WP43 News

This area is for discussion about these families of custom high-end Scientific Calculator applications for SwissMicros devices.
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Walter
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Re: 43S News

Post by Walter »

Bill K. - USA wrote:
Tue Jun 14, 2022 8:27 pm
Walter and Mihail: thank you for making a way to reassign EXIT, UP, DOWN, etc.!
Thanks, Bill, for your kind words.
Bill K. - USA wrote:
Tue Jun 14, 2022 8:27 pm
(1) I can't figure out how to assign LOOP to the lowermost right key (e.g. the WP43S "EXIT" key). I've tried it using both USER mode (after assigning '+' to the EXIT key) and non-USER mode. The problem is, when I type [f][ASN] [f][alpha]LOOP[ENTER] [f][EXIT] this brings up the CATALOG and doesn't complete the ASN command.
Thanks for reporting. Confirmed. 5 points for you. This is another little challenge for us. *
Bill K. - USA wrote:
Tue Jun 14, 2022 8:27 pm
(2) When I've assigned EXIT to the lower left key, it initially seems to work well in USER mode, but occasionally it doesn't. For instance, [f][ASN] [f][alpha]EXIT[ENTER] +. Then put the calculator in USER mode. Then try, say, [g][PROB] and press EXIT (the lower left key) and you dismiss the menu just fine. But then try [g][CF] and hit EXIT, and the lower left key no longer acts as an EXIT function: you stay in CF entry mode.
Another challenge. We'll return with a better software.

*EDIT: Turns out CATALOG is the only 'resistent' menu. Should be easy to change. 8-)

EDIT 2 (22-6-16): The CATALOG problem is solved. Will be available with next release. 8-) 8-)
WP43 SN00000, 34S, and 31S for obvious reasons; HP-35, 45, ..., 35S, 15CE, DM16L S/N# 00093, DM42β SN:00041
Bill K. - USA
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Re: 43S News

Post by Bill K. - USA »

I've been reading through the Owner's Manual for the WP43S, and so far I've found it very clear--except for the discussion on pp. 59-60 regarding TAM. I read it through several times before I was able to understand what it was saying. I took the liberty of re-writing two of the paragraphs, which (to me) makes this section clearer. (It's just a suggestion, of course.)

-------------

ORIGINAL:
During input processing in memory addressing (e.g. while entering parameters for storing, recalling, copying, comparing, swapping, or clearing), you will not need all the labels presented on the keyboard. Just a subset of 30 labels plus the prefixes will do instead. The calculator mode supporting exactly these 30 is called temporary or transient alpha mode (TAM). It may be automatically set in memory addressing as shown below. Entering TAM, the operational keyboard is temporarily reassigned as pictured here:

This kind of picture is called a virtual keyboard – dark red background is used to highlight changed active functionalities in TAM here. White print denotes primary functions here as well, such as the 1st key in row 2 directly accessing (possibly stack) register A.54 Also all other lettered registers can be called directly in TAM – the stack registers X, Y, Z, and T via unshifted soft-keys.

-----------------

POSSIBLE RE-WRITE:
Many commands and functions require you to specify memory locations (e.g., those actions that result in storing, recalling, copying, comparing, swapping, or clearing data). To speed this process, whenever the user must specify a memory location, the WP43S places the keyboard in a special mode called transient alpha mode, or TAM. While in this mode, many of the keys are redefined from their usual functions, giving you access to thirty relevant key values, plus some prefixes.

The image to the right shows the inputs temporarily provided by your keys while you're in TAM. For this "virtual keyboard", the keys colored in dark red indicate a changed functionality. White fonts still denote the primary (unshifted) functions: for instance, pressing the 1st key in the 2nd row gives direct access to register A (which may also be a stack register). In fact, all registers that have a single-letter name can be directly called from TAM--stack registers X, Y, Z, and T via the unshifted softkeys.
Last edited by Bill K. - USA on Tue Jun 21, 2022 11:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Walter
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Re: 43S News

Post by Walter »

Thanks for your suggestion, Bill. We will think about it. 8-)
WP43 SN00000, 34S, and 31S for obvious reasons; HP-35, 45, ..., 35S, 15CE, DM16L S/N# 00093, DM42β SN:00041
Bill K. - USA
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Re: 43S News

Post by Bill K. - USA »

Walter wrote:
Wed Jun 15, 2022 12:44 am
*EDIT: Turns out CATALOG is the only 'resistent' menu. Should be easy to change. 8-)

EDIT 2 (22-6-16): The CATALOG problem is solved. Will be available with next release. 8-) 8-)
This is great news--thank you for making these changes!

