Re: DIY543 pictures (keyboard layout update) Message #49 Posted by Bill Carter on 28 Oct 2013, 6:33 p.m., in response to message #48 by Walter B
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Putting trigs on shifted locations, however, doesn't save a single keystroke compared with a menu as presented on the 31st of January in said poll.
True, unless you're working in another menu that you'd need to go back to after doing your trig or between trig functions.
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About x^2: the HP-45 featured a primary x^2 although it's trivial - a primary x^2 saves one stack level :-) Please see here also a shifted y^x and SQRT.
I think x^2 made more sense when registers were at a premium (and an 8-level stack wasn't an option). I don't ever remember needing x^2 (although I've used it in quickie programs where I didn't want to think through the condition of the stack). I believe every calculator after the 15c (42s, 48/49 variants, 50g, 35s, plus the 41 variants) had SQRT as the primary. The Prime puts x^2 as primary because (paraphrasing Tim-- I can't find the thread) it's targeted to education and kids learn square before square root.
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About P<->R: if you've got a number in X and another number in Y, how shall the calculator know those are polar or rectangular coordinates?? TIA for enlightenment.
I was thinking that the complex number would be in X alone, where the calculator would necessarily need to know if it was rectangular or polar. My frame of reference is 48g which lets me enter (3,4) or (5[angle]53.13), displays the complex number according to the selected coordinate system, and changes between systems with the POLAR key. Other than the parenthesis, this seemed nicer than the 42s or 15c approaches. The 50g hides the [angle] key somewhere that I can never remember, and the 35s famously lacks the ability to easily convert between coordinate systems.
With the hard key for i and theta, I thought the 43s was going to perfect the 48/50g approach. I would envision being able to enter a complex number in either system, depending on whether I used i or [angle] as the separator. I could then operate on that argument and get my result back in the same system. Given the display's capabilities, I would be able to tell which system my number is in and toggle between systems with R<->P. Talk about saving a stack level ;-)!
-Bill
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