black text (labels etc.) on it.

Franz


#19

aha,
ad a small delphi application writer i know how to fix this in the code.

you need to do a couple of things:

(1) when you start creating an application, place a 'panel' object on your form as the first item. resize the panel to the size you desire for the inside of your form to be, the set the form's property 'autosize' to be true. the moment you set this the form will snap to the size of the panel you just created - place all further buttons etc on the panel. this will mean that with different desktop styles (that have different sized boarders and title bars on windows) your buttons etc will always be referenced to the fixed panel (and not the window origin).

(2) set the 'scaled' property of your form to be FALSE. this is most important, as otherwise the application will attempt to move buttons etc around to match the dpi setting of your desktop, resulting in the mess you are seeing.

so, (1) fixes problems of the origin, while (2) fixes problems of scale :-)

rob


#20

Quote:
so, (1) fixes problems of the origin, while (2) fixes problems of scale :-)

Thanks Rob - very interesting!

Maybe I'll try this if I'll ever write a Delphi program again in the future. For this TVM-Calc it's already too late, I guess it would be too much work to change so many things after putting them into a new panel.

But I still think it's rather a Windows than a Delphi problem (or bug), because of course Windows should automatically resize EVERYTHING when the user changes the resolution (to 120dpi for example). And as you can see in Etienne's picture above it resizes MOST of the screen elements but NOT ALL.

I remember that a few years ago I had the same problem with an astronomy program written by some else, but just in the opposite direction: the program was written and compiled under a 120dpi-Windows, and I had similar problems with the screen running it on my usual 96dpi-Windows. But I don't remember if this program was also written in Delphi!?

Franz


#21

simply setting the 'scaled' property of your form to be FALSE will fix the majority of the problems being reported. this is a 2 minute job, and can in fact be done by patching the executable using a resource editor.

there is no bug over the scaling in either windows or delphi. it is just that some of the controls (such as buttons) are drawn through windows API calls, while others (such as panels) are drawn by delphi directly. windows does its job in scaling API generated controls, while it is considered up to the programmer to do the rescaling of the controls delphi has drawn. or, set form1.scaled=false either in the form designer, or in code.

rob

Edited: 26 Aug 2013, 1:13 p.m.


#22

Quote:
simply setting the 'scaled' property of your form to be FALSE will fix the majority of the problems being reported.

Yes, that would of course be very simple, but what does this mean for a user who has set his Windows to 120dpi? Is then everything in my progam still displayed in its default size (i.e. with 96dpi)?
Quote:
it is just that some of the controls (such as buttons) are drawn through windows API calls, while others (such as panels) are drawn by delphi directly. windows does its job in scaling API generated controls, while it is considered up to the programmer to do the rescaling of the controls delphi has drawn.

Ok, but which casual hobby programmer knows WHICH elements are handled by Windows and which by Delphi. ;-)

Franz

#23

Yes Robert, this 'Scale' property was the key note!

I've now made 2 different versions (with 96 and 120 dpi) and after setting Scale=false both versions work fine, no matter what dpi is set in Windows.

I've also update the file on my website, now it contains both versions, so everyone can choose if he wants the usual Windows size or a 25% bigger program size (without having to change his dpi setting).

Thanks again for this very useful info,

Franz

#24

Quote:
Since you are the best 'customer' ;-) of my TVM program (maybe even the only one?), I could make a special version just for you (with your 125% fontsize) if you really need to use TVM-Calc on this laptop and don't want to always have to change this textsize setting. Let me know if you want such special version ...

Yes, this version would be much appreciated if it's not too much of a hassle for you.

At my desk, I do have a much larger monitor so not an issue there.

However, from home and moving around I do use the small 12"" screen of my Lenovo Thinkpad.

Thanks again.

Etienne


#25

Quote:
Yes, this version would be much appreciated if it's not too much of a hassle for you.

No, it was not really much work, but after temporarily setting my Windows to 120dpi I even found 3 problems with the TVM program:

1) at start not even the main window was correctly resized, so it suddenly had 2 ugly scrollbars (now I know why you have maximized it on your lapttop)

2) the wrong sizes of these input fields of the TVM values (so that the button became misaligned)

3) and finally there was one more (even worse) problem: when switching to 'Mixed Interest' mode the right frame (Payment Parameters) is made a bit higher because of an additional parameter, but also this frame was not correctly resized by Windows and it was cut-off at the bottom (and the same when switching back to 'Compound mode').

So I had in fact to change a few things, but of course I want to provide a good customer-support :-) and thus I've made such a special 120dpi-version for you here:

Edit: Link removed because a better version is already on my website:

http://fhub.jimdo.com/

But I still don't understand who causes this problem, is it the fault of Delphi of Windows? I guess it's the latter, because if you change the resolution to 120dpi, Windows should of course automatically resize EVERYTHING (and NOT only MOST of the screen elements).

I would be really curious if you also have the same problem on your 120dpi Windows with any other programs? If not, then it must in fact be a Delphi problem.

Franz


Edited: 27 Aug 2013, 9:04 a.m. after one or more responses were posted


#26

Thank you Franz for this custom version. It works beautifully !

On this very laptop set at 120 dpi, I have used V41, HP-15c simulator, HP Prime emulator, FlashMagic, Samba and MySamba, xCas from B. Parisse without any display issues.

I have now migrated these to my Mac/Win 8 (bigger characters also) also with no display issues.

I do not know however if some of these were programmed in Delphi or not.

Cheers

Etienne


#27

Quote:
On this very laptop set at 120 dpi, I have used V41, HP-15c simulator, HP Prime emulator, FlashMagic, Samba and MySamba, xCas from B. Parisse without any display issues.

Well, maybe it is because those programs don't use such problematic screen elements like groups/frames, string grids etc. which I've used in my TVM program - or it is indeed just a Delphi problem, who knows!?

But as I already said: in my opinion it's the fault of Windows, because the OS should know WHAT (and that is EVERYTHING!) it has to resize when the user changes the fontsize of the OS.

However, most important is that you have a working version now! :-)

BTW, while working on your private version I've also made a tiny cosmetic change in the standard version (changed the label N0 to N0 which looks better), and I've updated the file on my website.

Regards,

Franz

Edited: 26 Aug 2013, 1:14 p.m.

#28

Quote:
(maybe variable payments/cashflows is one of the next features that I'll include?)

Ok, a new 'Cashflow Analysis' module is implemented now! :-)

It was a lot of work but also much fun, and it has more features now than any TVM/Cashflow program that I've ever found on other websites.

The new version (TVM-Calc v15.0) is on my website again:

http://fhub.jimdo.com/

Only a description of this new 'CFA' mode is still missing (I hate writing manuals!), but for anyone familiar with such financial calculations the use of this program part should be quite obvious.

(Maybe I'll add a short description anytime later ...)

Edit: 3.Sept. => Description updated (with infos about the new CFA module), and a minor internal program change.

Edit2: 8.Sept. => new version 16: added FMRR (Financial Management Rate of Return) and DPB (Discounted PayBack).

Edit3: 12.Sept. => added multiple solutions for IRR (Internal Rate of Return).

And a few more improvements ...

Franz

Here's screenshot with an example from the HP20b manual:


Edited: 12 Sept 2013, 7:17 a.m.


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