HP 50g -- too shifty?

[Joe Horn]

(01-11-2017 05:15 PM)Marco Polo Wrote:  

(01-11-2017 11:33 AM)franz.b Wrote:  what is the sense of the HIST button? :-)

IMHO none. Just a waste of a key that could have been better used.
Same story for 'Symb' and 'X' keys.....

HP did us a service by making some primary keys kinda useless, because that makes those keys available for your favorite key assignments. If all the primary keys were essential, then all your key assignments would have to be on shifted keys, which would be annoying.

My current primary key assignments include:

• [HIST] performs UNDO (-41.3 KEYEVAL).
• [Symb] performs << DUP NEWOB Nosy >>.
• [APPS] toggles between the Menu 73 (stack commands) and the Library 256 menu.
• y^x, sqrt, /, *, +, -, [+/-], and 1/X all detect and handle longfloats automatically.
• [SIN] converts any object to a formatted hex string ('DCOD').
• [COS] converts a hex string to the corresponding object ('COD').
• [TAN] performs DEL (which performs a CLEAR if no edit line exists).

[Dave Britten]

(01-11-2017 06:15 PM)Joe Horn Wrote:  HP did us a service by making some primary keys kinda useless, because that makes those keys available for your favorite key assignments. If all the primary keys were essential, then all your key assignments would have to be on shifted keys, which would be annoying.

Quite true. Though in my case, I like to have a user keyboard definition for working with other number bases (complete with custom Enter), so it wouldn't be too practical to add them to that custom layout.

(Drawing a blank here - is there a convenient way to swap multiple user key sets? Keyman maybe?)

[franz.b]

(01-11-2017 06:15 PM)Joe Horn Wrote:  HP did us a service by making some primary keys kinda useless, because that makes those keys available for your favorite key assignments. If all the primary keys were essential, then all your key assignments would have to be on shifted keys, which would be annoying.

I think HP should have better design both the keyboard and all the controls in the menu, could make better use of the space around the arrow keys (for example) to enter some fully user-programmable keys without pressing l-shift + alpha.
I personally find uncomfortable to work with the user mode always on whereas I find it useful to program the buttons to call up occasionally.

I think this design is brother of algebraic mode and son of the desire to expand sales to people with little experience.

[Off topic] Joe! I'm your fan since the hp48 and the Goodies Disks! thanks for that great job! [/ Off topic]

[TravisE]

I actually find HIST useful in RPN mode, but I didn't like the limit of only four entries nor the fact that duplicate entries are pointlessly stored (making the already small limit even worse), so I wrote my own replacement using vectored ENTER. I also swapped APPS/FILES and CUSTOM/MODE, as I use the Filer and custom menu more often than the Mode and Apps screens. I also made BEGIN and END unshifted key functions in the editor, but in retrospect I think it's more confusing than helpful because it's not possible (or useful) to make them unshifted globally throughout the system, meaning that sometimes I have to use right shift for them and sometimes not (depending on whether I'm in the edit environment).

(01-11-2017 09:00 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  (Drawing a blank here - is there a convenient way to swap multiple user key sets? Keyman maybe?)

The RCLKEYS, DELKEYS, and STOKEYS commands are the most obvious way that comes to mind.

[Marco Polo]

HP did us a service by making some primary keys kinda useless, because that makes those keys available for your favorite key assignments.
[/quote]
I tried to redefine a user keyboard (not just single user keys) tailored on my needs.
Thank to your suggestion now I have a much more usable 50g. I put it again on my desk!!!

Thank you!

[franz.b]

And... what's the difference between 'CASCMD' and 'HELP' comands 'TOOL' menù? B|

[Joe Horn]

(04-08-2017 03:24 PM)franz.b Wrote:  And... what's the difference between 'CASCMD' and 'HELP' comands 'TOOL' menù? B|

They are similar with these two exceptions:

(1) When there is a string on level 1 containing the name of a CAS command (e.g. "DEF"), CASCMD jumps to that entry in the CAS command catalog, whereas HELP always starts at the top of the CAS command catalog.

(2) CASCMD always drops the contents of level 1 from the stack, whereas HELP leaves it on the stack.

Both CASCMD and HELP push something onto the stack when they exit, namely a zero when ON or EXIT are pressed, or the displayed example when ECHO is pressed.

[John Casper]

1)HIST key-I am used to pressing top arrow therefore I don't use this key.I use it for CST,
2)MODE-less frequently used key.I use it for PICK command
3)SYMB and APP-rarely used
4)It would be better to have more UNDO steps(Is there any program)
5)Left arrow shows Graph-Its better for using CST