CAS Programming Reference Material?

[John R. Graham]

Which, I guess, is Xcas/Giac programming reference material, actually. Having a little trouble finding it. Could someone point me to what exists?

Thanks in advance.

- John

[Damien]

Hi John,

You may find some useful informations about Xcas/Giac here:

http://www-fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr/~pari...cmd_en.pdf
http://www-fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr/~pari...glish.html

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Damien.

[John R. Graham]

Damien,

Thank you. I have seen both the document and the site, though. I see from the code snippet examples in the document that local variables exist, the block definition tokens are "{" and "}", "for" and "while" loop constructs exist, but I don't see a chapter on the language itself. Questions abound:

• Do the block operators also create variable scope?
• What is the definitive list of control structures?
• What is the definitive list of variable types?
  

and many more.

- John

[parisse]

The CAS programming structure keywords on the Prime are the same as in Home.
{} (Xcas) is BEGIN END
for(;{} is FOR FROM TO DO END
etc.
I think it would be a good idea to accept lowercase keywords.

[Dominik Holenstein]

I have just found this document (written in French):
HP Prime Manual in French by Renée De Graeve

There is an interesting part on page 287:
(Quick translation to English):
"Choose
Shift Program
New
This opens a window with
Nom et CAS.
Mark CAS for writing a CAS program (...)"

This option is not available with the current firmware. But this passage proves that there is something very interesting burried on the HP Prime.

Let me know if you are interested in an English translation of the programming chapter (p. 287 - 319).

Dominik

[Thomas_Sch]

(02-24-2014 09:33 PM)Dominik Holenstein Wrote:  Let me know if you are interested in an English translation of the programming chapter (p. 287 - 319).
Dominik

+1
many thanks in advance, Thomas

[Terje Vallestad]

(02-24-2014 09:33 PM)Dominik Holenstein Wrote:  Let me know if you are interested in an English translation of the programming chapter (p. 287 - 319).

Dominik

That would be very useful.
Many thanks in advance. Cheers, Terje

[John R. Graham]

(02-24-2014 09:33 PM)Dominik Holenstein Wrote:  I have just found this document (written in French):
http://www-fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr/~parisse/hprime.pdf

Dominik, that link doesn't work for me. I get a 404 error.

- John

[Damien]

Hi John,

you can find it here, with no 404 error (i hope)
http://www-fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr/~pari...hprime.pdf

Regards,

Damien.

[DeucesAx]

The calculator is out for barely half a year. How do you have the audacity to ask for programming reference material?

[Joe Horn]

(02-25-2014 12:09 AM)DeucesAx Wrote:  The calculator is out for barely half a year. How do you have the audacity to ask for programming reference material?

Indeed. For example, the 48SX came out in March 1990, and the excellent HP 48 Programmer's Reference Manual came out just 4 months later! And the 48G/GX came out in June 1993, and the even more complete HP 48G Series Advanced User's Reference Manual came out only 1 month later! Come on, HP!

On the other hand... Just thinking out loud here... I'm afraid that if they DID publish a thorough reference manual for the Prime, everybody would get even angrier, because it would be immediately obsolete, because Prime is still having features added to it, features changed, and bugs removed. It's a moving target. The best way to learn about a rapidly moving object is not by reading about it in a book but by watching it on a radar screen. So what we need is live documentation, both online (where it can be easily updated, and be readable on a tablet next to the Prime) and built-in (where it should simply agree with its concurrent firmware version).

And while I'm at it, I wish it rained beer. Good, dark, German beer, not American beer, which is already 99% rainwater. But I digress.

[Dominik Holenstein]

(02-24-2014 10:39 PM)John R. Graham Wrote:  Dominik, that link doesn't work for me. I get a 404 error.

John,

Thank you for the hint, I have just updated the link in my post above.

Best,
Dominik

[Dominik Holenstein]

(02-25-2014 06:28 AM)Joe Horn Wrote:  On the other hand... Just thinking out loud here... I'm afraid that if they DID publish a thorough reference manual for the Prime, everybody would get even angrier, because it would be immediately obsolete, because Prime is still having features added to it, features changed, and bugs removed. It's a moving target. The best way to learn about a rapidly moving object is not by reading about it in a book but by watching it on a radar screen. So what we need is live documentation, both online (where it can be easily updated, and be readable on a tablet next to the Prime) and built-in (where it should simply agree with its concurrent firmware version).

Joe,

I had similar thoughts last night when I offered here to translate the porgramming chapter in the HP guide by Renée De Graeve.

We need a CAS programming online documentation where we can quickly add new topics and indicate with which firmware version we have tested the code. The could be a new HP Forum here or a new website based on a Wiki software.

Dominik

[massimo]

(02-25-2014 07:46 AM)Dominik Holenstein Wrote:  We need a CAS programming online documentation where we can quickly add new topics and indicate with which firmware version we have tested the code. The could be a new HP Forum here or a new website based on a Wiki software.

Dominik

I think that a wiki can be the right answer.
A community wiki can be created but I think that we need contributes from HP people.

[Stefan]

(Sorry for hijacking the thread, please ignore if you're interested in the original topic)

(02-25-2014 06:28 AM)Joe Horn Wrote:  And while I'm at it, I wish it rained beer. Good, dark, German beer, not American beer, which is already 99% rainwater. But I digress.

I couldn't believe it myself, but after spending a year in the US and now beeing back in Germany I somehow miss Pale Ale beers. I would still say German beer is the best, but at least you have some variety over there, preventing that your tongue gets bored.