[34S] Proposal for Entry RPN mode with dynamic stack

[matthiaspaul]

(02-16-2015 01:00 AM)Paul Dale Wrote:  

(02-15-2015 11:38 PM)Bit Wrote:  As far as I can see, you'd need to sacrifice something in order to increase the number of internal flags. Some of the user flags would be an obvious choice as there are way more of them than most people would ever need.

Yes, we're limited to 64 bits of system flags -- this is the size of a long long integer. Extending this will steal memory from something else. Pretty much everything is a trade off at this point.

We've deliberately avoided using (the numbered) user flags for system things. They are the user's and not ours.

Having a look at the UState flags (still based on 3.1), the LCD contrast setting and the FAST mode flag were possible candidates to be repurposed. While I can see some limited uses for them, this is hardware-related information which might be possible to store elsewhere. Ideally, the system's power management and thereby a need to switch between different speeds, if necessary, should be completely transparent for a user. (From a user's perspective, it should always run at maximum speed, while from the hardware's point of view, this may not always be possible whilst maintaining system integrity with an already drained battery. I have some ideas how to possibly improve at least some aspects of this as well, but it would be off-topic in this thread -- later.)

Quote:Personally, I'd like to lose the weird stack lift behaviour in favour of something more consistent...

I'm undecided on this. Being mostly an RPL user, I don't personally depend on it. It even has ruined a few calculations before I learned that the WP 34S implements it the classical way, and I still sometimes happen to hit the ENTER key too often switching between calculators.
However, I also understand that this particular behaviour is part of the "magic" of HP's way of RPN to more traditional users, and I would not want to take that away.
So, ideally, to make this calculator as user-friendly as possible to any type of RPN/RPL user, new and old, a RPN mode switch seems like a good solution for me, in particular since at least this part of my proposal could be had at almost no costs code-wise.

Greetings,

Matthias