SwissMicros Calculator Forum

Jaymos wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:58 pm

It is a lot of lines though. Question is, is this more useful?

If it seems useful, I can add an option button for that as in some cases it may be a lot of clutter, but it does make a good graph though.

If it could be easily toggled, I'd say go for it.

This week's contributions to download:

C43 Simulator for Windows: https://classic43.com/downloads/C43_EMU ... _Rel46.zip
Be sure to delete the binary.bin file from the C43 folder prior to running.
Thanks Dani for the help compiling!

C43 DM42 software image file: https://classic43.com/downloads/C43_46L2.zip
Be sure to do CLR/RESET after resetting the first time.
The C43 firmware still requires DM42 DMCP firmware 3.18 or 3.20.

This week I have the following changes:

I summarise special key operations on the C43 in a PDF here. This PDF document lists the key behaviour for long press, double press, etc. and also details hidden keys. Hidden keys are key functions on shift keys, which will not appear on the key bezel plate. The concept is that only the bare minimum is clearly defined on the key plate, but the additional shortcuts are available to increase operation speed.

Critically analysing the C43 hidden keys and additional keys, I realised the two text mode blue icons next to the arrow keys are not required and removed these. The caps lock in alpha mode is now changed by f[Up] and f[Dn] to shift the case. This is changed on the simulator screen already. This change removes some visual overloading, which is what Inautilus advocated months ago already. (f[J] remains a caps lock toggle marked with a yellow ℂ).

We also realised there was no quick way to clear alpha entry and numeric entry and added CLA (Clear Alpha) and CLN (Clear Numeric), conveniently and intuitively placed them on the long press backspace button. The operation is backspace for one character, and longpress to clear all characters. These commands are loosely based on the 41C CLA, which was observed by Dani.

I improved the alpha input line wrapping code. This was previously incorrectly called multi line, but clearly is not multi line as there are no CR/LF supported the text. It is a single line of text wrapped over five lines. Either way, the code was improved to allow a short single line text entry, and when about ¾ of line width is filled by typing, it expands to the 5-line view and full screen text input.

The menu flow of changing modes and options was revised a bit. The config menu CFG (called from within the MODE menu) and the 43S compatible SYSFL menu now allows multiple setting changes, without returning back to the previous menu after each change. The setting screen stays put until exited from, using EXIT.

My STAT/PLOT module did get some minor improvements as was discussed earlier the week, specifically the function to show the area below the integral graph. The PLOT menu now includes the SHADE option which draws the rectangles below the approximated integral function as was discussed in this week’s posts.
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Standing over from last week's release 45, I did not yet investigate any power issues. But I can confirm that both my DM42's were loaded with the latest firmware and were stable and not sucking dry the batteries in the last 7 days. So either way, I also do not have a case to investigate this side, as I need it to show the symptoms first! Further, the Windows simulator console window debug info has not been switched off yet. I use the debug stuff a lot and at release time, I just don't think of removing it. It is no big deal though

This week's work on C43:

No new C43 simulator or C43 DM42 firmware for download this week, due to the work not being completed as yet.

But first, after some turbulence today on the other thread regarding the operator positions and the sequence of the operators on the WP43S, I thought it good to remind all that in the C43, you can change the key layout to various versions to try them out, i.e. test operators either on the left or right sides and even with the original HP sequence vs the WP43S sequence. This allows for comfortable testing, and as H2X said, try the pudding before you guess what it tastes like, or well, maybe he didn't say it exactly that way .

All of the layout versions can be changed in the KEYS softmenu and these changes will work on any C43 sim or DM42, but you may need stickers (aargh) (or a WP43S picture) to find the labels, so the simulator is better for testing. These key sets were made months ago, see this post of 1st July 2020 where even the V43 experiment was mentioned. Nothing extra to be loaded, all are simple sets of KEYS-allocations in all C43 versions since July. I made a quick video demo here.
. The KEYS menu, with the calculator KEYS layout buttons highlighted
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This week we attempted to get the alpha input more intuitive and visible. I am not finished optimising it still. I fiddled the sizes on screen for text input. I expanded the alpha input to start off in a large font to be the same size as the normal numbers, for optimal clarity. The large font text is too large to use on text in the X, Y, Z & T registers, where the standard small font is used again. The idea is to have the larger font while typing at least.

