WP34S for the DM42

This area is for discussion about these families of custom high-end Scientific Calculator applications for SwissMicros devices.
Nigel (UK)
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Re: WP34S for the DM42

Post by Nigel (UK) »

Thank you so much for this feedback. I'm glad you like it!
dlachieze wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 6:24 pm
There is one function that I don't find on the DM42 keyboard mapping: SHOW (g EXIT on the WP34S).
Fixed. In my listing of commands I ticked off the wrong SHOW. SHOW is now assigned to g-shifted EXIT, just as on the real calculator. I'm leaving "SHOW" on f-shift 0 as "display number at full precision" because I use that a lot. I hope this isn't confusing.
dlachieze wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 6:24 pm
In alpha the extended catalogs on f --> and f CPX are not mapped to the --> and CPX keys but to LN and XEQ.
This one is deliberate. With the exception of the letters and symbols printed on the keyboard, I want the catalogues and other symbols to be in the same keyboard locations on the two calculators (so that the standard manual tells you what to press). I had a look at the code, and I think that changing this might break something somewhere else.
dlachieze wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 6:24 pm
Also in Alpha mode the h prefix (three press on Shift) is implemented but is not giving access to all characters on the alpha keyboard h-plane: ! (h ^), ? (h v), \ (h /) or space (h PSE) for example are missing.
My mistake. This is fixed now. (Note that you can get space, ? and : from +, R/S, and 0 (g-shift R/S gives !), in line with what is printed on the keyboard.)
dlachieze wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 6:24 pm
The WP 34S display renders beautifully on the DM42 screen, I have just two small comments: it seems to me that the Alpha section of the display is a bit too close to the edge of the screen. I would prefer it to be a bit to the right as on the WP 34S display. And the pixels on the WP 34S (HP 30b) Alpha display are not square but rather rectangular and from what I've measured on a close-up picture I took from the display, they seem to be about 10% higher than larger giving taller characters than what we have on the DM42 version.
Looking at your photograph I see what you mean. There's room; I've shifted the alpha section 15 pixels to the right and it looks better now. The "pixels" were 4x4 dots on the screen; I've changed them to 4x5 and I quite like the result. What do you think?
Image
The new pgm file and an updated helpfile are now on gitlab.

Nigel (UK)
dlachieze
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Re: WP34S for the DM42

Post by dlachieze »

Nigel (UK) wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 10:06 pm
Fixed. In my listing of commands I ticked off the wrong SHOW. SHOW is now assigned to g-shifted EXIT, just as on the real calculator.
Perfect, it works Ok now.
Nigel (UK) wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 10:06 pm
I'm leaving "SHOW" on f-shift 0 as "display number at full precision" because I use that a lot. I hope this isn't confusing.
I'm fine with this.
Nigel (UK) wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 10:06 pm
My mistake. This is fixed now. (Note that you can get space, ? and : from +, R/S, and 0 (g-shift R/S gives !), in line with what is printed on the keyboard.)
Thanks, and I should have better read the help file, sometime the obvious is TOO obvious !
Nigel (UK) wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 10:06 pm
Looking at your photograph I see what you mean. There's room; I've shifted the alpha section 15 pixels to the right and it looks better now. The "pixels" were 4x4 dots on the screen; I've changed them to 4x5 and I quite like the result. What do you think?
This is great, I like it also !
Nigel (UK) wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 10:06 pm
The new pgm file and an updated helpfile are now on gitlab.
Thanks for the update, it has been quick !

There is one thing I would like to suggest: it is related to the top row keys A B C D, would it be possible to have the functions of these keys added on the default menu where currently we have only --> and CPX so they could still be easily accessed as primary keys when the labels are defined? In this case f ASSIGN which is currently inactive could be used to activate this default menu.
DM42: 00425 - DM41X: β00066 - WP43: 00042
Nigel (UK)
Posts: 118
Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2017 11:08 pm

Re: WP34S for the DM42

Post by Nigel (UK) »

dlachieze wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 12:01 am
There is one thing I would like to suggest: it is related to the top row keys A B C D, would it be possible to have the functions of these keys added on the default menu where currently we have only --> and CPX so they could still be easily accessed as primary keys when the labels are defined? In this case f ASSIGN which is currently inactive could be used to activate this default menu.
Good idea.

