Custom Menus on High-End RPL Machines

Given the recent interest in custom menus, it might be worthwhile to take a quick overview of the development, and continuous improvement, of the custom menu system on high-end RPL machines.

A. FIRST APPEARANCE : ORLANDO 1988 (HP-28S)

The HP-28S's immediate precursor Paladin (HP-28C, 1987) didn't yet provide custom menus, though not due to an oversight on behalf of the development team (headed by Bill Wickes), but because it was not deemed worth the effort given the exceedingly small amount of RAM available to the user (2K).

In fact, Bill Wickes was forced by HP managament to either wait a couple of years to build his symbolic "dream machine", or to do it on the pre-existing Champion hardware (HP-18C, 1986). Although the very first calculator to use the new RPL operating system (also developed by the same team), its OS was actually hidden under an algebraic user interface, and it had only 2K of RAM. This made sense for a business model, but would be severely limiting for an advanced scientific calculator of the kind envisioned by Bill Wickes. Nevertheless, he felt it was better than nothing, and accepted.

Despite being "a crippled product in many respects" (quoting Bill Wickes himself), the HP-28C became a huge success, particularly in the mathematical community, and was able to finance its successor, the HP-28S, which was actually a complete redesign of the HP-28C. With sixteen times more RAM available to the user (32K), it was now possible to implement things conceptualized long before, like user graphics, sub-directories, and custom menus.

Considering the complexity of the subject, the following discussion will limit itself to a particular aspect of the custom menu system, which best exhibits HP's continuous efforts to improve it, namely menu keys defined by global names. Given that restriction, the custom menu system as implemented in the HP-28S could be summarized as follows:

Code:



*******************************************************************************

** TMN2                                                         SX/GX rev. A-R

*******************************************************************************

** ABSTRACT : Alternative TMENU (Temporary Menu).  Displays a user-defined menu

**            specified by a list or by the name of a (global or local)

**            variable that contains a list.

**

**            Differences to TMENU:

**            + TMN2 will treat keys defined by global or local names in a

**              different way:

**              - Their labels will be inverted (black on white instead of

**                white on black).

**              - In immediate entry mode, they will have their no- and left-

**                shift actions interchanged.

**            + TMN2 does not handle built-in and library menus (specified by

**              real numbers), because the result would be the same as with

**              TMENU.

**

**            Note that, if the argument provided is not a list or a name of a

**            variable containing a list, TMN2 will display an empty menu (as

**            does the GX version of TMENU), rather than generate an error (as

**            does the SX version).

**

** STACK    : ( {list.definition} --> )

**            ( 'name.definition' --> )

**

** ERRORS   : "Too Few Arguments" if no argument provided.

**

** DETAILS  : + The menu list provided by the user is incorporated into a full-

**              fledged System RPL menu of the form:

**

**              :: <properties> {data} ;

**

**              where {data} is the user-provided list, and <properties> the

**              place where the menu's general properties are defined,

**              including, among many others, the label builder definition and

**              the definition of the key handlers for each shift plane (this

**              part of a menu is normally inaccessible to the user).

**

**              The secondary is then passed as an argument to InitMenu, which

**              first resets all menu properties to their default state, then

**              executes its argument, which is what gives <properties> the

**              chance to overwrite any of the default properties.  After

**              execution terminates, the user list remains on the stack and is

**              then stored in internal RAM (to be precise, the reference of

**              the list already present in TEMPOB is removed from DSKTOP* and

**              written to MenuData in IRAM).

**

**            + The system will feed only the following 5 object types to the

**              label builder (be it the default one or a custom one):

**

**              1. Character String

**              2. Global Name

**              3. TakeOver Secondary (normal secos are decompiled!)

**              4. Graphics Object

**              5. System Binary Integer

**

**              Any other object type will first be decompiled to a character

**              string, before being passed to the label builder.  This means

**              that, if we want to get a chance to change the label of a key

**              defined by a local name, we have to check the key *action*

**              definition, rather than the key *label* definition.

*******************************************************************************



ASSEMBLE



* Binary transfer header ; remove if compiled directly on the HP-48.



        NIBASC /HPHP48-A/



* Unsupported, but stable entry points:



=NotIDorLAM?  EQU #2E7A4

=StdLabelDef  EQU #3A260



RPL



::

 CK1NoBlame        ( *Clear saved command name ; require 1 argument* )



 ::                (  ------------ BEGIN ARGUMENT TYPE CHECKING ------------- )

  DUPTYPELIST?     ( *If argument is a list, ...* )

  ?SEMI            ( *... quit type checking* )

  NotIDorLAM?      ( *If argument neither global nor local name, ...* )

  casedrop NULL{}  ( *... supply empty list instead* )

  SAFE@            ( *If global or local variable not defined, ...* )

  NOTcase NULL{}   ( *... supply empty list instead* )

  DUPTYPELIST?     ( *If contents of global or local var. not a list, ...* )

  NOTcasedrop

  NULL{}           ( *... supply empty list instead* )

 ;                 (  ------------- END ARGUMENT TYPE CHECKING -------------- )



