Desmos API v1.4 released

[desmos-api-announce]

Desmos is very happy to announce the release of version 1.4 of the Desmos API. 

• Change log

• Documentation

This release is part of our scheduled release cycle, and we recommend all users upgrade to this version. Benefits of upgrading include:

• remaining consistent with what students see on high-stakes tests in states where Desmos is embedded in the test platform.

• offering an experience for students in your product similar to the one at desmos.com.

• ensuring the best interaction with the latest browsers and platforms.

We will help all of our partners upgrade to version 1.4 in a timely fashion. Please email Chris Lusto (ch...@desmos.com) or Jason Merrill (ja...@desmos.com) with any questions. 

These technical release notes are intended for developers who incorporate the Desmos API into their own applications. We ask kindly that you not forward this email to your customers. If you’d like a user-facing summary to send to your customers (districts, teachers, etc.), or for other product inquiries, please contact your partner representative or email partne...@desmos.com. 

New Features:

Version 1.4 offers more developer control over both calculator configuration and the appearance of plotted expressions. It also includes some important performance improvements.

1. Control Fill Opacity. When manipulating expressions programmatically, it’s now possible to dynamically set the fill opacity for polygon interiors and shaded parametric curves. See below.

2. Performance Improvements. The graphing calculator now consumes significantly fewer CPU resources when idle, improving battery life and responsiveness of the parent application.

3. Spearman’s Rank Correlation. In addition to the corr function for computing the Pearson correlation coefficient, the graphing calculator now also includes a spearman function for calculating Spearman’s rank correlation.

New API Features:

1. The sliders graphing calculator option controls whether or not assigning a constant to a variable will create a dynamic slider input.

2. The plotImplicits graphing calculator option controls whether the graphing calculator will plot implicit equations or inequalities. This is similar to the existing plotSingleVariableImplicitEquations option, but applies to inequalities as well.

3. The plotInequalities graphing calculator option controls whether or not the graphing calculator will plot inequalities.

4. The fillOpacity expression property can accept a number or a LaTeX string that evaluates to a number in order to set the fill opacity of polygon interiors and shaded parametric curves.

Process Update:

1. Version 1.4 will be the last major December release of the API. Version 1.5 is scheduled to be finalized in April or May of 2020, at which point we will move to a single major release in the spring of each year. This annual API release will serve as a stable, long-term support (LTS) version, which will continue to receive bugfixes throughout the year-long development cycle. Additionally, we will offer more frequent minor releases on a schedule that is yet to be determined. These minor versions will allow partners who do not require the stability of an LTS version to incorporate new features sooner than would otherwise be possible. Please contact us directly if you have any questions or concerns about this timeline, as we want to make sure that each of our partners has a schedule that works for their business.

2. We are strongly considering removing support for Internet Explorer after the next planned v1.5 release in spring of 2020. We understand this may still be in use by some of your customers, so please let us know if you have concerns about this and we can discuss it together. Our goal is for you to feel fully supported while we continue to improve our technology.