An additional question: what happens to key changes made with ASSIGN when in USER + TAM?

TAM2.jpg
TAM2.jpg (38.37 KiB) Viewed 1857 times

My preference would be that the white-font/brown-colored keys would be reassigned as designated by ASSIGN, but that the white-font/red-colored keys would be as shown in the image--with the exception of the "alpha" key, which in a perfect world [for me] would remain on whatever key the [f][alpha] action is assigned to.

(Of course problems occur if any of the white-font/brown-colored keys are reassigned to what will be the white-font/red-colored keys. I suppose, to be thorough, there should be a way to reassign TAMA, TAMB, ... TAML, TAMα.)
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Walter
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Re: 43S News

Post by Walter »

You can reassign everything except [f], [g], [alpha], and [F1] through [F6].
  • If and when you assign in normal (numeric) mode, you can move unshifted, f-shifted, or g-shifted labels.
  • If and when you assign in AIM, you can move the respective alpha labels.
  • Turning to user mode, the reassigned functionalities will become valid.
  • Turning to TAM in user mode, the reassigned alpha labels will become valid.
The colours of the virtual keyboards are only virtual - they should just guide the eye.
WP43 SN00000, 34S, and 31S for obvious reasons; HP-35, 45, ..., 35S, 15CE, DM16L S/N# 00093, DM42β SN:00041
Bill K. - USA
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Re: 43S News

Post by Bill K. - USA »

Walter wrote:
Fri Jun 24, 2022 7:21 am
You can reassign everything except [f], [g], [alpha], and [F1] through [F6].
  • If and when you assign in normal (numeric) mode, you can move unshifted, f-shifted, or g-shifted labels.
  • If and when you assign in AIM, you can move the respective alpha labels.
  • Turning to user mode, the reassigned functionalities will become valid.
  • Turning to TAM in user mode, the reassigned alpha labels will become valid.
Ah. It was the TAM [alpha] that I wanted to reassign, to keep it associated with the same key that I reassigned [alpha] and [alpha.fn] to.

On another matter:
I attempted to learn the basics of the French language across four years in high school and failed, so I have great admiration for polyglots. But polyglots--perhaps out of familiarity with different grammars or with the varying connotations of common word roots--can at times make word choices that we poor monoglots sometimes trip over. I found that happening to me in two places in this paragraph on p. 74 of the Owner's Manual:

How can you use and combine data of various types in calculations? The matrix below lists in its 1st column ten data types your WP 43S supports; and it shows what will happen when you combine various objects: an object of the DT as indicated in one of the lean columns at right (y) plus or minus an object of the DT in column 1 (x) will return an object of the DT at the intersection (thus, wherever a DT number is printed at the inter-section, the corresponding combination is legal for addition or subtraction 65 ). Grey fields point to restrictions, rose to asymmetries.

--in this context, I took "lean" to indicate anything other than narrowness: I was inspecting the table for columns in Italics, or for columns with non-perpendicular lines, or for cells that had skimpy amounts of information. (I suggest "skinny" or "narrow" for "lean".)

--"rose" caused me a different problem: (a) "grey" is a common color-describing word; "rose", less so. (b) Your elliptical sentence construct is pleasing--I appreciate writing with structural variety. But unfortunately, the more-modern less-punctuated syntax (which works well in most situations), when coupled with the rarer homonym of "rose", left me misreading the sentence. I was wondering how grey fields pointed to restrictions that rose to further asymmetries--looking back on it, I find my confusion amusing. Better wording might be . . .
(1) Grey fields point to restrictions; rose, to asymmetries.
(2) Grey fields point to restrictions, pink to asymmetries.
(3) Grey fields indicate prohibited operations; rose-colored fields, asymmetries.

I know both points are niggling, but I find it fun to see the various ways I get tripped up. And it's a Friday.

-----------

Or, rewriting the entire paragraph:
The WP43S supports ten different data types. But what happens when differing data types are used together in a calculation? The table below answers that question for addition and subtraction. Knowing the data type for the value currently in the x-register, find it in the leftmost column of the table. Do the same for the data in the y-register, using the topmost row of the table. Trace these two entries across and down respectively until you find the cell where they meet. If a number is given in that cell, that is the resulting data type. (If the cell has a grey field, then the addition/subtraction operation is prohibited; if the cell has a pink field, then the result is asymmetric--i.e., if the x- and y-register data types are reversed, a different data type results.)
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Walter
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Re: 43S News

Post by Walter »

Well, well, I replaced lean by narrow and elaborated: Grey fields point to restrictions, rose fields to asymmetries. Hoping readers of that ambiguous language will appreciate it.

