How to: EMU71 on an Android Tablet Message #1 Posted by Guenter Schink on 5 June 2012, 3:58 p.m.
There are a lot of nice simulators/emulators of various HP-calculators for Android available. Most of them like Thomas' Free42 or most of the goXXX from Olivier are best suited for smartphones. Except perhaps the "go71B" which looks pretty good on my 10" tablet.
But what about EMU71 for DOS provided by Jean-Francois Garnier, is it reasonable to use it on an Android-Tablet? After fiddling around for a while I'd say yes. The major advantage over the go71B is the emulation of the HP-IL video display, the drawback is that it doesn't look as nice and the keyboard operation needs some work around.
You need:
1. EMU71 Copy the entire stuff like you would do under DOS into a dedicated directory.
2. Hacker's Keyboard Although it provides an almost complete Keyboard It needs some adjustments. Under settings make sure that keyboard modes landscape and portrait are both set to full 5-row layout. Under gesture and key actions I have the swipe actions as follows:
Swipe up: increase height
Swipe down:decrease height
Swipe left toggle extension row (giving access to the F-keys)
Swipe right: switch keyboard layout
(if you'd like to have a less "cluttered" keyboard with other applications)
3. either ( 2.99) AnDosBox
In the menu select "buttons|show buttons". Then you see two important buttons,
upper left corner: "special" this is needed to access the shifted F-keys,
lower right corner: "keyboard" that's an easy way to get the keyboard back after it was folded away.
Once you have the right orientation, select from the menu "buttons|hide buttons".
You won't see them any longer, but they are still there and working.
or 4. ( also 2.99) DosBox Turbo
In the menu select "config|Gesture Mapping" then set
Swipe up action: show keyboard
Swipe down action: show special keys
The Hacker's keyboard is working pretty good, except that the shifted F-Keys don't work, therefore the workaround with the special keys. I had some conversation with the developer of this keyboard. Applying a special key-logging program showed that the keyboard sent the right "message" to the operating system, but it didn't show up in either DosBox.
Sorry, the free aDosBox did not behave as necessary.
In both boxes you can either navigate to your dedicated EMU71 directory or mount an appropriate directory right away. I have created a directory "dosbox" under which I have EMU71, EMU41, HP95LX and HP200LX. This directory is mounted as "c"
I think, using it in portrait mode is most convenient, because you have a reasonable screen and a well separated keyboard. But even the landscape mode is usable due to the HP-IL video display. In DosBox Turbo, which I prefer, the "screen scaling" may be set to let's say 80% and the Hacker's keyboard, with the wipe down action as described above, can be tailored as necessary.
Funny to have an emulator of a vintage pocket-pc for an obsolete operating system working nicely in an emulator for this obsolete OS, isn't it? :-)
Hope someone shares the fun
From Germany,
Günter Schink
Edited: 5 June 2012, 4:06 p.m.
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