NQ41 RPN Calculator

[pier4r]

Any changes?

On my mac at work (n1) I am still not satisfied by a software calculator. Even with a computer having a proper input interface is changing the day. Real calculators with some memory are just awesome for quick number crunching, on the pc a calculator that shows a calculator interface is somewhat clumsy.

Free42 for example, it is an awesome work, but I have to use the mouse to click around. While the real thing would be much more intuitive.

Therefore I would gladly use terminal oriented calculators.
Bc doesn't have continous memory, nor any other programming language (unless I make a program for it).
NQ 41 instead is really fitting, therefore I would like to see it not abandoned.


n1: digression: I find the mac a good system, but its cost is not justified at least for someone that uses the terminal often. Really disappointed by the price/qualities. Although one can say that MacOS in itself is not more costly than windows. It is the device + design that raise the cost.

[pier4r]

Anyway request.

In interactive mode, using arrowup, down, to recall previous entries (a la bash)

[Craig Bladow]

(09-13-2018 10:15 AM)pier4r Wrote:  In interactive mode, using arrowup, down, to recall previous entries (a la bash)

That is a good feature to have and I have looked into it. At the moment the terminal input to NQ41 is very simple so the 'arrow up' is handled by the terminal/console/shell program. On Windows 7 this feature works. I will check on OS X and Linux and report back.

NQ41 is still alive, I was working on adding support for programs and supporting HP-41 at the raw code, not micro-code, level. I paused development earlier this year and shifted my efforts to learning 3D printing and developing a case for the NP-25 (See the NP-25 thread).

[Craig Bladow]

Up Arrow to recall previous line entries works as follows:

MS Windows 7: just works
Linux and Mac OS X: Install a program called "rlwrap" and then run nq41 as follows:
$ rlwrap ./nq41 -i

On Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint install rlwrap: sudo apt install rlwrap
On Mac OS X: First install Homebrew: https://brew.sh/
Then install rlwrap: $ brew install rlwrap

[pier4r]

Ok I'll try

[pier4r]

Request: small information about the commands. It is not always clear what to do. If the commands are 1:1 (or very close) compared to the hp41 (or hp42?) at least one can mention the 41 / 42 manual as reference.

[Craig Bladow]

Good question! Please let me know if you find commands that are not functioning the same as the 41c that are identified as working the same below.

The following commands function the same, or similar enough, as in the 41C manual, with the disclaimer that the number representation and math functions are not identical: *, +, /, -, chs, 1/x, rup, rdn, x<>y, lastx, %, x^2, sqrt, enter, ln, e^x, log, 10^x, deg, rad, grd, pi, sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan, p-r, r-p, hr, abs, int, frc, sum+, sum-, mean, sdev, sto, rcl, fix, clx, clst, clrg, y^x, fact, mod, %ch, e^x-1, ln1+x, rnd, st+, st-, st*, st/, sumreg, clsum, d-r, r-d, dec, oct, sign, x<>

Differences:
hms+,hms- and hms will display the results of some operations differently so while the 41c would show 1.03 the NQ-41 would show 1.0260.
prtsk, same command but print to stdout, or console.
cat, just cat 3 works and not the same.
sci,eng, While these have some affect on the display, they do not work like the 41C.

Unique to NQ-41:
about, trace, exit, changes

[Craig Bladow]

Note I have updated my previous post after looking at the source code.

[pier4r]

For this I suggest again something like newRPL.

(a) an open repository (at first few will check it)
(b) a wiki or documentation database(even in form of text files in the repository itself)

Scattering info along a thread is better than nothing but it doesn't really help in the long run.

[Craig Bladow]

(10-04-2018 10:26 AM)pier4r Wrote:  For this I suggest again something like newRPL.

(a) an open repository (at first few will check it)
(b) a wiki or documentation database(even in form of text files in the repository itself)

Scattering info along a thread is better than nothing but it doesn't really help in the long run.

I’ve reviewed the thread and copied the additional information to the first post. Please let me know if I missed something.

[cdmackay]

very nice, thanks!

I'm used to using ctrl-d to exit an interactive utility, on Unix systems. In nq41 -i, it seems to result in a loop printing the stack?

nice tool

[Craig Bladow]

(10-04-2018 06:28 PM)cdmackay Wrote:  very nice, thanks!

I'm used to using ctrl-d to exit an interactive utility, on Unix systems. In nq41 -i, it seems to result in a loop printing the stack?

nice tool

Thanks for the compliment, ctrl-d now works in Mac and Linux as of version 0.2.

[Craig Bladow]

Version 0.2 is released today fixing the behavior in Mac and Linux when control-d is typed when in interactive mode.

The jump from version 0.1 to 0.2 is a bit large for such a small update. Version 0.2 was initially targeted to support programming and you can see from some unimplemented or partially functional programming related commands (pgrm, lbl, flag functions) that the work is in progress.

Currently there will be 65535 programming steps and 65535 in-program constants such as numbers or strings.
While the programming language uses HP-41C commands loaded from text file, support for import and export of HP-41C byte codes will have to wait for a release in the distant future.

[cdmackay]

(12-31-2018 07:25 PM)Craig Bladow Wrote:  ctrl-d now works in Mac and Linux as of version 0.2.

thanks!

[Craig Bladow]

I have been steadily working on support for running programs in NQ41 and now have it working!

edit: removed dead link.

[jwiede]

Has the CC41 effort been abandoned?

I certainly hope not, I thought it had great promise, and strongly agree a keyboard UX is much more efficient for a computer-hosted calculator app, rather than using mouse to click "fake buttons" in UI.

Thanks!

[Craig Bladow]

(12-26-2021 08:06 PM)jwiede Wrote:  Has the CC41 effort been abandoned?

I certainly hope not, I thought it had great promise, and strongly agree a keyboard UX is much more efficient for a computer-hosted calculator app, rather than using mouse to click "fake buttons" in UI.

Thanks!

CC41 is alive and under active development. This is the link to the HHC 2021 presentation I gave: https://youtu.be/CUvFmkcpVys

[jwiede]

(12-28-2021 01:55 AM)Craig Bladow Wrote:  CC41 is alive and under active development. This is the link to the HHC 2021 presentation I gave: https://youtu.be/CUvFmkcpVys

Glad to hear it! What's the latest version, is there a public repo yet, etc.?

Your HHC2021 presentation was actually what piqued my interest enough to ask whether it was still being developed (as the thread was getting quite stale otherwise -- hint hint ).

[jwiede]

Craig,

Can you be a bit clearer about the specific dependencies of the Linux version? If it compiles and builds (what toolchain?) for x86_64, then it ought to be useful for a wide array of other Linux platforms as well, presuming you ever choose to release source.

My personal interest stems from my building a handheld computer for myself, and though the OS is custom (using llvm-based toolchain), I'm reasonably certain the Linux version src should recompile fine for it, but would need to know the installed Linux library dependencies to know for certain.

As always, thanks for all the work on this!

[Craig Bladow]

CC41 builds on Linux, MacOS and Windows using each OS's native C/C++ tool chain so there are no dependencies outside of standard C/C++ libraries. Or at least that was the case until late last year when I began the transition to a decimal math library, decNumber. This is being driven by the goal of being HP-41cx math compatible and exacerbated by C's rather poor (in my opinion) math library MOD function equivalents.