Collection of wishes for future SwissMicros products - discussion following Bob Prosperi's HHC 2022 talk

General discussion about calculators, SwissMicros or otherwise
redglyph
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Re: Collection of wishes for future SwissMicros products - discussion following Bob Prosperi's HHC 2022 talk

Post by redglyph »

Ah OK, I hadn't tried the DM42 skin yet, thanks for the suggestion. EDIT: For info, the one on the website doesn't work, it shows in the skin menu but does nothing, probably not compatible anymore. I found one that seems to be working here: https://github.com/StreakyCobra/dm42-skin/releases

It doesn't sound too bad, although it would be nice to access a few of these menus more easily, like PLOT and UNITS for instance (that depends on the user of course).

One inheritance from the HP-42S that I find most irritating is how the PROB menu disappears after one selection, it's unfortunately the same on the DM42 and it seems to be the same on the Plus42 too. So if there is a DM42Plus one day, I hope it comes with a setting to make that menu behave correctly at last, like the other ones! At least as an option.

Doing a few probability calculations with the current version is made unnecessarily complicated (even with the trick of opening the menu twice). I think CONVERT has the same problem.
Thomas Okken
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Re: Collection of wishes for future SwissMicros products - discussion following Bob Prosperi's HHC 2022 talk

Post by Thomas Okken »

redglyph wrote:
Thu Sep 22, 2022 7:34 pm
For info, the one on the website doesn't work, it shows in the skin menu but does nothing, probably not compatible anymore.
Hmm, that's news to me. Which skin, exactly, are you encountering this problem with, and in which version of the app?
rprosperi
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Re: Collection of wishes for future SwissMicros products - discussion following Bob Prosperi's HHC 2022 talk

Post by rprosperi »

redglyph wrote:
Thu Sep 22, 2022 7:34 pm

One inheritance from the HP-42S that I find most irritating is how the PROB menu disappears after one selection, it's unfortunately the same on the DM42 and it seems to be the same on the Plus42 too. So if there is a DM42Plus one day, I hope it comes with a setting to make that menu behave correctly at last, like the other ones! At least as an option.

This is actually not a problem, you may have simply forgotten that pressing [shift] [PROB] twice will put it into that menu and then remain in that menu until you specifically EXIT, or enter another menu. All 42S menus work this way, but it's probably the least known (or least remembered) feature on the machine. Some menus seem to do this on their own (e.g. STAT) which is what I think causes such confusion...
--bob p

DM42: β00071 & 00282, DM41X: β00071 & 00656, DM10L: 071/100
redglyph
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Re: Collection of wishes for future SwissMicros products - discussion following Bob Prosperi's HHC 2022 talk

Post by redglyph »

Thomas Okken wrote:
Thu Sep 22, 2022 8:28 pm
redglyph wrote:
Thu Sep 22, 2022 7:34 pm
For info, the one on the website doesn't work, it shows in the skin menu but does nothing, probably not compatible anymore.
Hmm, that's news to me. Which skin, exactly, are you encountering this problem with, and in which version of the app?
From https://thomasokken.com/plus42/,
- Skins => https://thomasokken.com/plus42/skins/

I didn't see a DM42 skin so I checked further:
- Free42 Skins => https://thomasokken.com/free42/skins/, and the DM42 skin is the 5th one.

I admit that I first read "Free skins" and not "Free42 skins" ;)

Maybe it's incompatible because it's Free42? I saw no warning when I tried to use it, the link is on the Plus42 page and the Readme seems to suggest it's compatible ("Plus42 uses the same skins as Free42, but in order to fit in the larger display, it has to stretch the skin images. For most skins, it can handle this automatically, but for some, it needs some help"). Or perhaps it does need tweaking.
rprosperi wrote:
Thu Sep 22, 2022 9:18 pm
This is actually not a problem, you may have simply forgotten that pressing [shift] [PROB] twice will put it into that menu and then remain in that menu until you specifically EXIT, or enter another menu. All 42S menus work this way, but it's probably the least known (or least remembered) feature on the machine. Some menus seem to do this on their own (e.g. STAT) which is what I think causes such confusion...
I know, that's the "even with the trick of opening the menu twice" I mentioned, but it's not really a good solution IMO since it requires 4 keys. If there is a good reason to close this menu automatically, I haven't found it.

Thanks for mentioning the trick anyway! :)
Thomas Okken
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Re: Collection of wishes for future SwissMicros products - discussion following Bob Prosperi's HHC 2022 talk

Post by Thomas Okken »

redglyph wrote:
Thu Sep 22, 2022 9:51 pm
Maybe it's incompatible because it's Free42?
Incompatible with what, exactly? Which version of the app are you using and on which OS? And if this is on Windows or Linux, did you make sure to download both the layout and gif? (The Mac, Android, and iOS versions' built-in skin loaders will automatically download both files.)

