HP Prime single line of text input question

[Bill Triplett]

On the HP Prime, I am looking for the way around this simple user interface problem. In the attached picture, I used a function which returned a real number result. The result of 0.6252853728 is now sitting at the bottom of the recent history.

Now, I want to use the keyboard, not the mouse. I am much faster and more accurate when typing using keyboard buttons. I use keyboard shortcuts when using either the actual calculator or the PC keyboard when using the PC simulator.

I want to do something that should be very simple. Now, I want to enter 120, press the divide button, and then select the recent number from the history as the denominator. I know this is easy with the touch screen, but I am not always using the touch screen version of the machine. I frequently use the PC simulation of the HP Prime on a PC with a standard monitor.

It turns out, it is not simple to highlight that recent number - without first moving the cursor away from the denominator.

Press the up arrow, and the cursor goes directly up into the numerator before another press of the up arrow moves the highlight to the desired number in the history.

Now, if I press Enter the desired (and highlighted) number does NOT teleport into the denominator. Instead, it is inserted between the 1 and the 20 in the numerator, of all places.

This seems to be an artifact of being in pretty print mode all the time. Is there a way to make the machine display only a single line of text in the input region? In that way, a single press of the up arrow would jump directly into the history region.

I know that when using the actual physical calculator keyboard, I can press the Shift key before pressing the up arrow on the click disk. This skips over the numerator. Then, I need to press the down arrow to select the desired number.

Over on the PC keyboard, the PC keys marked Shift do not function as calculator Shift keys, so on the PC simulator we press the CTRL key to do the same thing, if we remember.

All of that is nice, and can be made to work, but I would prefer to switch the calculator into a single line text input mode when doing many similar tasks. I think it would be simpler to manage.

Bill

[Wes Loewer]

(09-07-2022 02:18 PM)Bill Triplett Wrote:  I want to enter 120, press the divide button, and then select the recent number from the history as the denominator. I know this is easy with the touch screen, but I am not always using the touch screen version of the machine.

You can press the Menu key then Enter. Now you can navigate with arrow keys through the history. When you find what you want, press Enter. All keys, no taps.

(09-07-2022 02:18 PM)Bill Triplett Wrote:  Is there a way to make the machine display only a single line of text in the input region?

Yes. Go to Home Settings and change the Entry mode from Textbook to Algebraic.

[Didier Lachieze]

(09-07-2022 02:18 PM)Bill Triplett Wrote:  I want to do something that should be very simple. Now, I want to enter 120, press the divide button, and then select the recent number from the history as the denominator. I know this is easy with the touch screen, but I am not always using the touch screen version of the machine. I frequently use the PC simulation of the HP Prime on a PC with a standard monitor.

If you want to use the last result in the history you can use Shift Ans (on the + key).
If 0.6252853728 is the last result in the history then:
120 Divide Shift Ans Enter
will return the result of 120 divided by 0.6252853728.

[Bill Triplett]

Both are good solutions. Thanks.

I notice that in algebraic mode, the machine converts the entry into textbook pretty print style again after the input becomes part of the history.

[Wes Loewer]

(09-07-2022 11:29 PM)Bill Triplett Wrote:  I notice that in algebraic mode, the machine converts the entry into textbook pretty print style again after the input becomes part of the history.

You can control the output under Home Settings, page 2/4, Textbook Display.

[Bill Triplett]

I see that works great, thanks. This way, whenever we choose to highlight an expression in the history, we can press "Show" if we wish to see it in pretty print. After viewing the textbook display, we can press "OK" and the cursor remains at the same point in the history. Nice.

This makes it simpler to avoid confusion when extracting portions of complex expressions from the history. Simply transfer the item from the history into the input area, then delete any characters before and after the desired section using the backspace and delete keys, along with the left and right arrow keys. This benefits from the PC's rapid keyboard repeat when holding down the arrow keys.

When using the PC simulator, the PC's keyboard repeat speed is much greater than the keyboard repeat speed of the calculator's click disk. This, plus the greater processing speed of the PC when using a faster processor makes using the PC simulator the supreme method of working quickly.

Like Maverick in "Top Gun," I feel the need...