WP 34S and 31S bugs and fixes

[Nigel (UK)]

(12-06-2014 08:44 PM)Bit Wrote:  

(12-06-2014 05:13 PM)walter b Wrote:  With respect to pretty fraction entry: I can reproduce that the last digit of the denominator in your example isn't displayed correctly. I must admit I don't like the overflowing in the exponent section at all. I don't know when this was introduced. IMHO, if anything shall overflow it shall be handled as described in the manual, top of p. 85. If that's not viable, I'd rely on the intelligence of the user not entering too long fractions (an error is thrown in build 3697 if you try entering one digit more).

Hopefully I'll receive the printed manual soon but it hasn't arrived yet. Could you please quote the relevant sentence or refer to the manual that's publicly available?

I'm sure this digit overflow business can be handled in any way you like without a significant increase in code size, so once I receive the information about what exactly should happen, I'll create a patch.

(12-06-2014 05:13 PM)walter b Wrote:  With respect to your latest post:
1) 1e-383 is the smallest number that shall be allowed to enter directly (cf. p. 276). 1e-384 must not be a legal entry.

Again, it'd be really helpful, perhaps also for others who might be reading this thread, if you could quote publicly available documentation.

In the current official builds 1e-384 is a legal entry as long as you type it as such: [EEX] [3] [8] [4] [+/-]
What would you like to happen when the [+/-] key is pressed?

Here are some thoughts from a user:

As a general principle, I'd like things to stay consistent with the manual unless the change fixes a bug. Any significant changes that find their way into the default build need to be clearly documented.

In the default build, 0.00123e-383 (for example), when entered, displays as 1.23e-386. Checking for numbers being too small or large once the command line has been processed might be easier than trying to prevent their entry, and would allow a consistent approach. Speaking for myself, not being permitted to enter 1.23e-386 directly has never been a source of frustration. In fact I rather enjoyed finding a way around the input restriction, but I accept that consistency is to be desired.

Finally: I'm really grateful for the effort that bit is putting into "torture testing" the WP34S firmware. Thank you!

Nigel (UK)