Re: [43S] For your weekend pleasure Message #26 Posted by Doug (NYC) on 27 Jan 2013, 12:19 p.m., in response to message #1 by Walter B
Silly question...
Why don't any HP calculators allow for "double shifted" keys? This doesn't even seem to occur with the WP34S.
I would think that double-shifted keys would add a lot of potential value, at the possible expense of a more complex label. Alternatively, they could also be treated as USER-style keys where the label doesn't appear, but is remembered by the cognoscenti, or actual USER keys.
In the calculator proposal at hand, an f-g shift would increase the keyboardable commands 33%. In the WP34S, with an f-g-h there would be three double shifts and one triple shift available, either increasing the number of keyboardable commands 75% or 100%.
If we got even fancier (read: more complex) and used permutations of the two shifts instead of combinations, the possibilities increase even further. How much further? Get your HP and figure it out! :) (Or do it in your head with such small numbers...)
(Okay, now, onto ad absurdum...) Heck, we could make each shift a multi-state shift as well, so you could have f-keys, and ff-keys, g-keys and gg-keys, fg-keys, ffg-keys, ffgg-keys, etc. However, perhaps the simplest would be just doubled shift keys.
As an example:
(Replace gg-KEY with fg-KEY depending if you like doubled-shifts or combination of shifts. I'll leave the ff-key to the user's imagination if doubled shifts are used.)
Y^X = y^x
f-Y^X = x root of y
g-Y^X = x^2
gg-Y^X = sqrt
LN = ln x
f-LN = e^x
g-LN = log x
gg-LN = 10^x
SIN = sin x
f-SIN = arcsin x
g-SIN = sinh x
gg-SIN = arcsinh x
GTO = GTO
f-GTO = LBL
g-GTO = RTN
gg-GTO = END (or whatever...)
And so forth. It would allow many logical groupings of closely related functions on one key.
Now, I realize that there may be software/firmware reasons not to do this; ROM (well, flash) space is limited, but the space for an additional keyboard map (or several) is too great. The information design challenge is formidable, but possibly fun.
Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Doug
PS: What about scrapping the overlay entirely and just putting a 200+ PPI display behind the keys... :)
Edited: 27 Jan 2013, 12:40 p.m.
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