Plus42 Equations, Preview Release

[Thomas Okken]

Yes, that does look good. It looks good in the iPhone 11 simulator as well.

But for 16:9 screens, I'll have to shave about 190 pixels off the height of the gif, to make it fit without squishing, with the default 8x22 display.

Which is fine, I'll just include both versions. The iPhone version is smart enough to pick the one that fits best when it first starts after installing, and I could transplant that logic to the Android version as well.

Of course I'll also need a landscape version. Looks like I'll be spending another day or two getting to know Gimp!

[Eric Rechlin]

Looks great on my S20 and on Windows also:

[johanw]

(01-25-2022 07:34 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  But for 16:9 screens, I'll have to shave about 190 pixels off the height of the gif, to make it fit without squishing, with the default 8x22 display.

This are screenshots on my old Sony Z3 compact with a 1280x720 screen. It looks a bit compressed but still very usable.

       

BTW, what is the time setting on your download server? I can't find much correspondence with the timestamps of the files there and the last commit time on Github.

[Thomas Okken]

(01-25-2022 08:51 PM)johanw Wrote:  BTW, what is the time setting on your download server? I can't find much correspondence with the timestamps of the files there and the last commit time on Github.

U.S. Central Time, 7 hours behind CET.

UPDATE: I switched to a different hosting provider a while ago. The server used to be in the greater Chicago area, hence the U.S. Central Time setting; it is now in the Netherlands, and the server's time zone is now set to CET.

[Werner]

How do you 'call' another equation (with arguments)?
I'm not at all familiar with how equations work, so I must be doing something wrong.

Take the following formula:

Code:

USFV:IF(i=0:N:EXPM1(N*LNP1(i))/i)

I try CALC with i=0.05 and N=10 and get 12.5779. Good.
I now want to use this in another equation (and I use just the call for now):

Code:

TVM:USFV(A:B)

But that doesn't work? with A=0.05 and B=10, I get 10.0225.

Help!
Werner

[Werner]

Read the 'manual':
Equations can be named with parameter lists: FUN(X:Y):X^2-2*X*Y+Y^2. Such equations can be called like functions from other equations.

.. except that it still doesn't work. I'm still getting 10.0225.
Werner

[Thomas Okken]

Function calling doesn't check if you're passing too many arguments, and I guess it really should. Even without reading the manual, the way this works is too confusing, a message like "too many parameters" would have helped here.

Another issue is that you're defining a function named USFV, and that collides with the built-in USFV function.

[Werner]

Indeed.. I should've read the doc more carefully! If I change the names of the equations it works.
Thanks!
Werner

[OlidaBel]

Just installed it on Mac.
Fantastic, with UNIT capabilities :-) (here UBASE command)

[Thomas Okken]

New update:

1. Parameter count check for calling user code functions, equations stored in variables, and named equations, from equations (XEQ(LBLNAME:​P1:​P2:...), EVALN(VARNAME:​P1:​P2:...), and EQNNAME(P1:​P2:...)). For user code functions without MVAR declarations, the parameters are simply pushed onto the stack, without any further checks, as before.
2. Fixed a few text positioning bugs in the multi-line equation editor.
3. Implemented DIRS, DIR.FCN, UNITS, UNIT.FCN, and EQN functions; these functions jump directly into the DIRS, DIR, UNITS, and UNIT sub-catalogs, and into the equation editor in SOLVER mode, respectively, and their sole reason for existence is so that they can be mapped to keys in the new Plus42 skin.
4. The Plus42 skin was also updated, to make use of those functions. Note that it is rather ugly at the moment, you can tell I haven't made any effort yet to look for fonts that actually match the ones used in the original tyge_nova_P_v2 skin.

[Thomas Okken]

I added a half-size version of the new Plus42 skin. This one is small enough it even fits on my laptop's 1366x768 screen. (Everything is under the new download directory: https://thomasokken.com/plus42/download/.)

I noticed I forgot to reset the catalog row to zero in the new DIRS, DIR.FCN, UNITS, and UNIT.FCN functions. That means they won't necessarily start up on the first row of the catalogs in question, which can be disorienting, with DIRS in particular. This will be fixed in the next build.

UPDATE: The catalog bug is fixed.

[johanw]

When I see the new skin I would suggest you short "UNITS" to UNIT", the current does not fit.

[ggauny@live.fr]

Hi,

I'm trying to install the latest skin (with the two top rows) but I can't get.

Can one will tell me how to do ? In android AND in windows 10.

I have copyied latest Plus42.layout in my phone A41 samsung but when I call it with skins : Others, no work.

Of course I do wrong thing, so thanks for help.

[Thomas Okken]

New update:

1. More support for the new row of keys in the new Plus42 skin. Among other things: all keys have assignments now, and DIR.FCN and UNIT.FCN are proper menus now, not just shortcuts to the corresponding catalog subsections. But the GRAPH and TVM menus are still empty...
2. Updated the Plus42 skin as well, with new and improved legends. (The skin is still a separate download, it's not yet compiled into the executable.) The new legends still don't look good, but a bit better than in the previous version.
3. Attempted fix for the Android version, where ROW+/- and COL+/- didn't work for skins loaded with Skin: Other.

