New iOS WP-34s & WP-31s emulators

[pascal_meheut]

New versions are available on the iTunes store. Except for the use of a much more recent version of the firmware, changes are minor.
Surprisingly, they may not appear in your normal updates or on iPad, the "Send us email" may not work.
A solution is to delete the App and download it again. Should the memory be kept, it is possible to export it first and the re-import it after the clean install.

Enjoy.

[Marcus von Cube]

(01-15-2016 07:09 PM)pascal_meheut Wrote:  the "Send us email" may not work.

The update went smoothly on my iOS 9 iPAD mini. Where is the "mail" option?

[pascal_meheut]

(01-15-2016 07:46 PM)Marcus von Cube Wrote:  Where is the "mail" option?

In the information popup: touch (i) on the bottom left of the WP-34s screen and scroll down.

[BarryMead]

(01-15-2016 07:09 PM)pascal_meheut Wrote:  New versions are available on the iTunes store.

Has anyone experimented with the "Codename One" IDE. They claim that you can write your application once and have it run on iPhone, Android, and Windows mobile devices, all with a single common codebase.

I knew that someone would eventually consolidate these app development tools so that developers wouldn't have to do their work two or three times to support the various mobile devices in the market.

[pascal_meheut]

(01-16-2016 03:22 AM)BarryMead Wrote:  Has anyone experimented with the "Codename One" IDE. They claim that you can write your application once and have it run on iPhone, Android, and Windows mobile devices, all with a single common codebase.

I knew that someone would eventually consolidate these app development tools so that developers wouldn't have to do their work two or three times to support the various mobile devices in the market.

Plenty of tools claim they do so and some of them even succeed. For instance, Qt, the library used to develop the Windows/OSX/Linux emulator could also be used for an iOS & Android emulator with some adaptations.

As usual with such tools, the issues are elsewhere:

- how close to a native application can we be?
- how long will they be available?
- how fast do they support new devices, new OS versions?
- do they really support all the native functionalities?
- how hard is it overcome bugs or limitations?

And so on. Which is why they may be a good solution but also a trap.
When it comes to building a WP-34s emulator for Android, the main issue is not the code but the need to support many screen resolutions & hardware/software versions.
The iOS emulator uses 5 or so bitmaps for the various iPad/iPhone resolutions and each of them is tailor made to be as readable as possible: there is no formula to choose the font & margin size for instance.
Designing an android-compatible mechanism and adapting to the platform rules, peculiarities & store is more work than writing the emulation code in native Java. So the gain of a multi-platform IDE is not as big as one could think in this case.

[BarryMead]

Pascal:

I want to thank you for the EXCELLENT education you provided about the inner workings of iOS and Android application development. I must admit that I am ignorant on this subject, as I don't even own a cell phone. I had a tablet, but gave it to my daughter since I was never using it. To an uninformed outsider (like myself) an Android looks very similar to an iPhone, but from what you just said, there are far more significant differences than there are similarities. Perhaps someday, when phone/tablet makers become more interested in interoperability than in hiding features from their competition, standards will converge, and better cross platform tools will emerge. Thanks for explaining it, and for all the hard work you invested in creating the superb Windows/Linux/Mac/iOS versions of the WP-34S and WP-31S emulators. Sincerely, Barry

[Dan B]

Thank you Pascal for the updates! I use both calculators on my iPhone.

[Sanjeev Visvanatha]

Thanks Pascal. The WP-31S 'about' page has the title of "WP34S Info" at the top. Nothing major but I thought I would point it out.

[pascal_meheut]

(01-19-2016 12:50 PM)Sanjeev Visvanatha Wrote:  The WP-31S 'about' page has the title of "WP34S Info" at the top. Nothing major but I thought I would point it out.

Indeed. And this strange because the code to replace it by "WP31s" is present.
I'll fix it and it will appear in the next release, someday...
Apple process to publish a new version is too slow and cumbersome to fix such a small problem only.

[plivesey]

I see that iOS 6 is now a minimum requirement. My first generation iPad is sad.

Your work on this emulator is much appreciated however.

