G Arith README
G Arith is an arithmetic quiz program for the GNOME Project. It is fairly self-explanatory (I think), so I won't try to document program usage much at all.
I decided to attempt this project because my sister wanted a program she could use to brush up her math skills before going back to school. She was using Adventure Math for DOS, but it didn't seem like two digit addition and subtraction was any way to prepare for seventh grade. I couldn't find a math quiz program for Linux, and I had been looking at Thor Sigvaldason's XForms tutorial in the Linux Journal, so I thought, "Hey, why not do it myself..."
Well, my sister used it a couple of times and then abandoned it. Because of this, I haven't worked at all on it in a long time. Why write software no one uses? Incidentally, if you use or are interested in using this software, please e-mail me; I'd be encouraged to hear that someone is enjoying it.
Platforms
Unix/X11
The program did run on GTK+ version 970916 and an old vervion of the GNOME libraries (0.6 or something like that). But like I said, I haven't spent any time on it in at least a year and I know it doesn't work with the latest versions of these libs. If somebody wants me too, I could probably make it work. But again, why write software without users? I don't use it and if no one else does, it's a waste of time to work on it.
Compilation
Just peruse the Makefile for any changes that need be made, take a look at the source code (if you want), and then just type 'make' to compile it. Type 'make install' to install the program and accompanying pixmaps. Note that the program will run without being installed, it just will complain about not finding its pixmaps.
Operation
Type 'garith'. It gives you problems you reply with solutions. Simple.
Credits
I would like to thank Epic Megagames for making Adventure Math, which inspired me to try and make a better arithmetic testing programi (I'm not sure I did make a better program, but hey...). Not in any way to insult the product, but I thought that it (at least the shareware version) was incredibly lacking in a one major area: difficulty. On difficulty level 10 (the highest) we're still only dealing with 2 digit numbers. Also, the shareware version only supports addition and subtraction, which is not acceptable for anyone above third grade.
I (Micah Stetson <micah@cnm-vra.com>) wrote the thing. My dad gave me the idea for generating division problems:
Sure, it seems simple, but it eluded me for a few days
until the seemingly obvious solution now in use was
presented to me by my dad, thanks.
Copyright
This and all other files included with this distribution are Copyright 1997-99 Micah Stetson. They are distributed completely free under the terms of the GNU General Public License, see the file COPYING for details.