The large font text input will remain for about 1 ¾ lines, after which it will automatically reduce the font and use the whole screen, well, 5 lines of the screen not to interfere with the softmenu area below and the NOP area above. If you really need to type more, then the text in the beginning of the string will scroll off screen so you will see the new typed letters (but will still capture all letters scrolled off screen).

You will notice 6 arrow function keys. This is for editing text. Up and Down is duplicated from the actual keyboard keys for symmetry; << and >> jumps 10 characters left and right; < and > do the obvious. There is no different insert modes - simply always INS mode. X.EDIT in the function menu f[FN2], loads the X register into text editing, whether the X register contains text or not. If not, it will first convert the number to text.
. The ALPHA input

A week or two passed without a new download, but that does not mean the we sat still.

Contributions to download:

C43 Simulator for Windows: https://classic43.com/downloads/C43_EMU ... _Rel47.zip
Be sure to delete the binary.bin file from the C43 folder prior to running.
Thanks Dani for the help compiling!

C43 DM42 software image file: https://classic43.com/downloads/C43_47L2.zip
Be sure to do CLR/RESET after resetting the first time.
The C43 firmware still requires DM42 DMCP firmware 3.18 or 3.20.

Most of my time the last 2-3 weeks was spent catching up, importing and adapting Martin's new WP43S branch for the development of the WP43S PEM and XEQ models, to the C43. Of course, the C43 is a fork of the WP43S, and if I keep the guts of the WP43S, I inherit this amazing body of work from Martin. Catching up with this prolific man, keeping up with his refactoring is a lot of fun, but hard work. He is fast and good, and without him there is no WP43S, no C43. Well, without other people too, but in this work, I see his efforts on a daily basis...

None of this work either in WP43S or in C43 is ready to be demo'd and still needs lots of work.

Back to the current working branch (download above) I can report on the following changes:

We saddled the difficult horse of changing key labels again. Why difficult? Because if you change one single thing the house of cards starts tumbling. Why do it, you may ask. Reason is simply that we realised that the WP43S default ALPHA key coincides with the C43 XEQ key. Chance happening, but so we could not resist moving the alpha key right there too. I copy Danis own summary below:

Dani: "I looked at the current state of the WP43S simulator to see how far they are with XEQ. I noticed that x^2 becomes the ALPHA key when XEQ is pressed. This is quite logical there, because on WP43S, ALPHA is on f(x^2).
For the C43 I had wanted for quite a while, that pressing XEQ twice would be the same as pressing XEQ ALPHA. Now I have seen, why should we add another easter egg (ed: special hidden function), if you can place ALPHA on f(XEQ) then this key sequence appears natural! f(XEQ) previously became free when we moved GTO, LBL and RTN to g(SIN), g(COS) and g(TAN). Only I had overlooked this opportunity for a long time, that f(XEQ) could be used for ALPHA. The previous position for ALPHA on f(4) had always bothered me."

Jaco: The one idea fed the other, and I just saw opportunities, because BASE on g[CHS] irritated me for long (being dissimilar to the HP42S), and BASE on that very busy central area graphically drove our Canadian template man almost over the cliff. At the same time our Norwegian friend jumped at his bugbear of EXP bothering on g[X<>Y] and he jumped at the opportunity to get mnemonic matching by sticking EXP on g[EEX]. I saw an opportunity to get my favourite xth-root-y function closer to the math area and square root function, and in the mix of things, someone mentioned that FIN can feature better in the vertical group on the operator shifts. It took me a few iterations to distill something useful from this lot. Of course we had to have the conservative approach to not be changing the whole lot again. Makes me think of the Jenga blocks...