[pascal_meheut]

(01-26-2016 02:02 PM)plivesey Wrote:  I see that iOS 6 is now a minimum requirement. My first generation iPad is sad.

It would be hard to support older versions: Apple development tools do not offer emulators anymore so testing would mean keeping several versions of such tools (which is not that easy) or the real hardware.
For an individual giving the application for free (and paying Apple fees yearly just to be on the AppStore), this is close to impossible.
So I support everything that is "reasonable".

[plivesey]

(01-26-2016 04:51 PM)pascal_meheut Wrote:  

(01-26-2016 02:02 PM)plivesey Wrote:  I see that iOS 6 is now a minimum requirement. My first generation iPad is sad.

It would be hard to support older versions: Apple development tools do not offer emulators anymore so testing would mean keeping several versions of such tools (which is not that easy) or the real hardware.
For an individual giving the application for free (and paying Apple fees yearly just to be on the AppStore), this is close to impossible.
So I support everything that is "reasonable".

I fully appreciate this and really do appreciate your work; it's only in the last few weeks that I've finally given up supporting PPC on OSX, it was getting silly!

This might just be the excuse I need to upgrade.

[pascal_meheut]

(02-01-2016 01:14 PM)plivesey Wrote:  This might just be the excuse I need to upgrade.

Should you stay with the iPad, the Air2 is a much nicer machine than the original one: lighter, better screen, much faster...

[Leonid]

pascal_meheut

Thanks for useful app but is it possible to add loading other firmware, for example, "Complex Lock mode"?

[pascal_meheut]

(11-26-2016 01:24 PM)Leonid Wrote:  Thanks for useful app but is it possible to add loading other firmware, for example, "Complex Lock mode"?

No it's not as the firmware is the code. Loading another firmware is the same as pushing another version to the App Store, not a simple process.

[pascal_meheut]

Hi

A new version of the WP31s emulator is available and the WP34s should arrive as soon as Apple approves it.
They fix a extra CPU & battery usage/heating problem that some users had noticed but I've just been able to pinpoint it thanks to the help of one of them.

They have been compiled with the last versions of the firmware too.

Enjoy.

[Leonid]

pascal_meheut
I used both applications on iPad3 and iPod 5G (iOS 9.3.6) but after a recent update only WP 31s is working whereas "WP 34s is not compatible with this device" ;(
Is it possible to return compatibility for 34s like 31s?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(11-23-2019 01:49 PM)Leonid Wrote:  I use both applications on an iPad2 (iOS 9.3.6) but after a recent update only WP 31s is working whereas "WP 34s is not compatible with this device"

Same here!

Regards
Max

[pascal_meheut]

I'm sorry but this is not possible.

Apple iOS programming environment is very demanding. This is very good from a general point of view because it forces developers to update their Apps so they stay secure, consume less energy, support new devices & features...

But for someone like me who pays around 80$ a year just to release an open-source App and needs to spend a few days to adapt it regularly instead of working, this is a hurdle.

In this case, I simply cannot fix this because I cannot emulate old iOS versions. Doing so is too much work (find an old version of XCode, install it on a old OSX virtual machine, etc).

Sorry about this but I just spent many days supporting "zoom mode" on the iPhone 8 (wihout being able to test it because it is not supporting in the emulator) and the dark mode...

BTW iOS 9 is close to 0% market share: sooner or later, it won't be a viable solution.

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello Pascal,

(11-26-2019 07:59 AM)pascal_meheut Wrote:  I'm sorry but this is not possible.

no problem :-) Although I have been a Macintosh user (and also software developer on this platform) since decades I have never really looked into making Apps for i-devices. Mostly because I don't want to do that commercially and for my almost nonexisting private needs the annual fee puts me off...

If all that's necessary to make the app compatible with older iOS versions would have been to tick a box in the compiler options, then it may have been worth the effort. But of course not in the way you describe.

And by the way: My iPad running iOS 9 may be "old" for an i-device, but among my calculators it is about the newest one. Never even than the HP 20b and HP 30b for which WP-34s were developed originally ;-)

Regards
Max