34s / 31s emulator new display

[ArneStolti]

Here comes a question from a not so experienced user: How (with which tool) can I alter / create a new skin for the emulators. I like the medium skin, but would like to change the 7 segment 'fonts' more similar to the real calculators. The *.xskin files look like a kind of xml graphics, but I could not open it directly with Inkscape.

[pascal_meheut]

The xskin is indeed an XML format but not a fully well-formed one. It can be opened by any text editor.

It is based on the .skin format of the old emulator so it is basically a set of segment index & polygon description.
Find which index is for which segment visually and so is a bummer as there is no documentation.
So creating a skin is a tedious task.

[ArneStolti]

Quote:So creating a skin is a tedious task.

Seems like my whole live consists of tedious tasks these days... maybe I will tackle this one. Anyway, thanks for the answer, Pascal.

[ArneStolti]

I've made a new display for the 'Medium V3'-skin I'd like to share. In my opinion it is more looking-alike the original hardware display. (- How do I attach a file to the post? The type of file seems to be not allowed, even though it is only a *.xskin text-file?)

[rprosperi]

(05-20-2017 11:00 AM)ArneStolti Wrote:  I've made a new display for the 'Medium V3'-skin I'd like to share. In my opinion it is more looking-alike the original hardware display. (- How do I attach a file to the post? The type of file seems to be not allowed, even though it is only a *.xskin text-file?)

You can only upload certain known file types to the Forum, which includes .zip so that's one option, or you could email to the author of the emulators (pascal_meheut on the forum) and offer it for inclusion so all new users would get it along with the emulator pkg, and not need to see/find it here and download it separately, hunt around to figure out where it belongs, etc.

[ArneStolti]

I managed to make a zip file and uploaded it to the display picture (big deal). @Pascal: I've improved it at two points... and I'm working on the 'Modern' display, If anyone has an idea about the upper bit field display - feel free to comment.

[pascal_meheut]

Hi,
I've planned to integrate it but encoutered a few issues & questions:
- I'm on holidays so it will have to wait till I'm back and have some free time
- should I replace the current one with the new one as it is better or have both?
- I cannot compile the emulator yet as supports only Qt4, not Qt5. But Qt4 is not supported anymore on recent versions of OSX at least... Some work to do here
- I do not really need to recompile the emulator to add the new skin but I would prefer to update it in the process...

So we will have to wait a few days or weeks till everything is ready.

[ArneStolti]

Hello Pascal,

please, don't feel pushed by my merely cosmetical suggestions, the emulator itself is a value for me. And these tinkerings with the display are my way to spend the evenings not at the TV ... in the meantime I tried dots (they are maybe to small and don't connect the diagonal structures well enough) and crosses (maybe to flimsy).

[ArneStolti]

I finished the 'Modern' display in two flavours. One with a bit field display similar to the 'Medium' display (with squares) and one with big blobs.

[ArneStolti]

My first calculator I won at a local childrens games contest. It was a TI30-LED and it ate up batteries like a rabbit... When it was thinking there was a funny little knot in one edge of the display. Of course TI used similar bubble-7-segment-LEDs lik HP at that time (late 70ths). I tried to let the LED display look similar like the LEDs of the classical calcs, for those who like it, for the bit field display I tried something different...

[ArneStolti]

And here I have the modified 'Compact' display, and also a variation of the 'Medium' display with 4x4 square bit field dots. The first version had 4x5 dots, so this is a bit smaller. And for those who like to make their own variations I include a picture with the polygon number at each display segment. This I made with a little octave script. There are the same numbers per segment in each skin. (The hole in the middle is due to a little mistake in the scipt - it is of course the number 398.) -- Maybe this is the end of my little display project, unless someone else has new and nice ideas or a new theme for a skin?

[emece67]

Thanks Arne for your work. Now I'm using your Compact skin.

Regards.

[ArneStolti]

Thanks for the feedback, Cesar. --- In the meantime I have tried to make the LED display look more 'classical', but since I don't own a classical HP calculator and good pictures are hard to find, it coul'd be improved in the future. Again I'm waiting for suggestions, if someone likes it. --- Sorry there was a little mistake in this display, I had to correct it.

[ArneStolti]

And here's everything (I hope correct) for the WP-31s emulator (including one image for the LED skin).

[ArneStolti]

I've made a classical looking LED display for the medium skin (thanks to a high resolution picture I got from Rick), but unfortunately the likeliness has its limitations (as also have the space and the resolution in the display. The real classical bubble LED numbers were even smaller and farer apart from each other, but I found that would shorten the readability to much, so I came up with a trade-off between digit size and distance.)... You might want to try it.

[ArneStolti]

In the meantime I couldn't let it be, here are some other displays (even weird ones) including a classical classic look with exponents in the base line (they are the same size - honestly), and a HV flourescent tube - like look (I'd likeed to have a texture but only the color is possible afaik.) Have much fun with it. The same last letter of the picture is the zip -file of the corresponding xskin-file. Grwrg - you understand me. -- Two files with the same last letter belong together.

[ArneStolti]

only 5 files possible?

[ArneStolti]

...and the 5 corresponding zips of the post before the last.