Either way, it's done
. Solid reasons for changing to the above layout. Green boxes indicate final positions.
Red locus here, indicates the path to Nirvana
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More things:

Alpha entry:

• Changed the way to change case: Added dedicate f[Up] and f[Dn] for Case UP/DN. f[J] remains a toggle.
• Changed alpha entry to use a large font. Previously detailed in another post. Auto adjust to small font for long texts. Auto adjust to 5 line wrapped text scrolling off screen for long texts.
• Optimized the Alpha menu, menu item content.

Further to reminders from users:

• I reduced the verbose texts in the terminal window.
• I also purposely monitored my 2 off DM42s running C43 for power issues, and I can report that no fast discharging happens. None at all. The batteries remain stable, auto shutdown works every time, and the batteries last.

More stuff:

• I Improved the PC keyboard operation on the simulator. It already included auto shifting between numbers and text, but now also the cursors and both the DEL and Backspace keys are mapped.
• Re-arranged the FIN key label to be more visible on the right hand side, and upgraded it to an f-key and also arranged the FIN menu content so that the TVM are directly on the FIN menu primaries.

. FIN menu now combining the fin functions, with priority to the TVM functions.

Nice post, Jaco, and good work keeping up with Martin & his accomplices!

That ALPHA label on the XEQ key looks a tad heavy considering the other labels on the top row - did you consider a greek letter α instead?

H2X wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 24, 2020 10:52 pm

That ALPHA label on the XEQ key looks a tad heavy considering the other labels on the top row - did you consider a greek letter α instead?

Thanx!

The text ALPHA is used on the simulator. Special characters on the sim is hard, which must be the reason Martin changed the WP43S to a full graphic simulator. I did not change the C43 sim to a graphic simulator for a few reasons.

But we do have a special alpha graphic that Inautilus made for the template, which I quite like.

When we will re-arrange the template graphic (very soon) to follow the changes above, the boxed ⍺ will be re-evaluated in its new position to see if it still fits graphically. I have no reason to believe it won't work, but we will check.
. Here the boxed alpha

That 'boxed alpha' looks like a lower case 'a' of some fonts to me. Best alphas are found in Symbol and Times New Roman IMO.

Walter wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 24, 2020 11:45 pm

That 'boxed alpha' looks like a lower case 'a' of some fonts to me. Best alphas are found in Symbol and Times New Roman IMO.

Thanx. We will re-evaluate.

J

In the post earlier this week, I neglected to add the details of how the direct, DM42 compatible layout, changed after the changes above.

Below a pic, blue functions exist, but of course are not shown on the original DM42. Green boxes show the latest change, with a link here to the detail of both layouts, for those interested.

The layout below is not to be confused with L1 a few post back.
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L42, the layout for use on an unmodified DM42, utilising all existing keys, and mapping C43 functions to suitable DM42 yellow labels.

For clarity on the layouts:

Layout L42 (below) is the layout distributed every week for use on the unmodified DM42, the filename in the format C43_nn_L2.pgm where nn refers to the release number (47 was the last release) and L2 is short for Layout42 referring to the DM42.

The simulator is distributed with Layout1, which is the preferred layout, and which will soon have the metal template available. When this happens I will distribute two DM42 files, ..L1 for use with the template, and ..L2 for use with the original DM42.

All versions, DM42 or simulator, have the KEYS menu, where the key layout can be selected to be DM42 (Layout42) or C43 (Layout1) or WP43S or some experimental layouts V43LT and V43RT. The latter pair has the original operator layout, see this post higher up on this p117 here.

I modified the hi-res (**edit: from Inautilus**) WP 43C old layout, that I used for printing a "paper bezel" on previous versions of C43 - updated without errors I hope, it might be of use to someone...

I print it on a color laser printer (resized x0.30 I think, maybe to adjust to your printer), it works nicely after being laminated with transparent sticky film - of course the tricky part is cutting around the keys... I left them in white for this sole purpose, as it is easier to trim the remaining white (and a bit of black ink on edges).

Edited: removed the white texts on top buttons (previous one with white texts: https://i.postimg.cc/vTmLSPsd/C43.png )



https://i.postimg.cc/9MNyxkGH/C43L1.png