DM42 News

[rprosperi]

Thanks to Thomas, Günter and Mark for the corrections to my suggestion and additional suggestions.

If it's true that long-press is an option, I revise my proposal, as seen in the image Massimo posted from Michael, per the following.

All of the 'special' alpha characters, which are available on the 42S keyboard while in Alpha Mode are listed on p. 37 in the manual and illustrated on p. 39.

I propose the alpha keyboard works as follows:

• Layout for capitals as per Michael's latest image, with minor changes noted below
• Lowercase letters are via shift-letter
• All special alpha keys are via long-press of the same keys used on the original 42S
• Un-shifted Characters "-", ":", "." and " " retained as shown
• Shifted characters "-", ":", "." and " " would be the same as un-shifted
• The [R/S] key (both shifted and un-shifted) would not generate any character, to retain the ability to continue program operation, per the real 42S. The "?" character originally proposed for here is available in the Alpha menu
  

This approach is suggested for these reasons:

• Consistency with 42S Alpha keyboard for special alpha-key access (which we all use now without thinking about where they are)
• No characters need to be added to the original Alpha Function key design (less development)
• A few of the most common non-letter keys are easily accessed
  

Of course, this is all predicated on availability of long-press. If that turns out to be not available, I would still prefer to have the special characters available via Shift-key, meaning all lowercase access is via Alpha menus. I believe consistency with the 42S keyboard outweighs the relatively rarely used lowercase. It would indeed be nice to retain auto-repeat, but given the other requirements, it seems prudent to drop it.