Feature requests

[tgray]

After owning my DM42 for about a year, I'm still really enjoying it. I had a few feature ideas/requests for future firmware versions. All of these are obviously extensions of HP-42S behavior (much like full stack display, date and time functions, etc.). At the same time, they could all be set to the 'HP-42S' default behavior and/or be ignored if one wanted strict HP-42S behavior.

• An option for different display rounding, like Round to Even.

• 6 stack display option: XYZT last alpha

• Ability to hide programs in XEQ/GTO. I think Thomas had discussed the idea of hiding programs that started with a certain character.

• Is it possible to set a flag when the Shift button is pressed? Could be useful in programs. I thought there were some unused flags...

[Stéphane Th]

And also, as we can write long programs now (my last ones > 500 steps), why not a REM instruction to make it easier to read
And what has already been suggested, possibility to have subfolders to store files in flash
And still possibility to have the genuine hp42s running window on bottom instead of on top (as today). this could be selected into the 'Settings' menu

[whuyse]

My feature request (also in view of the virtually unlimited program space) is to lift the limit on having only 8 return stack levels.
That is also unlikely to cause any existing program to fail
Local variables would also be nice..

Cheers, Werner

[Thomas Okken]

Not to mention: directories, since those flat namespaces for programs and variables can become awkward once you start loading lots of programs...

[Vitasam]

And also, as we can write long programs now (my last ones > 500 steps), why not a REM instruction to make it easier to read

+10!

[Walter]

And also, as we can write long programs now (my last ones > 500 steps), why not a REM instruction to make it easier to read

I'd vote for inline comments - something like
...
RCL+17 /* comment
...
allowing for commenting each step.

[dlachieze]

I'd vote for inline comments - something like
...
RCL+17 /* comment
...
allowing for commenting each step.

How would you implement this in a keystroke programming model such as the 42S one? /* would obviously be translated to divide and multiply instructions...

[ijabbott]

I'd vote for inline comments - something like
...
RCL+17 /* comment
...
allowing for commenting each step.

How would you implement this in a keystroke programming model such as the 42S one? /* would obviously be translated to divide and multiply instructions...

That's true. Stéphane's suggestion of implementing a REM(ark) statement works better:

...
REM "comment"
RCL+ 17
...

[Vitasam]

I'm voting for REM

Code: Select all

...
REM "comment"
RCL+ 17
...

Fits better for keystroke RPNs.

[dlachieze]

...
REM "comment"
RCL+ 17
...

In a keystroke programming model you would have:

Code: Select all

step xxx    REM
step xxx+1  "comment"
step xxx+2  RCL+ 17

The new REM instruction would just skip the next step to avoid putting the comment string in the Alpha register.
You can already do this with:

Code: Select all

step xxx    FS? 52
step xxx+1  "comment"
step xxx+2  RCL+ 17