newRPL: [UPDATED April 27-2017] Firmware for testing available for download

[Han]

Here's another idea for the menu system. I'll refer to the "black" menu as the main menu and the "light grey" menu as the secondary menu.

There should be two modes for menus: mode 1 uses only the main menu and behaves like the old HP48 series; mode 2 uses both main and secondary menus.

Mode 1: When using a short-press for any key that brings up a menu (including softkeys and VAR), then the main menu is updated. However, a long press would activate the menu as a secondary menu and turns on mode 2. The NXT key shifts pages, and PREV shifts in the opposite direction.

Mode 2: Long-presses for menu keys will deactivate mode 2 and revert to mode 1. Since there are two menu levels, we have to be able to navigate each separately. My proposal is that short-pressing (including short left/right shifted versions) the APPS-through-NXT key will be the equivalent of the normal menu key behavior for F1 through F6. Since the NXT key is now a (secondary) menu key, I propose that holding NXT and using the arrow keys navigates the menus. Holding NXT and pressing left/right would scroll the main menu, whereas holding NXT and pressing up/down would scroll the secondary menu (either by 3 or by 6) since these menus span two rows.

In essence, NXT becomes a shift key for menus, to be used in conjunction with the arrow keys.

As examples for mode 2:

Long pressing APPS will activate whatever softkey corresponding to apps and deactivate the secondary menu, and the secondary menu replaces the main menu. The same goes for MODE, TOOL, VAR. The exception would be NXT since that has a different role and STO as I think long-press STO should behave like normal STO.

In the HP48 series, one could use softkeys, or one could opt to use the graphical interface. On the HP49/50 series, the graphical interfaces usually required long-presses. For example, the 2D/3D graphing UI was accessible via holding left shift and pressing F4. I think all these should be collectively grouped into APPS and accessed by the APPS key. There should be a setting for GUI vs softkey interface like on the HP50G. With the GUI enabled, the APPS key would behave mostly like it currently does in the HP ROM. With softkeys enabled, then APPS would bring up a menu for the apps in the same manner as, say, the left-shifted version of the apps in the HP48 series. (For example, press left-shift plot). The menu is display, and the screen should show a description of each menu item much like pressing right-shift down on the HP48 series while the libraries menu is loaded.

EDIT: For the "grey" menus, I propose a light grey rectangular border in place of full grey background for the soft keys. Then you won't have to deal with contrast, since it should show up as extremely sharp.