[Prime] Missing trigonometric/hyperbolic functions, possible navigational enhancement

[matthiaspaul]

(09-20-2015 09:20 PM)matthiaspaul Wrote:  But if we slightly change the proposed behaviour, clicking on the menu's title bar could serve as something between the proposed functions for "0" and "EEX":

Pressing the (blue) title bar of the menu (like "Math") while the menu's sub-menus are still closed, would open all sub-menus at once according to what was invoked the last time (similar to a sequence of "0"), but not execute it immediately (as "EEX" would do). At present, clicking on the title bar with the sub-menus closed does nothing, so no documentation would have to be changed. Further, if the user would click on the menu's title bar with some or all of the sub-menus opened, it would close all the sub-menus but keep the main menu open (just as it does right now already).

Thinking about it, this proposed toggle behaviour when ticking on a menu's title bars could also be handy when using the keyboard only - in addition to the proposed "0" and "EEX" hotkeys:

"EEX" is useful if you quickly need to invoke the previously selected function (f.e. by pressing "Toolbox" followed by "EEX"), and "0" is convenient for quicker navigation in "recently" used areas of the menu. Ticking on the menu's title bar selects like "EEX", but in order to execute you will still need to tick on the selected entry (or press "Enter"). This gives the user the option to easily override the previous selection with another nearby function - it often happens that similar functions are needed in sequence. For example, in a formula containing a SINH you might also need COSH, which can be found nearby SINH in the menu (you get the idea).

Further up, I suggested to let "Backspace" work like "Left" inside an open menu. "Left" and "On" subsequently close the corresponding sub-menu(s) and the main menu. Anyway, the "Backspace" behaviour should deviate from it by closing sub-menus, but not closing the main menu. Instead it should "open last sub-menu" like when ticking on the menu title bar.

The resulting behaviour of "Backspace" would be to first close any open sub-menus one after the other on subsequent keypresses, then open the "last sub-menu" again, and then restart to close the sub-menus again, and so on. So, with SINH being used previously, one could just blindly press "Toolbox" "Backspace" to open the menu with hyperbolic functions, where COSH can be found and selected quickly. Also, just like a sequence of "0" would allow to quickly navigate down the menu tree to the (or a) previously selected entry, "Backspace" would allow to navigate upwards the hierarchy of the previously selected entry, with semantically similar functions very likely to be on nearby menu entries and therefore much quicker to reach than going through the menu the normal way.

Also, this cycling behaviour of "Backspace" would be completely in analogy with the proposed cycling behaviour of "Backspace" in an input line, as suggested here:

http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-4667.html

Greetings,

Matthias

(Edit: During testing I thought to have found that "Left" would not close the main menu, whereas "On" does, but I cannot reproduce this now a day later, when both keys will also close the main menu. Apparently, I had temporarily activated "Alpha".)