41: What's the significance of the alpha mark (ᵀ) prefix on catalog 2 entries?

[rprosperi]

(01-23-2020 08:09 AM)hth Wrote:  ... COPY does not take it argument from Alpha, you are expected to press XEQ "COPY" [Alpha] name [Alpha].

This is all because COPY is part of the mainframe (HP-41 original firmware) and it does not contain any code to take a name from Alpha. Such routines were introduced in the Extended Functions module and the HP-IL module.

Thanks for the correction! I never noticed that Functions taking arguments from existing Alpha register all came in or after the XFM, and that all mainframe functions did this the 'old' way. Like many such behavioral things, it makes sense, once you see the pattern.