I started by purchasing FlexiGraphs, TreeStar's business graphics application, not for generating graphs, but for a crude, yet effective, data digitizing feature. After satisfying my pressing need to convert x-y plots into numbers I could analyze, I thought a letter to TreeStar suggesting certain improvements might be useful. This type of digitizing is something I do occasionally, and any possibility of making it more convenient was worth a small amount of effort on my part.
In my letter to TreeStar, I said I liked the digitizing feature of FlexiGraphs, although I thought the graphics portion of FlexiGraphs was not suitable for engineering applications, and suggested some interface and feature improvements for the digitizing feature. The developers wrote back that they had received several similar suggestions and were in the process of developing FlexiTrace. The original digitizing feature in FlexiGraphs had been a quick hack added because it was easy. Because of my letter, and proximity to a TreeStar office in Los Gatos, I was asked to beta test FlexiTrace. I was also interviewed by MacWEEK for a review of FlexiTrace - see page 22 of the Dec. 18th issue.
