Plus42 Equations, Preview Release

[Marco Polo]

(01-16-2022 11:36 AM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  New update:

1. Big screen now for Android as well as Mac.
2. Fixed crash in the Mac version.

Very very very nice indeed!!!
Imho there are two features which would be nice to have:
1) possibility to select stack font height
2) user flags state visualization on header, like 48sx/gx

Now the big question: why SM stated they are not going to port Plus42 on DM42????

It would be the definitive calc for RPN lovers and a good alternative to 50g for those who don't need CAS and don't like its keyboard arrangement (and feel the 48 too slow)

[ggauny@live.fr]

Hi all
+ 1

[toml_12953]

(01-17-2022 08:51 AM)Marco Polo Wrote:  Now the big question: why SM stated they are not going to port Plus42 on DM42????

It would be the definitive calc for RPN lovers and a good alternative to 50g for those who don't need CAS and don't like its keyboard arrangement (and feel the 48 too slow)

Could be because the 43S is in development and they'll be going with that.

[Marco Polo]

(01-17-2022 01:11 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  

(01-17-2022 08:51 AM)Marco Polo Wrote:  Now the big question: why SM stated they are not going to port Plus42 on DM42????

It would be the definitive calc for RPN lovers and a good alternative to 50g for those who don't need CAS and don't like its keyboard arrangement (and feel the 48 too slow)

Could be because the 43S is in development and they'll be going with that.

I gave a look to 43S/43C
Very nice project but, imho, it is a huge departure from HP user feel and interface.
Many many functions and, as a consequence, a complex interface. More or less the same "problems" which kept me away from WP34. Imho they are tools aimed more to mathematicians over engineers.
Overall, i feel Plus42 as the convergence between the HP42 and the HP48, giving an excellent balance between the features i like of 48 series and the the lack of bells and twistles of 42. In brief, an excellent engineering tool

[Vincent Weber]

(01-17-2022 04:04 PM)Marco Polo Wrote:  

(01-17-2022 01:11 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  Could be because the 43S is in development and they'll be going with that.

I gave a look to 43S/43C
Very nice project but, imho, it is a huge departure from HP user feel and interface.
Many many functions and, as a consequence, a complex interface. More or less the same "problems" which kept me away from WP34. Imho they are tools aimed more to mathematicians over engineers.
Overall, i feel Plus42 as the convergence between the HP42 and the HP48, giving an excellent balance between the features i like of 48 series and the the lack of bells and twistles of 42. In brief, an excellent engineering tool

+1
My feelings exactly.
What I personally needed was a merge between the powers of RPN of the 42, and those of 17B/27S for the algebraich equation solver. Thomas has achieved that beyond anyone's dreams. Plus Units, folder and big screen, this is kind of 48 without the exagerated complexity of RPL.
The 43 projet, which I have no idea when it is available, seems more like a lot of added mathematical functions, nice but crowed, and with the added programmability of Plus42 (local variables, infinite stack,...) you can virtually program anything, running at light speed.

Plus42 is the way to go !

[toml_12953]

(01-17-2022 04:26 PM)Vincent Weber Wrote:  

(01-17-2022 04:04 PM)Marco Polo Wrote:  I gave a look to 43S/43C
Very nice project but, imho, it is a huge departure from HP user feel and interface.
Many many functions and, as a consequence, a complex interface. More or less the same "problems" which kept me away from WP34. Imho they are tools aimed more to mathematicians over engineers.
Overall, i feel Plus42 as the convergence between the HP42 and the HP48, giving an excellent balance between the features i like of 48 series and the the lack of bells and twistles of 42. In brief, an excellent engineering tool

+1
My feelings exactly.
What I personally needed was a merge between the powers of RPN of the 42, and those of 17B/27S for the algebraich equation solver. Thomas has achieved that beyond anyone's dreams. Plus Units, folder and big screen, this is kind of 48 without the exagerated complexity of RPL.
The 43 projet, which I have no idea when it is available, seems more like a lot of added mathematical functions, nice but crowed, and with the added programmability of Plus42 (local variables, infinite stack,...) you can virtually program anything, running at light speed.

