shortcuts for entry to nn prompts

[diemheych]

Firstly, congratulations on a very comprehensive RPN implementation for the TI series! I love the 16C functions.

Being a 41C user, I'd love to see shortcuts for anything that prompts for nn like on the 41C. For example, STO 01 could be STO and first menu key which would allow for shortcuts for 01 through 05. Also use for FIX, STO * etc.

Not sure you could do 01 through 10 like on the 41C as if you used the MATH and 1/x rows the CLEAR key is there.

Keep up the good work :-)

[bxparks]

Thanks for the kind words.

With regards to this feature, I've actually never owned or used a 41C, so I don't think I understand what you mean here. Are you saying that the 41C displays "1 2 3 4 5" for the soft menu buttons when you press STO or FIX? (I mean, I didn't know that the 41C has soft menu buttons... The LCD display of a 41C is a segmented display, not a dot-matrix, so how does that even work?) Maybe you can post some screenshots.

And do you want this feature because it saves you 1 keystroke?

One reason that I would deprioritize this feature is because it seems like it would require a more general implementation of the soft menu subsystem in RPN83P, and that's a LOT of work... to save 1 keystroke.

[diemheych]

Apologies the description isn't very clear (especially if you've never used a 41c :-). Basically, top 2 rows of keys on the 41c series can be used for any nn and nnn prompt for the numbers 01 through 10 (or 001 through 010). It can be used for register access, labels and goto (once you have programming), FIX, shift, SIZE etc. There is no prompt on the screen and it is just a shortcut to save 1 or 2 key presses. As a regular 41c and dm41x user I user it all the time but understand you may not want to implement or may not be worth the effort.
I initially thought about named registers like the 35S but the CLEAR key clashes so you couldn't do that (to save a key too).

[bxparks]

There is no prompt on the screen and it is just a shortcut to save 1 or 2 key presses. As a regular 41c and dm41x user I user it all the time but understand you may not want to implement or may not be worth the effort.

Ah, thanks for the explanation, so there is no soft menu system on the 41C. People just have to know that this feature of the 41C exists, which means that it is not very discoverable. One of my design goals of RPN83P is to maintain discoverability of the major features of the app, because I have so many calculators, that I cannot remember how to use most of their functions. I don't want the RPN83P to suffer a similar fate. I want most of its features discoverable through the menu system or through the buttons.

On the other hand, I do sympathize with the desire to reduce the number of keystrokes, even by 1. Even one keystroke can be a significant usability issue when performing repeated calculations on calculator form factor. So we have discoverability competing against usability.

In this case, I think discoverability wins due to a number of factors:

• this feature exists only on the 41C
• HP did not implement this feature on the 42S, which indicates to me that even HP did not think that this feature was critical
• we could implement a limited version of this using the soft menu keys, but we can have only 5 option (0-4, or 1-5, etc), but I'm not sure that's worth the effort, because it takes time away from other features which are more important (at least to me)

So my current response to this feature is a "no". Sorry. (I will probably mark this as "Closed, Not Planned" at some point in the future.)

I initially thought about named registers like the 35S but the CLEAR key clashes so you couldn't do that (to save a key too).

These "named registers" on the 35s, is that like STO A or RCL C? How does the CLEAR key clash with that? In the next version of RPN83P, I have implement exactly this, using the A to Z variables provided by the TI-BASIC. They have to be typed in as STO ALPHA A ENTER, and 2ND RCL ALPHA C ENTER.

[diemheych]

No problem at all, just my 2 cents :-)

Regarding alpha registers, the 35S doesn't need the ALPHA key to be pressed and you can select to the register letter directly as the letters don't clash with other keys that may be entered such as clear + - * /. This isn't the case on the 83+. CLEAR is ok actually so I misread but / *- aren't. Hope that makes sense.

[Note from @bxparks : I had to edit your post and sprinkle a bunch of backtick characters, because you used * without escaping, which causes the Markdown processor to eat your * then turn all the words in between the two * into italics, which caused your post to make no sense no sense at all]