Beta test: Complex number explorer

I’ve now registered as an Apple Developer and am starting with my complex plane explorer. I think that this link is the right one for signing up with Testflight. My team name is “Not Just Numbers” (so you can check that the link takes you to the right place).

Some things I’ve already spotted:

  • PNGs with transparency don’t work well as icons,
  • The default colour scheme is awful.

I’m keen for feedback on two counts:

  1. How easy is it to use as an app, and
  2. How helpful is it for understanding complex numbers.

Obviously, the latter might not be easy for everyone to give me feedback on, but I think that the former is open to anyone.
Note, though, that you don’t actually need to know anything about complex numbers to use it.

Works now. I like it. Will write comments tomorrow

Oh, and I should add: please comment here if you sign up and try to give me some clue as to how to identify you in testflight if your testflight name is different to your username here.

Hi i just appliec to joint he team. Waiting for testflight email.

Done

Have done so but still waiting on the test flight email - site seems to be down for maintenance at the moment

I’ll use the down time to figure out a better initial colour scheme.

That’s it back up :wink:

Greetings @Andrew_Stacey. I’d be happy to test your app and provide feedback.

Right, that’s the first build up on TestFlight. It’s not what I’d call a trivial operation, but it isn’t as bad as it could be. Certainly the Codea part is simplicity itself, it’s just dealing with all the provisioning stuff that is a bit hard for a bear of little brain to keep track of.

@Ric_Esrey I’d just uploaded the beta when I got your notification. I’ll add you to the next build.

Not a problem. Just wanted to make sure you had enough testers.

Hmm, just installed it on my device. The icon didn’t work. Does anyone get an icon? On my device it is pure black. The colours didn’t update either.

Hi @andrew the app installation phase systematically fails, for no explained reason. is your app ios 5.1 compatible?
I get an icon, but no install.

Likewise, I get an icon but it also fails to install

@West, @Jmv38 To quote the Goons: “It’s all rather confusing, really”

I’m not sure what happened, but something got confused - possibly because I uploaded the second build (the public one) with the same version and build number as the first one. I’ve uploaded it again with a new build number (and, in fact, I’ve changed the app name ever so slightly). I was getting the same error on my other iPad first time round and it has now installed with this second build. My apologies (and if you figure out how to get rid of the half-installed app, please let me know!).

@Ric_Esrey you need to register a device. It’s been a while since I did that so I don’t remember all the details, I think that if you install the TestFlight app on your iPad then it will register that device. Can anyone else confirm that?

I dont remeber that. I think i just had to send my UDID to testflight and that was it. I had to install an app that tells me my UDID though.

Here’s some instructions: http://blog.testflightapp.com/post/1346521917/register-devices

The new build works. I removed the half build just by long press ans suppress.
First feed back: wow. Wow! Slow down! Your comments leave the screen much too fast: i have not the time to read and understand. A simple tap should do it?

For the static comments: it is better, but again a single tap to remove them would feel more natural than a double tap.
I like your app. I discovered that the reciprocal of a line is circle: i didnt know that.
I think the potential could be developped. For instance: include some iterative formula like the fractal generators, so we can see the point convergence?
Or include some strange attractor?
What else can we do with complex plane?

Yes up and running here too. First comment disappeared too quick, but I think the demo speed was ok (though a tap to continue as suggested might be good).

For feedback on your 2 questions (first impressions - I’ll take a bit more time to test drive properly tomorrow)

  1. I found it pretty straightforward to use. I’m not sure about the menu driven approach (though unsure of what might be better) though I think an improvement would be to have the current settings displayed on screen.
  2. who is your target audience? I think a basic intro to Cartesian and polar coordinates might be useful. Another aid to understanding is to provide some e ample applications. Two which spring to mind are AC circuit analysis and fractals

It might be a horrific prospect for a mathematician but could we have the option of changing the i to a j. As an electrical engineer i is used for instantaneous current so we use j instead. In fact a nice extension would be using it to draw phaser diagrams.