[Off-topic] HP Prime is for students... What about professionals?

[Tim Wessman]

(08-28-2017 12:07 PM)Morten Pors Wrote:  HP should just add the directory/file system similar to the 48-49-50 series calculators.

I would beg to differ that the "directory/file system" on the 48s was anything such.

'Directories' in the 48 are binary objects. They were not a generic file system. Nor would doing something like putting an item into the "hidden" directory work out very well if you did it wrong (wipe your memory).

In addition, ports of different rules, libraries with read only data, "directories" not working from the SD card, and similar behaviors existed. There wasn't a "generic" directory/file system on those units. It just pretended to be one from a casual look. In reality, it was a very limited system with many strange behaviors.

One decision they made was the "look upwards through the directories to find something". Could you image that on a computer or phone and the havoc it would cause?


I think the more important question is "what is the real thing you want directories for?" and figure out how to make that work in a device that DOES utilize a real filesystem and generic directories like Prime. You can directly modify and work with a folder on the computer and drop it into the Prime copying generic data of any kind (pngs, txt, etc) and have access to them. That is something that was never possible on the 48. What we have limited is the ability to get in an browse/modify the main directory directly on the device because we do not have answers to the following questions yet.

Lets say you have access to generic data/directories in any location in the Prime. You make something called "myvar" and store it. Is that a variable? Is it a file? How should it be treated when the user types in "myvar"? Should it be cached to allow quick access? Should it be read from disk each time? What if the user modifies the binary data, or changes it to be something else?


Most of the discussion I've had with users regarding "i want directories and files" generally returns to one of these OTHER things that really aren't related to that, but a general complaint:

1. I want to be able to type in generic things and have them recognized as variables. (I agree the system is problematic in this way for this specific type of use case and needs improvement. Switching everything so all program and syntax errors are caught after executiong ala 48 though isn't an improvement. There are plenty of steps that can be taken first that will greatly improve things and you may end up liking better)
2. They want to have a menu system with variables accessed on the lower part of the screen. (nothing to do with directory/files, more a ui thing)
3. They want RPN equal to the 48. (Hey, i get this. Wish I could do it. The CAS probably couldn't possibly support RPN which would leave a huge gap in the implementation)


So I really am very interested in the discussion here to discover what the real, root desire is and how it can possibly be implemented. Unfortunately, there really isn't a simple solution that sweeps all the problems away that I've been able to see yet.