HP35s: is there really no way to enter a "?"

[Dieter]

As you will know, the 35s allows displaying alpha messages and prompts by setting flag 10 and entering text as an equation. Since in equation mode most of the commands can be accessed and the message text can be edited freely there are numerous special characters that are accessible this way: Greek letters, subscripts, some lowercase letters and many more. Also comma and exclamation mark are available – but I see no way of entering a simple question mark which would be more than useful for many prompts.

Just to be sure that I don't overlook something here: is there really no way to enter a "?" in 35s messages? The character set of course includes a "?" as it is required for the test commands.

I also seem to remember there was a more or less complete reference of the available characters, maybe a post in the old forum, which may have appeared shortly after the 35s was available in 2007. Maybe someone can point me to that article?

Dieter

Edit: corrected year of introduction. #-)

[Don Shepherd]

(02-26-2018 09:13 AM)Dieter Wrote:  shortly after the 35s was available in 2017

I think you mean 2007.

[Dieter]

(02-26-2018 12:06 PM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  

(02-26-2018 09:13 AM)Dieter Wrote:  shortly after the 35s was available in 2017

I think you mean 2007.

*gg* yes, of course. #-)
Corrected in the original post.

Dieter

[rprosperi]

The "?" is appended to the name of the variable you are prompting for when using the INPUT command. Since that is provided automatically, they likely concluded there is no need to have it entered by the user. But just speculating.

[Dieter]

(02-26-2018 02:23 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  The "?" is appended to the name of the variable you are prompting for when using the INPUT command. Since that is provided automatically, they likely concluded there is no need to have it entered by the user. But just speculating.

Sure, but the idea of the equation mode text feature is to allow more elaborate prompts like "HEIGHT=?" instead of an INPUT H which produces a simple "H?".

So it seems I did not overlook something and there really is no way to get a question mark into a message. That's sad... but I still got an HP41 for such things. ;-)

Dieter

[toml_12953]

(02-28-2018 07:54 AM)Dieter Wrote:  

(02-26-2018 02:23 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  The "?" is appended to the name of the variable you are prompting for when using the INPUT command. Since that is provided automatically, they likely concluded there is no need to have it entered by the user. But just speculating.

Sure, but the idea of the equation mode text feature is to allow more elaborate prompts like "HEIGHT=?" instead of an INPUT H which produces a simple "H?".

So it seems I did not overlook something and there really is no way to get a question mark into a message. That's sad... but I still got an HP41 for such things. ;-)

Dieter

So enter everything as a command rather than an question:

Instead of

HEIGHT=?

use

ENTER HEIGHT:

[StephenG1CMZ]

Or how about using
Height:=
(Like the start of an assignment statement in many languages)

Just a thought: if its in the character set is there a CHR function? in which case you could use
"Height"+chr(ascii-code) or whatever the syntax would be. But I assume if there was you'd have done that.

[Dieter]

(02-28-2018 12:35 PM)StephenG1CMZ Wrote:  Or how about using
Height:=
(Like the start of an assignment statement in many languages)

Fine. But where do you get the colon from ?-)

(02-28-2018 12:35 PM)StephenG1CMZ Wrote:  Just a thought: if its in the character set is there a CHR function? in which case you could use
"Height"+chr(ascii-code) or whatever the syntax would be. But I assume if there was you'd have done that.

You bet. ;-)

Dieter