I don't see anything wrong with the two versions of the DM42 skin on my web site; both work fine in Plus42 1.0.10 on my iPhone, and they should work in the other versions as well.
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48GX
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Re: Collection of wishes for future SwissMicros products - discussion following Bob Prosperi's HHC 2022 talk

Post by 48GX »

The HP48G and if Thomas is on board 42+ should be next IMHO.

I believe SM is missing the largest market of all by poo pooing the 48 because it is incomplete. Make the hardware and O/S to run the ROM and sell a lot of these calculators.

One more row of keys opens a lot of possibilities.
Waiting for SM to release DM42 hardware with one additional row of keys.
DM42, DB48X, DM32, HP42s, DM41X, HP35s, DM41L
Raising a next generation RPN/RPL user.
redglyph
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Re: Collection of wishes for future SwissMicros products - discussion following Bob Prosperi's HHC 2022 talk

Post by redglyph »

Thomas Okken wrote:
Thu Sep 22, 2022 10:05 pm
redglyph wrote:
Thu Sep 22, 2022 9:51 pm
Maybe it's incompatible because it's Free42?
Incompatible with what, exactly? Which version of the app are you using and on which OS? And if this is on Windows or Linux, did you make sure to download both the layout and gif? (The Mac, Android, and iOS versions' built-in skin loaders will automatically download both files.)

I don't see anything wrong with the two versions of the DM42 skin on my web site; both work fine in Plus42 1.0.10 on my iPhone, and they should work in the other versions as well.
Incompatible with Plus42, obviously. ;)

Sorry, I forgot to mention the version. I'm using the latest, 1.0.10, on Windows 10 x64. I did download both files and put them into the executables' directory.

It doesn't really matter, I probably did something wrong so I'll try again later with a fresh install. I shouldn't have mentioned it in this thread.
48GX wrote:
Fri Sep 23, 2022 3:25 am
I believe SM is missing the largest market of all by poo pooing the 48 because it is incomplete. Make the hardware and O/S to run the ROM and sell a lot of these calculators.
What's the exact legal status of the HP-48 series' ROMs? What I read was HP unofficially announced that people were allowed to download it, but there is no trace of this and that division of HP has closed since then (circa 2001 I think).

The ROMs still have the original copyright, so using it is potentially a problem for a professional product because nothing prevents HP from sending a cease & desist letter. Explaining to customers that they have to find the ROM on their own could be awkward, even if it's still possible to find it. We can suppose it's not a real problem, but maybe that's why SM has second thoughts (and it would be rightly so).
Last edited by redglyph on Fri Sep 23, 2022 10:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
Thomas Okken
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Re: Collection of wishes for future SwissMicros products - discussion following Bob Prosperi's HHC 2022 talk

Post by Thomas Okken »

Both versions of the DM42 skin (desktop and mobile) work fine with Plus42 1.0.10 on my PC under Windows 10.
It does sound like there is some junk in your Plus42 directory...
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48GX
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Re: Collection of wishes for future SwissMicros products - discussion following Bob Prosperi's HHC 2022 talk

Post by 48GX »

redglyph wrote:
Fri Sep 23, 2022 10:11 am
48GX wrote:
Fri Sep 23, 2022 3:25 am
I believe SM is missing the largest market of all by poo pooing the 48 because it is incomplete. Make the hardware and O/S to run the ROM and sell a lot of these calculators.
What's the exact legal status of the HP-48 series' ROMs? What I read was HP unofficially announced that people were allowed to download it, but there is no trace of this and that division of HP has closed since then (circa 2001 I think).

The ROMs still have the original copyright, so using it is potentially a problem for a professional product because nothing prevents HP from sending a cease & desist letter. Explaining to customers that they have to find the ROM on their own could be awkward, even if it's still possible to find it. We can suppose it's not a real problem, but maybe that's why SM has second thoughts (and it would be rightly so).
They hand me a hardware device with an operating system loaded. I load my own ROM.
Waiting for SM to release DM42 hardware with one additional row of keys.
DM42, DB48X, DM32, HP42s, DM41X, HP35s, DM41L
Raising a next generation RPN/RPL user.
Helix
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Re: Collection of wishes for future SwissMicros products - discussion following Bob Prosperi's HHC 2022 talk

Post by Helix »

Linus_Sch wrote:
Wed Sep 21, 2022 2:22 pm
71b, emu72, palmtops, Linux pocket computer:
This would mean a new hardware platform. But everything mentioned in that heading could fit on the same hardware platform, and it might be very awesome. http://www.jeffcalc.hp41.eu/emu71/emu72.html
This is exactly my wish!
I would like a modern reincarnation of pocket computers, with a Qwerty keyboard AND a numeric keypad, like the HP 71B and many other BASIC pocket computers of the 80s, but with up-to-date memory and speed. An open platform would also allow talented users to add other programming languages, like C, Forth, Micro Python, NewRPL…

Even the HP 200LX remains unsurpassed. There are several small computers on the market today, but they lack the numeric keypad, and they run on batteries that must be frequently recharged.
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