WP43 News

This area is for discussion about these families of custom high-end Scientific Calculator applications for SwissMicros devices.
HPMike
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Re: More problems with calculator losing contents of memory

Post by HPMike »

HPMike wrote:
Fri Mar 25, 2022 7:36 pm
Today I fired up the emulator, and everything that I entered yesterday was gone. There was no error message to indicate that this should have happened. Well, almost everything. There are two 3x3 matrices A and B that are now null (all zeros), which was the original configuration until I added data, so maybe that was saved and all subsequent changes were not saved. The backup.bin file has yesterday's time stamp from when I first started working, so maybe it's not saving the status like it should when the emulator is exited. Is there some way to manually execute an update to the backup.bin file or otherwise save the calculator's memory ?
One thing I just noticed that if you close the program via the Command Prompt window it will NOT update the backup.bin file. It will only get updated by closing the emulator window itself. Right now it seems to be doing this, so hopefully by tomorrow I will not again lose the contents of memory.
DM15L, S/N 00548. DM42, SN: 00159. DM41X, SN: 00973. DM32, SN 00054.
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Walter
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Re: More problems with calculator losing contents of memory

Post by Walter »

HPMike wrote:
Fri Mar 25, 2022 9:35 pm
HPMike wrote:
Fri Mar 25, 2022 7:36 pm
Today I fired up the emulator, and everything that I entered yesterday was gone. ...
One thing I just noticed that if you close the program via the Command Prompt window it will NOT update the backup.bin file. It will only get updated by closing the emulator window itself. Right now it seems to be doing this, so hopefully by tomorrow I will not again lose the contents of memory.
Hmmh. I close the simulator via right clicking on EXIT (most times) or closing the emulator window (sometimes). I didn't observe any loss of data so far. Please excuse my ignorance, but what is 'the Command Prompt window'?
WP43 SN00000, 34S, and 31S for obvious reasons; HP-35, 45, ..., 35S, 15CE, DM16L S/N# 00093, DM42β SN:00041
HPMike
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Re: More problems with calculator losing contents of memory

Post by HPMike »

Walter wrote:
Fri Mar 25, 2022 9:51 pm
HPMike wrote:
Fri Mar 25, 2022 9:35 pm
HPMike wrote:
Fri Mar 25, 2022 7:36 pm
Today I fired up the emulator, and everything that I entered yesterday was gone. ...
One thing I just noticed that if you close the program via the Command Prompt window it will NOT update the backup.bin file. It will only get updated by closing the emulator window itself. Right now it seems to be doing this, so hopefully by tomorrow I will not again lose the contents of memory.
Hmmh. I close the simulator via right clicking on EXIT (most times) or closing the emulator window (sometimes). I didn't observe any loss of data so far. Please excuse my ignorance, but what is 'the Command Prompt window'?
When I launch the emulator, it first opens a text window that executes a few lines, and then launches the emulator proper. This first window looks to be to be some sort of Windows command line, what in the old days we used to call a DOS box. Anyway, when I close this window, it does not update the backup.bin file. This is what I presume you are calling the emulator window. When I right click on EXIT or left click on the X at the top right of the calculator image, it closes the program and does update the backup.bin file. Why don't you close the emulator window, and check to see if the backup.bin file has been updated.
DM15L, S/N 00548. DM42, SN: 00159. DM41X, SN: 00973. DM32, SN 00054.
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Walter
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Re: More problems with calculator losing contents of memory

Post by Walter »

HPMike wrote:
Fri Mar 25, 2022 10:54 pm
When I launch the emulator, it first opens a text window that executes a few lines, and then launches the emulator proper. This first window looks to be to be some sort of Windows command line, what in the old days we used to call a DOS box. Anyway, when I close this window, it does not update the backup.bin file. This is what I presume you are calling the emulator window. When I right click on EXIT or left click on the X at the top right of the calculator image, it closes the program and does update the backup.bin file. Why don't you close the emulator window, and check to see if the backup.bin file has been updated.
There is a misinterpretation: When I talk about the simulator window, I mean the simulator window (what you call the calculator image). For many (!) months I didn't shoot down the simulator by closing the black MSYS box. As you have experienced yourself now, you should not do that. We, the developers, need this box for some tasks during development. (Before you ask: I don't know why also you have to have said box but I'll find out.)

