Plus42 Equations, Preview Release

[Thomas Okken]

(12-13-2021 02:00 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  I'm leaning towards a somewhat unorthodox UI: keep the unshifted unit the same, as it is now, but for shift+unit, pop up a menu, with choices "divide by," "convert to," "factor," and "cancel." It's a bit ugly, but it does have the advantage of making all the important functionality available with just one additional keystroke, and making it all really easy to find.

I'll put this on the low-priority to-do list for now. I find I can live with the zero-with-unit trick (that is, 0_m + to convert a length to meters, for example). Keystroke-wise it's as close to optimal as it's likely to get without adding a second shift key, and the only downside is that it doesn't work for converting to and from °C and °F. I can live with that. And when I do implement the menu, I could make it an option, so you could still get the current, tidy design if you prefer.

This means that, for now at least, the only missing unit functionality is the ability to use units in programs and equations. The programs part will be messy, the equations part should be easier. I hope I can get it to work before the end of the week, and then get started on directories. Saving the big screen for after the holidays!

(BTW I just noticed that unit pasting has completely broken the ability to paste complex numbers. I already have a fix for this, which will be in the next build. I also discovered that it is possible for the current program pointer to end up pointing into the jungle when program execution is stopped in generated code and the owning equation is then deleted. It's not a super-common scenario, I hope, but it can cause a crash. I'll fix that tomorrow, but in the meantime, if you see a bunch of gibberish when you switch to PRGM mode, just switch back out and use GTO to go back to any regular user code program, and nothing bad should happen.)