To: atm{at}shore.net
From: mdholm{at}telerama.com
Reply-To: mdholm{at}telerama.com


OK,  I am going to risk getting flamed here.

I have noticed a lot of atm's on this list using programs other than Sixtests to
analyze Foucault data.  (I am refering to manually obtained data, not any
robotic methods.)

In my not so humble opinion, this is a mistake.  Jim Burrows knows his math
and did a lot of clear thinking on Sixtests.  The result shows it. 
Sixtests is the best.  At this time using any other of the free programs
available to ATM's isn't a smart idea.

It is true that Sixtests only digests data in millimeters.  Those of us
(like me) hobbled with dial indicators / micrometers calibrated in inches
have to do a
little conversion.  It is well worth the effort.

It is also true that Sixtests has a couple of quirks in the data entry
interface, but they are not hard to learn.  The result is well worth while.

It would be great if Jim programmed it to print those pretty graphs
straight to paper, but one can use the Alt-PrintScrn trick to copy the
screens and drop them
into MS-Paint.  I do that, and crop the images a bit before printing to cut down
on ink usage.

You can get the Windows version of Sixtests at
http://home.earthlink.net/~burrjaw/public/win6.zip

I've got my Nomex suit on and a big foam extinguisher in hand, so flame away!

Mark Holm
mdholm{at}telerama.com

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