EDIT: The black box problem will be solved with next release (0.22.4) - said box will not appear any longer.
Last edited by Walter on Sat Mar 26, 2022 8:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
WP43 SN00000, 34S, and 31S for obvious reasons; HP-35, 45, ..., 35S, 15CE, DM16L S/N# 00093, DM42β SN:00041
rprosperi
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Re: 43S News

Post by rprosperi »

The 43S Simulator works as a GTK session created from the "DOS Box" and runs as a sub-process (using the windowing system, etc.) under the instance of that Command Line session. If you close the "DOS Box" manually, all processes that were started from there are killed instantly, so they have no chance to exit properly, so no way to save the session, etc.

Close the process of the simulated calculator application properly and once that ends, it will likely close the "DOS Box" after it exits properly.
--bob p

DM42: β00071 & 00282, DM41X: β00071 & 00656, DM10L: 071/100
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Walter
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Re: 43S News

Post by Walter »

Perfectly explained, Bob. Just delete 'likely' in last sentence. ;)
WP43 SN00000, 34S, and 31S for obvious reasons; HP-35, 45, ..., 35S, 15CE, DM16L S/N# 00093, DM42β SN:00041
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ManuMa
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Re: 43S News

Post by ManuMa »

Hi Walter,
I've found another weird behaviour.
If you start the simulator for the first time, the program pointer is located on a program called "Prime".
If you key GTO.. the program pointer moves to the end of the program memory.
Now if you press R/S, nothing happens, as the pointer is in an empty space.
However if you run the "Prime" program, and then you press GTO.. and then you press R/S, the program "Prime" starts, and it shouldn't, because the program pointer is not on that program thanks to the previous GTO.. instruction.

Also, the f and g annunciators are partially hiding the first program line listed on the screen.

Regards,
Manuel.
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Walter
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Re: 43S News

Post by Walter »

ManuMa wrote:
Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:49 pm
If you start the simulator for the first time, the program pointer is located on a program called "Prime".
If you key GTO.. the program pointer moves to the end of the program memory.
Now if you press R/S, nothing happens, as the pointer is in an empty space.
Correct so far.
ManuMa wrote:
Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:49 pm
However if you run the "Prime" program, and then you press GTO.. and then you press R/S, the program "Prime" starts, and it shouldn't, because the program pointer is not on that program thanks to the previous GTO.. instruction.
Sorry, I cannot reproduce what you describe. Note that "Prime" contains three regular stops, so after XEQ "Prime" you have to press R/S four times before "Prime" is finished. Then I press GTO.. and the program pointer jumps to the end of program memory. And pressing R/S will let nothing happen for reasons you have explained.
ManuMa wrote:
Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:49 pm
Also, the f and g annunciators are partially hiding the first program line listed on the screen.
This is no error, this is a feature. Usually, the program pointer is in the middle of the screen, so hiding a bit of the top line isn't crucial (and f and g should be annunciated).
WP43 SN00000, 34S, and 31S for obvious reasons; HP-35, 45, ..., 35S, 15CE, DM16L S/N# 00093, DM42β SN:00041
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ManuMa
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Re: 43S News

Post by ManuMa »

OK, let's go step by step:

1.- Delete backup.bin
2.- Start the simulator
3.- Press R/S The program "Prime" starts and then stops at a certain step.
4.- Press GTO.. and the program pointer goes to the end of the program memory. You can check this by entering into program mode.
5.- Press R/S Nothing should happen, as the pointer is now on an empty program, but program "Prime" starts again.

Hope this helps to reproduce the issue.

Regards,
Manuel.
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Walter
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Re: 43S News

Post by Walter »

Ok, this I can confirm.
WP43 SN00000, 34S, and 31S for obvious reasons; HP-35, 45, ..., 35S, 15CE, DM16L S/N# 00093, DM42β SN:00041
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