Plus42 is the way to go !

One plus for the 43 is that you can load it onto SM hardware. Plus42 will most likely be software only. Many of us want real hardware and only use an emulator or simulator when necessary.

[johanw]

(01-17-2022 04:54 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  One plus for the 43 is that you can load it onto SM hardware. Plus42 will most likely be software only. Many of us want real hardware and only use an emulator or simulator when necessary.

That SM will not do it themselves won't mean someone else will not do it. SM even more or less supports that, they even have a 3rd party firmware section on their own forum (currently only used by someone who made a firmware that uses the extra top row buttons of the DM42 a lot more):

https://forum.swissmicros.com/viewforum.php?f=32

[Thomas Okken]

I suppose Plus42 could be ported to the DM42 hardware. At first I thought it might be difficult because I started using STL, and that might bloat the executable to the point where it wouldn't fit. But it turns out there isn't all that much STL usage, mostly it's strings, vectors, and one or two maps. With a few days of work, those could be replaced by more lightweight, custom-made classes. And as far as RAM usage is concerned, Plus42 isn't significantly hungrier than Free42.

[Thomas Okken]

New update:

1. Automatic skin stretching. So regular Free42 skins can be used, and are automatically modified so the 131x64 display will fit.
2. Minor bug fixes and performance improvements.

Note: this update is only for Windows, Mac, and Linux; the Android version uses completely different code for skin loading and display, so that will take a bit more work. Expect it later today or tomorrow.

[Thomas Okken]

Android version, also updated.

Note that the display stretcher does not work so great for the DM42 skin, since it already has plenty of room for the 131x64 display. To adapt that skin for Plus42, change the Display: line to these two lines:

Code:

Display: 42,73 2 2 caccc9 2c302e
DisplaySize: 22,8

[johanw]

Nice. It worked in Landscape mode in Android better than I assumed, but it still needs some work there. The standard skin has some numbers unreadable and one row of keys is tripled, the Nova L v2 skin looks a bit distorted but is usable.

For windows it is nice that the standard skin now also shows more lines. The realistic skin just fits on my screen in its current form.

   

   

[Thomas Okken]

Yes, next will be a declaration in the layout file, which horizontal strip should be used to tile the gap created by pulling the skin apart at the display. Right now it uses the strip containing the display pixels, extended all the way to the side edges of the skin. For portrait skins, that is a perfectly good choice, but some landscape skins have a logo there, or even keys, and then it gets messy.

[Thomas Okken]

New update:

1. Moving programs could leave the current program pointer in an invalid state, leading to various unpleasant situations. Fixed.
2. SHOW improvements.
3. Minor bug fixes.
4. The HP / Unicode character conversion now supports an escape notation for those parts of the HP-42S character set that don't have unambiguous Unicode equivalents. The notation consist of a euro sign followed by two hexadecimal digits. Plus42 will use this notation when converting character codes >= 132 (but not 138) to Unicode, and will accept it for all character codes when converting from Unicode.
5. Fixed NORM and TRACE behavior of INPUT.

(4 and 5 will also be in the next Free42 release.)

[Guenter Schink]

As I had provided the original "SGS" files. I located the *.SVG (vector graphics) files on my computer and created a draft, how it could look like for the PLUS42 on Android. Would that fit?

   

Günter

How would a layout look like. Sorry last time I did this, was 10 years ago. If someone is interested I could also provide the SVG (e.g. for inkscape )

Günter

edit: added "Android"

[Vincent Weber]

(01-18-2022 07:43 PM)Guenter Schink Wrote:  As I had provided the original "SGS" files. I located the *.SVG (vector graphics) files on my computer and created a draft, how it could look like for the PLUS42 on Android. Would that fit?



