HP41CL Extreme Functions Install

[Monte Dalrymple]

(08-29-2019 02:16 PM)burkhard Wrote:  Hmmm... Has any thought ever been given to just deprecating YFNZ and making YFNX the default?

I ask because I find the juggling mentioned above a bit of a hassle (and confusing for beginners) when I need to do it.

It seems that just about anybody wanting to do a 41CL would want the full YFNX (which some of ÁM's module require) anyhow. Aren't we all starting things up on YFNZ and then immediately replacing with YFNX? Why have YFNZ at all anymore?

Also, the UI for YFNX (e.g. having prompts for a single PLUG command instead of PLUG1L, PLUG1H, &c.) is a lot nicer also. Those times when I am back in YFNZ (briefly) I am always lamenting the different command syntax.

Rest assured, no complaints here, just trying to give a non-superuser's perspective on how things might (maybe, perhaps) be improved and simplified a bit for beginners without giving up any power.

Thanks again Monte and collaborators for the great product!

YFNZ is a 4k image in the OS sector. It will always be available, even if you manage to erase the rest of the Flash contents. YFNX requires 8k. While it would be possible to replace the YFNZ image (plus one other) in the OS sector, I don't really want to do that because of all the side effects. Documentation, returned boards because the update of the OS sector went wrong, two separate versions of YFNX because the location of YLIB is hard-coded in the image, to name a few.

I recognize that YFNZ is sub-optimal. It was my very first attempt at mcode, and there are a number of things that I should have done differently. That said, it does all that it needs to for beginners with the 41CL, while protecting them somewhat from inadvertent mistakes. With YFNX there is both more and less protection. For example, with YFNZ you cannot write to Flash without some involved steps. With YFNX you can directly poke bytes into Flash if you want. But YFNX still protects the OS sector of Flash as much as possible. It's a trade-off. Given my experiences with first-time users, I think that limiting them to YFNZ at the start is still the best choice. (But I could be wrong.)

Monte