Now, pressing shift-assign when the default menu is displayed toggles between having just --> and CPX and having the four "label" keys as well.

This change has been uploaded.

Nigel (UK)
H2X
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Re: WP34S for the DM42

Post by H2X »

I am having a spot of bother getting the program to run on my DM42, so just to confirm that these steps should work:

1) Git cloned the project.
2) Activated USB disk mode on the DM42.
3) Copied the build/wp34s.pgm file to the root dir of the USB disk.
4) Copied the help/wp34s_help.html file to the HELP dir of the USB disk.
5) Unmounted the USB disk from my computer
6) Exited the USB disk mode on the DM42 (if still active, I tried several times)

After these steps I expected to be able to find the wp34s.pgm file using the 1. Load Program option under the 1. File menu, but no file was to be seen.

Am I doing something wrong, or can I blame my DM42?
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ijabbott
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Re: WP34S for the DM42

Post by ijabbott »

H2X wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:42 pm
I am having a spot of bother getting the program to run on my DM42, so just to confirm that these steps should work:

1) Git cloned the project.
2) Activated USB disk mode on the DM42.
3) Copied the build/wp34s.pgm file to the root dir of the USB disk.
4) Copied the help/wp34s_help.html file to the HELP dir of the USB disk.
5) Unmounted the USB disk from my computer
6) Exited the USB disk mode on the DM42 (if still active, I tried several times)

After these steps I expected to be able to find the wp34s.pgm file using the 1. Load Program option under the 1. File menu, but no file was to be seen.

Am I doing something wrong, or can I blame my DM42?
You need to load it from the DMCP menu, not the DM42 menu.

From the main DM42PGM shell:

1) SHIFT SETUP
2) 5. System
3) 2. Enter System Menu
4) 4. Reset to DMCP menu
5) 3. Load Program
6) Select the wp34s.pgm file
dlachieze
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Location: France

Re: WP34S for the DM42

Post by dlachieze »

Nigel (UK) wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 8:50 pm
Now, pressing shift-assign when the default menu is displayed toggles between having just --> and CPX and having the four "label" keys as well.

This change has been uploaded.
Thanks, this works well and makes good use of the default menu. Having program labels taking over primary key functions has always troubled me on the WP-34S. Btw, I suppose that another option beeing to keep the primary functions on the keys and to move the XEQ label to the default menu when the label is defined, would be too much change in the WP34S code.
For example if you have LBL B and LBL C defined, the custom menu would be:
[blank] [ B ] [ C ] [blank] [ --> ] [ CPX ]

I've observed a small display artifact : when entering numbers or pressing the backspace key the RPN indicator is moved to the left, touching the 360 indicator, and when pressing Shift or a function key it moves back to the right.

I've also noticed on the hpmuseum forum that you have implemented a longer alpha display and I would really like to test it.
DM42: 00425 - DM41X: β00066 - WP43: 00042
H2X
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Re: WP34S for the DM42

Post by H2X »

ijabbott wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 10:05 pm
You need to load it from the DMCP menu, not the DM42 menu.

From the main DM42PGM shell:

1) SHIFT SETUP
2) 5. System
3) 2. Enter System Menu
4) 4. Reset to DMCP menu
5) 3. Load Program
6) Select the wp34s.pgm file
Aw, crap - I haven't been using my DM42 as a DM42 for so long and didn't bother checking my notes. Embarrassing, but I think that should flash that neuron once and for all. Thanks, ijabbott!