*******************************************************************************

* If one prefers error messages (as done by the SX version of TMENU), replace

* the secondary above with the following one:

* ::

*  DUPTYPELIST? ?SEMI

*  NotIDorLAM? case SETYPEERR

*  SAFE@ NcaseSIZEERR

*  DUPTYPELIST? NcaseSIZEERR

* ;

*******************************************************************************



 '

 ::                ( xxxxxxxxxxxxx BEGIN CUSTOM MENU DEFINITION xxxxxxxxxxxxx )



                   ( ============= BEGIN CUSTOM MENU PROPERTIES ------------- )

  '

  ::               ( ------------ BEGIN CUSTOM KEY LABEL BUILDER ------------ )



                   ( --- Local Names --- )

   INDEX@ GETPROC  ( *Get key action definition [INDEX@ returns #keynumber]* )

   TYPELAM? case   ( *If lam, the system has already decompiled it to a $* )

   ::

    MakeInvLabel   ( *Build inverted, black on white key label* )

    Grob>Menu      ( *Display key label* )

   ;

                   ( --- General Case --- )

   DUPTYPEIDNT?    ( *If key label not defined by global name, ...* )

   NOTcase

   StdLabelDef     ( * ... use standard key label builder* )



                   ( --- Global Names --- )

   DUP ID>$        ( *Copy id and convert it to a string* )

   SWAP @          ( *Try to recall contents anywhere in the current path* )

   ITE

   TYPERRP?        ( *If variable defined, check for dir. ; signal T or F* )

   FALSE           ( *If variable undefined, signal F* )

   ITE

   MakeDirLabel    ( *If directory, build standard directory label with tab* )

   MakeInvLabel    ( *If not, build inverted, black on white label* )

   Grob>Menu       ( *Display key label* )



  ;                ( ------------- END CUSTOM KEY LABEL BUILDER ------------- )



  LabelDef!        ( *Store as new key label builder* )



  '

  ::               ( -------- BEGIN CUSTOM NO-SHIFT MENU KEY HANDLER -------- )



                   ( --- General Case --- )

   NotIDorLAM?     ( *If key not defined by global or local name, ...* )

   ImmedEntry? NOT ( *... or if we are not in immediate execution mode ...* )

   ORcase

   StdMenuKeyNS    ( *... use standard no-shift menu key handler* )



                   ( --- Directories --- )

   DUPTYPELAM?     ( *If key defined by local name, ...* )

   ?SKIP           ( *... skip distinction betw. dir. and non-dir. contents* )

   ::

    DUP@           ( *Copy id, try to recall contents anywhere in curr. path* )

    ITE

    TYPERRP?       ( *If variable defined, check for dir. ; signal T or F* )

    FALSE          ( *If variable undefined, signal F* )

    case

    ::             ( *If global variable contains a directory, ...* )

     2RDROP        ( *... cancel all pending jobs in our custom handler ...* )

     StdMenuKeyNS  ( *... and use standard no-shift menu key handler instead* )

    ;

   ;



                   ( --- Local, Global Formal and Global Non-Dir. Vars --- )

   StdMenuKeyLS    ( *Do standard left-shift key action* )



  ;                ( --------- END CUSTOM NO-SHIFT MENU KEY HANDLER --------- )



  MenuKeyNS!       ( *Store as new no-shift menu key handler* )



  '

  ::               ( ------- BEGIN CUSTOM LEFT-SHIFT MENU KEY HANDLER ------- )



                   ( --- General Case --- )

   NotIDorLAM?     ( *If key not defined by global or local name, ...* )

   ImmedEntry? NOT ( *... or if we are not in immediate execution mode ...* )

   ORcase

   StdMenuKeyLS    ( *... use standard left-shift menu key handler* )



                   ( --- Directories --- )

   DUPTYPELAM?     ( *If key defined by local name, ...* )

   ?SKIP           ( *... skip distinction betw. dir. and non-dir. contents* )

   ::

    DUP@           ( *Copy id, try to recall contents anywhere in curr. path* )

    ITE

    TYPERRP?       ( *If variable defined, check for dir. ; signal T or F* )

    FALSE          ( *If variable undefined, signal F* )

    case

    ::             ( *If global variable contains a directory, ...* )

     2RDROP        ( *... cancel all pending jobs in our custom handler ...* )

     StdMenuKeyLS  ( *... and use std. left-shift menu key handler instead* )

    ;

   ;



                   ( --- Local, Global Formal and Global Non-Dir. Vars --- )

   DoKeyOb         ( *Do standard no-shift key action* )



  ;                ( -------- END CUSTOM LEFT-SHIFT MENU KEY HANDLER -------- )



  MenuKeyLS!       ( *Store as new left-shift menu key handler* )



                   ( ============== END CUSTOM MENU PROPERTIES ============== )



 ;                 ( xxxxxxxxxxxxxx END CUSTOM MENU DEFINITION xxxxxxxxxxxxxx )



 SWAP >TCOMP       ( *Append user-supplied menu data to menu definition* )



 InitMenu          ( *Activate menu properties and display menu* )

;