HP 50g -- too shifty?

[John Keith]

(12-30-2016 05:21 AM)Joe Horn Wrote:  But that's exactly what USER mode is for. Arrange all the keys the way YOU want them. And since each key on the 50g allows almost twice as many assignments than the 48 allowed (the 50g allows 11 assignments per key, not just 6), there is no reason to waste any of your finite supply of heartbeats disliking the default key arrangement. Put whatever you want wherever you want it, and leave your 50g in USER mode. I currently have 90 key assignments on my main 50g; constant use makes overlays or stickers unnecessary.

<rant>Why do people pay extra for a model that has USER mode, and then complain about the keyboard & menu arrangement? That's like buying a chainsaw and then complaining that using it without gasoline is exhausting. Uh... here's a suggestion... don't do it that way. Use the tool's features.</rant>

I like your chainsaw analogy, but I find User mode to be more trouble than it's worth, just one more layer of stuff to remember. I go through periods of heavy use followed by weeks of little or no programming and I don't want to have to re-memorize my User keyboard. I tend to use a combination of menus, longhand typing, and a Custom menu that gets continually refined. Not saying my way is the right one, just what works for me.

On another subject, in addition to Longfloat, I highly recommend Goferlists
which I consider to be indispensable for doing any kind of data manipulation with the 50g.

John