Günter

How would a layout look like. Sorry last time I did this, was 10 years ago. If someone is interested I could also provide the SVG (e.g. for inkscape )

Günter

edit: added "Android"

I would love a Plus42 portrait skin for Android, with extra labels for the equation editor mode: L() G() : = () {}

Cheers

[Thomas Okken]

(01-18-2022 07:43 PM)Guenter Schink Wrote:  As I had provided the original "SGS" files. I located the *.SVG (vector graphics) files on my computer and created a draft, how it could look like for the PLUS42 on Android. Would that fit?

It looks good, but I can't try it without a layout file.

The fact that some of the keys have moved will probably drive some people insane (I got some furious reactions when I replaced 42ct with SGS-L as the default landscape skin!), but I like it. My only criticism is that I would stick with the smaller radius for the rounded corners of the display area.

Is the display area designed to fit the annunciators, plus a 131x64 pixel area?
Although fewer lines could also work, there's nothing sacred about 8 lines. Plus42 supports any number greater than or equal to 2. Just make sure to include a DisplaySize: line in the layout.

[tommi60]

Trying to understand how Directories work.

I create a new directory with CRDIR (MYDIR)
In the new directory I create a program (MYPROG)
Going back to {HOME} I create the following program:

00 { 24-Byte Prgm}
01 LBL "PRG1"
02 CHDIR "MYDIR"
03 XEQ "MYPROG"
04 .END.

This results in "Label Not Found" although I'm now in { HOME MYDIR }

If I execute the commands manually everything works as expected.

[Thomas Okken]

The problem is that from a running program, global label searches start from the directory where the program itself resides, not from the current directory. So in this case, the search for LBL "MYPROG" starts in HOME, and since it isn't there, you get the Label Not Found.

When you execute GTO or XEQ from the keyboard, the search does start from the current directory.

[Thomas Okken]

New update:

1. When pasting program listings, CRDIR, PGDIR, CHDIR, and RENAME weren't accepted. Now fixed.
2. Display hints to allow Plus42 to adapt existing skins better.

The display hints can be added to a skin's layout file. There are two:

DisplayExpansionZone: first_y last_y
This specifies the strip of the skin image that should be replicated when stretching the skin. The strip spans the entire width of the skin, and runs from first_y at the top to last_y at the bottom.
If unspecified, Plus42 uses the top and bottom of the default display rectangle. Use this hint if the default strip contains a logo or other graphical elements that should not be replicated.

DisplaySize: cols,rows disp_y pixel_scale_y max_rows
If the skin was designed for a display size other than 2 rows by 22 columns, use this hint to specify the default size. The number or rows must be at least 2 and the number of columns must be at least 22.
Disp_y and pixel_scale_y specify top of the display and the the vertical pixel size to be used, instead of the ones specified in the Display: line, if the number of rows is set to something greater than 2; and max_rows is the maximum number of rows that may be used with this skin.
The disp_y, pixel_scale_y, and max_rows parameters are optional. They may be omitted, or if you don't want to specify one but do want to specify one of the later ones, use -1 to indicate you don't want to specify a vaiue.

(What is obviously still missing is some way for the user to set the number of rows. For now, this is hard-coded at 8, or whatever the maximum is that the skin layout specifies if that is less than 8.)

I added hints to 14 layout files in my collection:

DisplayExpansionZone, to prevent logos etc. from being duplicated:

desktop/42ck.layout
desktop/42ct.layout
desktop/42ctplus.layout
desktop/HP42CY.layout
desktop/Khor_Free01.layout
mobile/Khor_Free01_iOS.layout
mobile/SGS-P.layout
mobile/Tyge_H.layout
mobile/Tyge_S2_Landscape.layout
mobile/tyge_nova_L_v2.layout

DisplaySize, to take better advantage of available room for the display:

desktop/DM42.layout
mobile/DM42.layout

DisplaySize, to prevent the skin from being stretched altogether:

mobile/HP_Mega_42.layout
mobile/SGS-L.layout

This also applies to the built-in landscape skins in the Android and iOS versions (both SGS-L).

[Thomas Okken]

New update:

1. Resizable display. Use the ROW+ and ROW- functions.
(They're under CATALOG -> DISP. I should probably put them somewhere more obvious, like under the DISP menu...)