mann@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (Shannon Mann) (06/29/91)
Hi, this is actually Terry a friend of SM. I have a few (self-indulgent) comments and actual questions. I just upgraded from 28s to 48sx. Right decision! It is so nice to be able to hold the thing normally (no more clamshell), and have that dedicated row of math keys. Other nice features are: 1. enhanced plotting (incl. more y-space). 2. more logical menus (no commands in >1 menu). 3. enhanced user tree (built-in UP) (directories look different (is that overscore supposed to make them look like file folders? Neat-o)). 4. 2D & 3D !! (I have a few of my own packages that use pairs of numbers with various interpretations represented by 2D vectors). Gripes: 1. Sometimes inconsistent keyboard/menu operation esp. those various keys/menukeys that have a blue-shifted variation whose existence is not apparent (guess I'll get used to it). And stuff like, you can do SWAP, DROP without shifting if no command line (of course, I use it - perhaps it should be labelled differently, like in white (like ATTN)) (but we have been using ENTER for DUP for years...). Etc. Oh well, I'm just too much of an elegance freak - it *is* a crowded keyboard. 2. Kind of slow when updating the display, and the graphics cursor fades when it moves, and I don't have the same confidence in the keyboard buffer as I had with the 28. 3. The user manual is not good. Mostly everything is there somewhere if you know where to look and read between the lines (and knew the 28). Should have separate ref manual incl. (the little book is not detailed enough, neither is the manual command index) (anyone buying this beast will be needing this info). Questions: 1. At i in the morning, where i is a small integer, and it is very quiet, turn on your 48 and hold the display near your ear. Does it squeal? Mine does. If this is a fault, I hope it's not draining by batteries quicker. 2. When entering a program, and entering a name, after cursor-ing right past the closing ' , what is the intended way to get out of algebraic mode? If your next item is a command (eg. STO) it's automatic, but what if it's +, and you want the automatic space insertion to resume? Is the only way BLUSHFT ENTRY? 3. Is the reference manual worth it, or is it just more of the same confusion and guesswork? 4. The WALK program in my manual doesn't work. I've been trying to insert PVIEW here or there, etc. What is the "GROB" construct at the start? I can't find it documented, but it does eval to a grob on the stack. Graphics is the worst documented part in the manual. Why is ERASE not in the PRG DSPLY menu? Does this imply I should be using something else in programs? Is there only 1 PICT? Is it ever displayed in real-program- time? Do the commands only manipulate grobs on the stack, and you must explicitly display them to update display? I guess my question here is, how are PICT and grobs related or not? Does anyone actually use EquationWriter? I have spent years typing math expressions into command lines and fint it much quicker to just keep doing this. What I think is a useful utility: this program evaluates an object (usually a program), beeps when done (lower freq. than error beep), and leaves the execution time in stack level 1 in hh.mmss format. I find this useful when doing intensive number-crunching (eg. doing double integrals numerically). The beep alerts me of the finish, and if I was in another room doing something else, the evaluation time is there so I know how long I can leave for the next evaluation and come back to start the next one. Thus: << TIME -> T << EVAL TIME T HMS- IF DUP 0 < THEN 24 HMS+ END 4 RND 300 .1 BEEP >> >> Note that if evaluation spans midnight, it still gives correct time (but not if evaluation > 24 hr) (what are you doing that takes so long?!). I called it 'EVTB' (eval, time, beep). I stored it in HOME and assigned its name to the user key EVAL. To use, put program or program name on level 1 and invoke (in my case REDSHIFT alpha EVAL) (I leave my system flag -61 clear). Toodles. -Terrence Dick (via Shannon Mann)
akcs.joehorn@hpcvbbs.UUCP (Joseph K. Horn) (06/30/91)
Terry Dick writes: > is that overscore supposed to make them look like file folders? Although you'd never know it from the Owner's Manual (it says on page 120, "A bar over the left side of each label indicates that they are directories."), Bill Wickes' excellent book "HP 48 Insights", Volume 1, page 89, says "The little 'tab' above the label, which makes it resemble a file folder, indicates that the corresponding variable is a directory." > Does anyone actually use EquationWriter? I have spent years typing > math expressions into command lines and fint it much quicker to just > keep doing this. The Equation Writer application's history will answer your question. So many HP 28 owners complained that the syntax for complicated functions was impossible to remember (like integrals), that HP decided to write a syntax helper. Rather than putting huge "online help" screens into ROM (yuck!), they decided to create a user interface that was so intuitive that no help was needed. You would just type in math the way you'd write it, and press a key, and it would be translated into the proper algebraic syntax. Their ideas mushroomed, and soon it became the powerful and ponderous beast we have now. Keep in mind what it's for, and it'll serve you well. (This history is gleaned from the HP Journal; I hope I did it justice.) Your other questions have been covered in the FAQ lists by Darryl Okahata, posted here, and available on EduCALC Goodies Disk #3. -- Joseph K. Horn -- Peripheral Vision, Ltd. --
mann@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (Shannon Mann) (07/01/91)
Hi I'm the orig. poster, ShannonMann.Terry. I said WALK didn't work. Well, what I typed in at 3 am didn't, when I added the missing command this morning it did. Sorry about that.