Good work, Nigel! This is going to be fun!
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Nigel (UK)
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Re: WP34S for the DM42

Post by Nigel (UK) »

dlachieze wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:32 am
Thanks, this works well and makes good use of the default menu. Having program labels taking over primary key functions has always troubled me on the WP-34S. Btw, I suppose that another option beeing to keep the primary functions on the keys and to move the XEQ label to the default menu when the label is defined, would be too much change in the WP34S code.
I can't see an easy way to do this without checking for the labels every time the display is updated. Also, it would mean the primary keys would behave differently when other menus were displayed. So I'll leave this one alone!
dlachieze wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:32 am
I've observed a small display artifact : when entering numbers or pressing the backspace key the RPN indicator is moved to the left, touching the 360 indicator, and when pressing Shift or a function key it moves back to the right.
Fixed. Thank you,
dlachieze wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:32 am
I've also noticed on the hpmuseum forum that you have implemented a longer alpha display and I would really like to test it.
I've uploaded it to build/wp34s_long_disp.pgm so you (or anyone else!) can try it out. I haven't uploaded the source code for this yet as I'm working on moving the annunciators to a separate line, following a suggestion on the hpmuseum forum.

Nigel (UK)
dlachieze
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Location: France

Re: WP34S for the DM42

Post by dlachieze »

Nigel (UK) wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:29 am
I've uploaded it to build/wp34s_long_disp.pgm so you (or anyone else!) can try it out. I haven't uploaded the source code for this yet as I'm working on moving the annunciators to a separate line, following a suggestion on the hpmuseum forum.
Cool. Here are my observations:
  • the program version visible in the DMCP menu "Program Info" doesn't change in the different builds and is still 0.1
  • the long display is nice for displaying long messages such as "Out of range" that would be re-scaled to the smaller font on the WP34S
  • moving the annunciators to a separate line is a great idea but there may be an issue with the big = indicator controlled by flag A, which may be used as part of an Alpha message as described in the WP34S manual:
    indicators.png
    indicators.png (4.1 KiB) Viewed 2913 times
    I don't know if there is any user program using this feature, anyway if you keep the = on the Alpha line it would be pushed to the right side and the display would be slightly different from above.
  • on the DM42 screen the big = annunciator is smaller than on the WP34S display.
  • the RCL annunciator which is supposed to flash during a program execution is not visible
  • while testing the maximum capacity of the Alpha register (30 characters) I faced what could be a WP34S bug:
    I entered the 30-character string: "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ/*-+" then, still in Alpha mode, the up and down arrow are supposed to browse such long strings in steps of 6 characters. Up arrow should stop with the very first characters shown, but in fact on my WP34s it stops at O and on the DM42 with the long display it stops at H, and never displays the beginning of the string, which can be seen with VIEWα after exiting the Alpha mode.
DM42: 00425 - DM41X: β00066 - WP43: 00042
Nigel (UK)
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Re: WP34S for the DM42

Post by Nigel (UK) »

dlachieze wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:36 pm
  • the program version visible in the DMCP menu "Program Info" doesn't change in the different builds and is still 0.1
Guilty. That version is hard-coded into the file src/main.h. There is no reason why it couldn't be updated automatically but I haven't done this yet. Meanwhile, git will keep track of the order! (The version command in the X.FCN catalogue doesn't work either.)
dlachieze wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:36 pm
[*]moving the annunciators to a separate line is a great idea but there may be an issue with the big = indicator controlled by flag A, which may be used as part of an Alpha message as described in the WP34S manual:]
I hadn't thought of that. As you say, the big "=" could go at the right-hand end of the display. In new programs replacing it with an "=" in the dot matix display would be easy.
dlachieze wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:36 pm
[*]the RCL annunciator which is supposed to flash during a program execution is not visible
Fixed, I think.
dlachieze wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:36 pm
[*]while testing the maximum capacity of the Alpha register (30 characters) I faced what could be a WP34S bug:.....
I believe that I've fixed this now. It is a WP34s bug; it took a while to find. I need to upload it to the WP34s repository, once I can remember how to use svn!

You can download the latest version from the git repository. The location has changed - you now want the file called build/wp34s.pgm from the branch long_disp.

I haven't yet applied the bug fixes to the master branch. I will tidy that up, and then move on to moving the annunciators to their own spot in the long_disp version.

Thank you again for all of your testing!

Nigel (UK)
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