WP 34S and 31S bugs and fixes

[Bit]

(01-08-2015 07:09 AM)walter b Wrote:  

(01-08-2015 05:28 AM)Bit Wrote:  

1. Incomplete or invalid fractions cause delayed error messages ...
2. CLx produces domain error if the command line contains a bad fraction ...
3. EEX not allowed in fractions mode even if no fraction was entered ...
   

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3. is done on purpose. Fractions on the WP 34S have a very limited range. Well, it's larger than on the HP-33Sii but anyway EEX doesn't make real sense here. So please leave that as it is.
...

Walter, I've been thinking about this, and I'd like to point out a real life scenario in which it matters:

It happened several times that the calculator was in fraction mode because of previous calculations and when I tried to enter a number with an exponent, I was surprised that I couldn't. I was forced to take steps that were unnecessary in my workflow as it made no difference to me at that point whether or not numbers were displayed as fractions. I had to exit fraction mode and either retype the number or multiply it by the exponent. If the calculator simply allowed EEX while in fraction mode, the user would have the freedom to switch back to decimal mode at any point during calculations (e.g. after a result is displayed), not only at the beginning.

On the other hand, I cannot think of an example when forbidding EEX would help the user avoid some confusing situation that they unintentionally got themselves into. I'm not sure how the limited range of fractions is relevant here since very large numbers are already allowed: you can enter 1e11 as 100000000000.

Fractions mode in the WP 34S doesn't affect how calculations are carried out or which operations are allowed, it's just a display mode: another way to look at the content of the registers. As far as I can tell, disallowing EEX is the only exception.

Could you please consider the above?