I admit I'm frankly unwilling to explain what an asymmetry and a restriction is. Please read the Safety Warning on p. 15.

It's worth mentioning that the two most widespread/popular languages on this planet are the two most ambiguous ones: English and Chinese. Both rely a lot on context since they have a reduced grammar and flexion (Chinese lacks both completely) compared to Spanish, for instance. Older languages were more complex than newer ones (compare e.g. Latin and Italian). What can we learn from these facts about mankind?
WP43 SN00000, 34S, and 31S for obvious reasons; HP-35, 45, ..., 35S, 15CE, DM16L S/N# 00093, DM42β SN:00041
Bill K. - USA
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Re: 43S News

Post by Bill K. - USA »

Thank you for acting on my suggestion: I appreciate your making the Owner's Manual clearer!

Walter wrote:
Fri Jun 24, 2022 10:28 pm
It's worth mentioning that the two most widespread/popular languages on this planet are the two most ambiguous ones: English and Chinese. Both rely a lot on context since they have a reduced grammar and flexion (Chinese lacks both completely) compared to Spanish, for instance.
I'd quibble about English being ambiguous: I think it capable of deep precision and of conveying thoughts with great subtlety and nuance. It's a language with over half a million entry words in unabridged dictionaries, a profusion of words that convey endless shades of denotation and connotation. Yes, its grammar is restrictive with regards to word order, having few inflections, but there are commensurate compensations (as eloquently discussed in The Movement of English Prose by Ian Gordon). And as with many other languages, countless lives and the world itself have been changed through the medium of English. But I'm certainly careening off topic . . .


So back onto topic: I understand why [f] and [g] and [F1]-[F6] are restricted from being remapped by [f][ASN]. But I'd like to argue that [f][α] is a different fish.

--For one thing, it's not a primary function.

--For another, my main goal in re-mapping keys is simply this: I'd like to make my DM42 into a WP43S by using just a template without the need for key stickers. The problem I have is that the DM42 [XEQ] key is the button on which the WP43S [f][α] function resides--but I'd like to keep [f][GTO] and [g][FLAG] attached to the [XEQ] key, if possible. Meanwhile, the existing DM42 yellow shift key (i.e., the [-] key on the WP43S) is perfectly colored to stand out as a third shift key, which IMO makes it ideal for [f][α].

Would it be too difficult to permit [f][ASN] to work with [f][α]ALPHA[ENTER] also?
Last edited by Bill K. - USA on Sun Jun 26, 2022 6:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
Bill K. - USA
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Re: 43S News

Post by Bill K. - USA »

Fractions

Two comments on the way the WP43S handles fractions.

(1) I find the trailing "<" and ">" after fractions confusing. E.g., enter 5.2.5, then .999 999 999, then multiply. You get: "27/5 >". When I look at that display string, my mind goes back and forth as to whether it's telling me that the value in the x-register is slightly greater than 27/5, or that 27/5 is slightly greater than the value in the x-register.

I do understand that the latter interpretation is the correct one, but the display string is giving me the relationship from the other side of the ratio. My frame of reference when I use a calculator is always from the perspective of the value in the x-register, for that's what the calculator always operates on. But to properly understand the meaning of the "twenty-seven-fifths greater than" string, I have to mentally hop over onto the other side of the inequality.

I think "< 27/5" would be more intuitive. It's unambiguous to me with this latter syntax that the value in the x-register is slightly less than 27/5, and after I mentally "read" it, I'm hearing "less than twenty-seven-fifths", and I don't have to invert a "greater than" into a "less than" in my thinking as I do with the current display syntax. (And I would leave off any preceding "=" symbol when a fraction is exact: that will always be the presumption when there's no indicator to the contrary.)

(2) Once again enter 5.2.5, then .999 999 999, then multiply. The display says "27/5 >". Now hit [g][PART][DECOMP], and you get y=27 and x=5. But shouldn't y=27 [x] .999 999 999=26.999999973? If internally the calculator is storing the true value and only displaying the approximate faction, then shouldn't the calculator give back the true value instead of the approximate value when I decompose "27/5 >"? After all, hitting [f][.d] instead of [g][PART][DECOMP] gives the true value (5.399 999 995) not the approximate value (5.4).
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rudi
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Re: 43S News

Post by rudi »

Why not use the common mathematical notation, a raised + or - after the number.

\(27/5^{-}\) to indicate very close to but less than and \(27/5^{+}\) to indicate very close to but greater than
/Rudi

DM-42 (s/n 06999), HP-42S, HP-35s, HP-11c, HP-32SII (ex HP-41CV, ex HP-75C, ex HP-48G + a lot, really lot of a accessories)
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