Things that have me scratching my head:

a. I wonder what fonts I should use for the skin? Right now I'm using Arial Narrow Condensed 28pt for the key caps, and Arial 19pt for the shifted legends. They're close, but not quite right. The letters on the key caps are a bit too narrow, and the shifted legends are a bit too heavy.
b. If you are in the UNITS catalog and you go to the UNIT.FCN menu, you lose your place in the catalog, because both exist in the same menu level. It would be nicer if you could use a function from UNIT.FCN and then return to where you were in UNITS. Should I make UNITS into an application menu? That would fix this issue, but then, if you opened UNITS on top of a VARMENU (like the one in the solver), you'd lose your place in the VARMENU. Or should I add a third menu level, between the application menus and plain menus, just for UNITS and DIRS?
c. How should the TVM menu work, for N/I%YR/PV/PMT/FV? Just like a solver menu, where you press a key both to store a value in it and to compute a value, and you press a key with Shift to view its current value, and you can also use STO and RCL on the five parameters? That would integrate nicely with the existing solver menus, but would it match what HP's financial RPN calculators have historically done? (I don't know because I've never used one.)

[Thomas Okken]

(01-27-2022 03:09 PM)ggauny@live.fr Wrote:  I'm trying to install the latest skin (with the two top rows) but I can't get.

Can one will tell me how to do ? In android AND in windows 10.

I have copyied latest Plus42.layout in my phone A41 samsung but when I call it with skins : Others, no work.

Use the built-in skin loader: Main Menu -> Select Skin -> Load, then paste the URL of the skin's gif or layout file (*) into the URL field, click Go, wait for the file to appear, then click Load. Once you get confirmation that the skin has loaded, you can go back to Main Menu -> Select Skin, and the skin will be available.

(*) You can paste either one, it doesn't matter which. The skin loader will automatically load the other one as well.

[Vincent Weber]

(01-27-2022 03:24 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  New update:

1. More support for the new row of keys in the new Plus42 skin. Among other things: all keys have assignments now, and DIR.FCN and UNIT.FCN are proper menus now, not just shortcuts to the corresponding catalog subsections. But the GRAPH and TVM menus are still empty...
2. Updated the Plus42 skin as well, with new and improved legends. (The skin is still a separate download, it's not yet compiled into the executable.) The new legends still don't look good, but a bit better than in the previous version.
3. Attempted fix for the Android version, where ROW+/- and COL+/- didn't work for skins loaded with Skin: Other.

Things that have me scratching my head:

a. I wonder what fonts I should use for the skin? Right now I'm using Arial Narrow Condensed 28pt for the key caps, and Arial 19pt for the shifted legends. They're close, but not quite right. The letters on the key caps are a bit too narrow, and the shifted legends are a bit too heavy.
b. If you are in the UNITS catalog and you go to the UNIT.FCN menu, you lose your place in the catalog, because both exist in the same menu level. It would be nicer if you could use a function from UNIT.FCN and then return to where you were in UNITS. Should I make UNITS into an application menu? That would fix this issue, but then, if you opened UNITS on top of a VARMENU (like the one in the solver), you'd lose your place in the VARMENU. Or should I add a third menu level, between the application menus and plain menus, just for UNITS and DIRS?
c. How should the TVM menu work, for N/I%YR/PV/PMT/FV? Just like a solver menu, where you press a key both to store a value in it and to compute a value, and you press a key with Shift to view its current value, and you can also use STO and RCL on the five parameters? That would integrate nicely with the existing solver menus, but would it match what HP's financial RPN calculators have historically done? (I don't know because I've never used one.)

Congrats, getting there !
a. I am not competent in aestetics
b. I fully support the idea !
c. Just like the 27S I think you have one ? With the solver variables, but also the extra features: amortization table and printing.

Couple of suggestions:
- I like the fact that you put X<> and RUP. Why not %CH ? And then you could move TVM to the now useless TOP.FCN menu.
- For the hyperbolics, maybe do in RPN mode what you did for the equation mode (second page in the SIGMA menu) ?

-

[ggauny@live.fr]

Thanks, but I get a 404 error when trying to load Plus42.gif or layout.
May be you can put this last layout in your normal catalog ?

I'm going to search again.

Good night.

EDIT : I've ask to the husband of my daughter, he works into informatic and he have find how to do.
Really amazing now with the two top row.

Thank Thomas !!!

[johanw]

I'm now a bit unsure what the top row are for. When starting the calculator they seem to do the same as the original top buttons on the 42s.

[Marco Polo]

(01-27-2022 03:24 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  3. Attempted fix for the Android version, where ROW+/- and COL+/- didn't work for skins loaded with Skin: Other.

I there any plan to make available an higher font for stack (for example the standard 48sx/gx font, i suppose it should be 10pt high)?
It would be a nice improvement for readability.

[Thomas Okken]

(01-27-2022 06:11 PM)johanw Wrote:  I'm now a bit unsure what the top row are for. When starting the calculator they seem to do the same as the original top buttons on the 42s.

Menus. So you can use menus and the original top row at the same time.

(01-27-2022 06:40 PM)Marco Polo Wrote:  I there any plan to make available an higher font for stack (for example the standard 48sx/gx font, i suppose it should be 10pt high)?
It would be a nice improvement for readability.

I have no such plans right now, but who knows what the future may bring...