newRPL: [UPDATED April 27-2017] Firmware for testing available for download

[Vtile]

(06-09-2016 08:09 PM)Claudio L. Wrote:  

(06-09-2016 02:09 PM)Vtile Wrote:  Hey one feature proposal (if it is not there already). This arises from the Casio ENG key - thread hovering around in the forums atm.

Could it be possible and beneficial to make (at some point of course) ENG key to function as a special Shift key along its normal exponent of ten ( Ex ) function. So that you can control the shown exponent value in steps of three. Let me explain by rough example..

You press and hold [ EEX ] at the same time you press left arrow.. Value is now shown in format of "X e0-3"

You press and hold [ EEX ] at the same time you press Right arrow.. Value is now shown in format of "X e0+3"

You press and hold [ EEX ] at the same time you press UP arrow.. Value is now changed "X * 1e0+3"

You press and hold [ EEX ] at the same time you press DOWN arrow.. Value is now changed "X * 1e0-3"

This could be used also in different modes, ie. in FIX mode you could change the number of shown decimals on the fly and UP/Down could be used to round the value to specific lenght.

In scientific mode it would work similar as in ENGineering, but with exponent steps of one.

Or something similar on these lines. Atm. atleast on the HP firmware the EEX & Arrows combination have no functions (if not counted the normal swap,editor etc.).
What people think?

I like this a lot! Something along the lines of using On-+/- to change the contrast, no need to get into a special form to change settings. Of course, newRPL supports a very complex way to display numbers, as there are 3 different number formats (for large, medium, small numbers), and the user has to select the limits between those classes of numbers too.
But we could have simple defaults that can be controlled from the keyboard directly.
Here's a simple proposal:
On + [space] can cycle between STD/SCI/FIX/ENG predefined defaults.
On + [number] can select display digits (On+9 = 9 digits, etc.).
On + [dot] can cycle between using dot, dot+thousand separator, comma, comma+thousand separator
On + [div] can increase the display digits by 1
On + [mult] can decrease the display digits by 1

In newRPL there's no such thing as moving the ENG exponent by 3 places. I need to study how to add that feature (should we call it exponent bias?), though I don't anticipate it being too difficult.

I'm actually not sure what you are truely meaning with exponent bias, maybe something you later posts refer as preferred magnitude or similar.

For my propose of using [EEX] as a special shift key (while you hold it down, just like [ON] key or [RShift]+[TOOL] to change R<>C) I see it more convenient way to manipulate the exponent and or other "display rounding properties ie. FIX n". More so than the ON+"keys".

Now one week after my half thought proposal I'm not sure anymore if the actual and real magnitude changing (actual shortcut for multiplying with 1000 or 0.001) I proposed for [EEX]+[UP]/[DOWN] would be the best option and truely usefull. Much more usefull option would be to change the shown decimals on fly as you propose for [On]+[mult]/[Div]. The [EEX]+[RIGHT]/[LEFT] would still be truely handy for those moments your head decides to turn pool of jelly and you struggle to comprehend some value like 800.0e-3 . With ie. [EEX]+[LEFT] (the working direction logic must be decided at somepoint to fit other parts of the system) you change shown exponent format (temporarily?) by one step at time. Maybe there would be better options?

For [EEX]+[up]/[down] it would change the decimals shown in all number formats. (This would be extremely handy ie. in standard and FIX modes) My argument over [ON] is that with [EEX] or [LShift]+[EEX] you kind of do similar task while entering the numbers.

How it exactly works on Casio, I don't know since I only momentarily owned the ClassPad2 and there to 50g, previously I were two decades rather unhappy owner of the original TI-83+ (Uh, laplace tables etc. *yak*)

For [ON]+[Div]/[Mult] you could change ie. the precision used internally? if that is planned feature. Like Decimal(xxx) or similar command on the Maple software (while I really can't remember were there ability to exceed the IEE floating point precision).

What I forgot to mention or comment.. hmm.