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**rprosperi** · 10-01-2014, 10:00 PM

(10-01-2014 09:49 PM)Joseph_21sv Wrote:
(09-29-2014 08:57 PM)walter b Wrote: I think the layout of your post could really benefit from some formatting, in particular the final part of it.

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Sorry the post doesn't appear to make it particularly clear what I want your opinions on, but it is supposed to be asking about the layout of the programming keys and the program function menus—not its own layout as that is unhelpful to designing the calculator. So what do you all think of the layout of programming keys and the programming menu tree?
Once again, for your reference, here is what the key row and menu tree will look like:
Unshifted: P/R|GOTO |LBL |?x=|IS? |SOLVE|FLAGS
Shifted: R/S|GOSUB|RETURN|?≠|DS? |STOP |PAUSE
The menus will be:
GOTO—1 GOTO, 2 GOTOT, 3 GOTOF
Shift+GOSUB—1 GOSUB, 2 GOSUBT, 3 GOSUBF, 4 XEQ
Shift+GOSUB+4—1 XEQ, 2 XEQT, 3 XEQF
?x=—1 ?=, 2 ?≈, 3 ?≥, 4 ?≳, 5 ?≤, 6 ?≲
Shift+?≠—1 ?≠, 2 ?≉, 3 ?<, 4 ?>
IS?—1 ISE, 2 ISA, 3 ISG
Shift+DS?—1 DSE, 2 DSA, 3 DSL
FLAGS—1 SF, 2 CF, 3 TF
FLAGS+1—1 SF, 2 SFT, 3 SFF
FLAGS+2—1 CF, 2 CFT, 3 CFF
FLAGS+3—1 TF, 2 TFT, 3 TFF, 4 TFI
FLAGS+3+4—1 TFIS, 2 TFIST, 3 TFISF, 4 TFIC, 5 TFICT, 6 TFICF
On a side note, the (I) register is not the only index register of the calculator—it is merely the only dedicated index register—every other register can store indices of other registers, but it is necessary to use a prefix key to flag the value in the register as an index rather than a normal number.

I believe what was meant (correct me if wrong Walter) is that it is much easier to assess your proposed keyboard layout if it can be viewed as it would be on a real machine, such that there are distinct rows and columns of keys with labels.

One idea is to use a fixed-pitch font (e.g. Courier) and space all rows equally, and maybe a simpler suggestion would be to take a photo of the mock-up you may have made (paper, not physical) and insert said photo.

I've found that the easier you make it for folks to review something, the more likely they are to do so. As laid-out above (and since it was not coming from my mind) it's difficult to mentally visualize the layout you propose.

HTH