A Free42 (and HP42S) tricky question

[Valentin Albillo]

(09-26-2020 01:34 AM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  

(09-26-2020 12:01 AM)Valentin Albillo Wrote:  As EDIT is obviously intended to give the user the opportunity to do something, namely either enter data or review data, it clearly belongs to that class of instructions and thus should also stop execution momentarily as they do, that much is obvious to anyone. Having EDIT continue program execution is abnormal and serves no useful purpose.

I disagree. I do, in fact, use EDIT or EDITN programmatically sometimes. For example, to create a 2x2 matrix populated with the numbers 1..4:

I agree with that possibility you mention, i.e.: programmatically filling up a matrix, but when having the user manually entering the matrix elements, EDIT should really stop program execution while the user does it, not to go on willy-nilly with the following steps.

That's why I suggested the possibility of having that behavior depend on a system flag:

      - You want to fill up the matrix programmatically without stopping program execution ? Let the flag clear.

      - You want to let the user manually enter the elements while the program waits ? Set the flag.

No incompatibilities nor side effects and functionality is enhanced with minimal effort & cost.

Quote:Of course you could also use INDEX, J+, and STOEL to achieve the same result, but using EDIT/EDITN and → can be more convenient.

No need to use two steps after INDEX (i.e: J+, STOEL), the single step → works as well in that case, without having to use EDIT at all.

Thanks, have a nice weekend and best regards.

(P.S.: I'm right now checking and documenting a relatively short (~120 steps) but advanced program for the HP42S to implement a much-needed functionality widely used in real-life Engineering and Science, using your awesome Free42 to do the development and the checking, and I'm awed at the accuracy and unbelievably fast execution times I'm getting with the Decimal version (the Binary one should be about 3x faster !).)

V.