Please can you beta-test this unusual Free42 skin

[MickM]

The beta-testing has finished! Thanks to all who helped :-). Thomas has officially released Free42 v3.1 and made this skin available at:
https://thomasokken.com/free42/skins/
Note that the name changed slightly to Mueck_MN (for Metric Notation). I have removed all the beta attachments at the end of this post except the graphical documentation so you can see where everything ended up.

2023.1219: Added a new version without the metric notation row that necessitated a relayout so they could be as similar as possible.
2023.1112: Swapped 2 keys so x! could go into the statistics cluster. Updating documentation.
2023.1111: All hot-keys for Mac, Windows & Linux now work. Many thanks to Thomas for fixing bugs and improving hot-key functionality! Don't forget to download the latest test build (dated today). Rearranged some buttons and changed fonts for mathematical functions. With all bugs fixed, this is now an official release candidate.
2023.1104: Many desktop hot-key corrections for Windows & Linux, couple minor tweaks to the skin graphics.
2023.1028: Relayout for the EXIT key to the top right and several desktop app hot-key corrections (most notably for the shifted metric notation keys).
2023.1025: Initial version


For the last 3 months I've been working hard on a new skin for Free42 (which also works with Plus42 if you want the bigger screen). As you'll see below, the skin is quite complex so the chances of bugs are much higher than usual. Skins usually aren't updated on Thomas's website, and people typically don't go looking for skin updates even if they do exist, hence my request/plea for a broader audience to shake it down before release.

My motivations for making this skin included:
- My field of electronics engineering (and many other fields too) ubiquitously uses metric notation (e.g. 1.2GΩ, 3.4nH, 5.6µs, 7.8pF, 9.0 TB) so I wanted a faster way to input such numbers.
- I thought the original calculator keyboard layout wasn't great. So sick of pressing shift at the bottom and then going to the top for the most common functions, or pressing STO/RCL at the top and then going to the bottom for a number etc.
- I never liked losing the functionality of the top row of buttons if screen menu buttons were showing.
- I never liked the screen menu buttons not being aligned with the top row buttons.
- I'm constantly using physical constants and properties, but the 42S only offers π (and I detested it being a shifted key).
- I found many of the skins too hard to read (OK, so I'm old).
- I found some the desktop versions too small, the hot-keys too confusing and saw many other opportunities to improve it.
- There were several basic functions I frequently used that I wanted to add to the keyboard vs the CUSTOM menu.
- I felt the % button was too trivial ("2 7 ⇧ %" → ". 2 7 x") and warranted replacement with something else.
- I was sick of accidentally pressing the decimal point as I swiped up from the bottom to switch apps in iOS.

The documentation is in a graphics format (Mueck_MN_Doc.jpg) - it covers the skin's button layout and desktop version hot-keys (including bonus functions not available on the phone version). This is also the first skin requiring a compulsory program - CONST, a user-customizable program for physical constants and properties. Both the desktop skin and the CONST program use capabilities only available in the current version of Free42/Plus42. I'm interested in your thoughts on the default constants available in the CONST program (provided in both text and raw formats). The 1st menu level shows 6 basic constants you'd use in high school, the next level up caters more for electronics engineering, and the final 3rd level is just crazy specific - mostly to indicate that it's obvious you'd want to be tailoring it for your own needs at that point. I haven't included documentation on how to extend CONST for more or less menu levels, although comments in the text version make that pretty clear.

Regarding the skin's layout, I really sweated all the details for button arrangements, animations & spacings, and also fonts, colors, screen menu alignments... I'd appreciate feedback on the visuals and usability etc. A lot of work also went into the desktop version's hot-keys. Between the main keyboard and numeric pad layouts for macOS, Windows and Linux there are over a thousand hot-key definitions in the layout file! If your keyboard does have a numeric pad then that's the very best place to perform your basic calculations using hot-keys.

All current desktop skins try to maintain a correspondence between the keyboard keys and the calculator buttons. For example, if you've selected "1" on the keyboard as the hotkey for the calculator's "1" button then ⇧1 on the keyboard (i.e. "!") should yield "ASSIGN" just like ⇧1 on the calculator does. That's all good in theory, however all existing skins have annoying issues that create several exceptions to that key/button correspondence. For example, the calculator has a multiply button (with symbol 'x') and a shifted function above it, but the "standard" hot-key for multiply is * however you can't do ⇧* on a keyboard because it's already a shifted character (i.e. ⇧8) so you need to make hot-key exceptions for both the calculator's ⇧8 and ⇧x. Same thing goes for the calculator's add button (+). Additionally, awkward keyboard assignments arise because many calculator function names share the same first letter. In the end there are way too many complications and remembering everything is (in my opinion) just too hard. My goal was a FULLY consistent hot-key set i.e. if a hot-key was chosen for a Standard Key Mapping (shown on the skin) then the shifted version of that hot-key will always match the corresponding shifted version of the calculator button. That goal was achieved by implementing a modifier key rule for mathematical functions and two unconventional key mappings (multiply→x and add→a) for which you may have a bad first impression, but they make everything consistent with the physical calculator (and you get used to them soon enough). Note that if your keyboard has a numeric pad then those mappings can be nicely avoided because ONLY there can you physically do * & ⇧* and + & ⇧+.

When using this Free42 skin in Plus42 (for the larger display) you'll notice an unnecessary default header line at the top of the display. You can turn it off by via DISP and navigating till you find HDR. I also usually have 6 rows showing (also within the DISP menus via ROW+ and ROW-) for both the phone and desktop apps. You can also turn on the display of LASTx via DISP and navigating to LTOP. Given that Plus42's DESKTOP version is free you'll definitely want that instead of Free42's - it'll also make you want to buy the phone version of Plus42 right away like I did ;-).

So that's about it. Even if you don't want to do any testing I'd really appreciate you just looking over the jpeg file and letting me know your thoughts. Happy testing :-).