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IFTE odd behaviour
10-16-2019, 04:25 PM
Post: #20
RE: IFTE odd behaviour
(10-16-2019 05:31 AM)cyrille de brébisson Wrote:  With regard to the uppser vs lowercase stuff.
first, most home commands work both in lower and upper case... but, for historical reasons (38, 48...) they are written in uppercase...
Second, if allows to distinguish CAS specific functions from others...
Third, functions that are common to CAS and home and do not have different meaning will normally be uppercase even in the CAS. This is also for historical reason comming from the first HP 39GII+ (which used the CAS in home, slightly disguised).

Cyrille

Thanks for explaining that Cyrille; the history helps to explain how it evolved...

It seems it would have been more clear (and certainly easier to understand when looking at code later) to have required and used:

In HOME: "CAS.Function_Name" when needing a CAS-specific function
In CAS: "HOME.Function_Name" when needing a HOME-specific function
In CAS & HOME: "Function_Name" if it is truly a common function

But this may not have been possible since the CAS code (and presumably it's parser) comes from Parisse already built.

The Prime has such a huge vocabulary, and sooo many functions, it's simply not feasible (IMHO) to recall which functions behave which way, and so forcing the user to consider (or possibly even look-up) which is correct to use in each mode would make it less confusing. Of course, the built-in Help is useful for this, but when looking-up "MAGIC_FN", it does not always suggest "magic_fn" is also available and could in fact be what you wanted.

I don't mean to whine, but I'm caught in a vicious cycle: I don't use the Prime often (ignoring the issue of I also don't need most of what it can do) because it's confusing to me and so I don't become accustomed to the quirks such as discussed above when I try to use it, so I stop using it in frustration, and then the cycle repeats.

But I suspect this could be a bit like when first learning RPN, having used Algebraic machines. You can't go back and forth between Algebraic and RPN while learning it, you need to just make a cold change to the new one and force yourself to learn it. I recall this adventure in a Freshman Physics class in college. I suppose the key difference is I was 18 then, didn't have 40+ years experience using prior systems, and now no longer need to pass Physics.

Thanks again.

--Bob Prosperi
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Messages In This Thread
IFTE odd behaviour - BruceH - 10-11-2019, 10:55 AM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - Tim Wessman - 10-11-2019, 11:09 AM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - rprosperi - 10-11-2019, 05:36 PM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - rprosperi - 10-12-2019, 01:40 PM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - Carsen - 10-12-2019, 06:41 PM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - rprosperi - 10-12-2019, 10:49 PM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - BruceH - 10-11-2019, 06:18 PM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - Tim Wessman - 10-11-2019, 12:32 PM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - ijabbott - 10-11-2019, 04:36 PM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - Claudio L. - 10-11-2019, 08:36 PM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - David Hayden - 10-11-2019, 08:52 PM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - Albert Chan - 10-11-2019, 09:09 PM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - Wes Loewer - 10-12-2019, 06:38 AM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - John Keith - 10-12-2019, 11:41 AM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - StephenG1CMZ - 10-12-2019, 08:26 AM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - Wes Loewer - 10-12-2019, 11:00 AM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - Wes Loewer - 10-12-2019, 11:46 AM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - John Keith - 10-12-2019, 11:50 AM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - rprosperi - 10-16-2019 04:25 PM
RE: IFTE odd behaviour - rprosperi - 10-17-2019, 03:29 PM



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