omh@cs.brown.edu (Owen M. Hartnett) (12/11/89)
Last year or so I posted a patch which allowed you to use the Official Apple Calculator Desk Accessory in a more useful fashion. The rational is: Everyone who's ever used a calculator to add up a long row of figures knows that the big key to the right of the key pad (known to Mac Users as an Enter Key) should actually perform the function of the plus + key rather than the equal = key that Apple gives us. Obviously, Apple engineers have had no financial training in the clerical sense to lend them the acumen that this requires. Personally, I have an undergraduate degree in Accounting, along with a Master's in CS which gives me the personal understanding of the wisdom necessary to properly allocate the use of the Enter key. Thus, after successfully tracking down the culprit with the aforementioned software products, I announced the following patch, which applies to most calculators *before* 6.0.4: Change: 4CAD 452B to 4C2B 452B So far, nothing new, but as of System 6.0.4, Apple introduced drastic changes into the lowly calculator - none of which is apparent to the user. However, they did not consult me in order to implement the Enter key enhancement, which I submit for your edification and adding pleasure below: Change: 4743 4CAD To 4743 4C2B Both of these changes cause the follow effect. Mousedowns inside the calculator work as before. A keydown in the enter key will cause the calculator to think that the plus key was pressed instead, the plus key on your calculator will invert, and a plus operation will be performed. Now you can add a column of numbers on your lowly Apple calculator without looking. Now, I'm not recommending that you should actually *modify* Apple System Software, for there might be some legal ramifications of some sort, and I'm out of credit at my lawyers. But the above modifications work fine on an Apple extended and will undoubtedly work well on yours as well. However, if they don't, there is an additional $4CAD which you can attempt to change to a $4C2B as a last resort. Owen Hartnett omh@cs.brown.edu.CSNET Brown University Computer Science omh@cs.brown.edu uunet!brunix!omh "Don't wait up for me tonight because I won't be home for a month."