WP 34S --> WP 31S

[Manolo Sobrino]

WP 31S^\mu layout mod:

I didn't want to change anything in the number pad, but a couple of (secondary, of course ) keys had to be swapped to minimise mouse/finger travel with f-CONST and CONV-back to arrows. I think it's not as logical as my first layout, but that and the fact that it has less visual clutter and groups non modal menu keys in two adjacent rows in the bigger keys is worth it as well.

Now, a bit of explanation for swapping the rows. First, this is a non programmable scientific. In my experience, square, root square, logs and exponential function keys are much much more frequently used than trigs (experimental/basic stuff Nuclear Physics conditioning), so I prefer having them the closer the better: this calc looks like a number cruncher workhorse to me. Other calcs have trigs on top, and only Sharp do exactly this, I think they're spot on. A nice consequence too is that the inverse key gets closer to the arithmetic keys. Save for the secondary key slots of STO/RCL, that now can live elsewhere, the original arrays of the WP31S are perfect(*). I only changed LG to LOG10 (with subscript 10), because it's the standard notation, and if you do superscripts you can do subscripts as well (and yeah, "Life's Good" slogan pops in my head too often with LG).

There are IMO other aesthetic benefits: you don't have that line of keys with mostly text in the middle of the calculator that acts as a visual fence any more, and the Pi key looks nice under the screen. It stands out and you're proud of it: A scientific calculator keen on Maths at last!

In an RPN just scientific like this STO/RCL won't be used (that) often, so it makes sense to keep them out of the way. They have to be noticeable as they are pretty important though. I think that moving them closer to the display is nice, as you look at it just before storing a number. Their upper left positions now match the beginning of the alphabet, I think this eases the conceptual link.

And now that you don't have the STO/RCL keys so close to ENTER, you can put other things where they belong IMHO. The swap key should be the swap key for everything, and FILL makes a lot of sense as a secondary ENTER (you ENTER full-stack).

My first layout had CONV at CHS and CONST at EEX. If you didn't want to change anything at the numpad that made sense. Now that I've put them closer to the next keys you'll likely use, there are two choices for MODE/DISP and DEG/RAD:

A) The first one shares MODE/DISP position with that of my first layout, as these keys are modal I put them in the usual modal position of (other) calcs, first row corners. A control position. Then DISPLAY will be next to the screen, this makes a lot of sense. That leaves DEG RAD for CHS and EEX. Less visual clutter in the middle of the calc.

   

B) The second choice: Go back to the original WP 31S layout and the classic HP choice. Put MODE/DISP on CHS/EEX. Then DEG/RAD will go to the first row, where everything angle-related would be now. All keys with menus would be contiguous, but there would be more visual clutter.

   

I could live with any of them. Any more reasons for one or the other? The ideal scenario would be to use the emulator for a while with different layouts and see which one works best.

It would be nice that skins could change the secondary keys and letters positions, but it looks like that's not the case now. If that would be possible in the future, then Walter, if you want to add any of these modded layouts as a skin pick your favourite A/B and I'll take care of the configuration file.

To change this in firmware/emulator looks trivial, just some minimal changes to keys.c and recompile. It's a long time since I did Visual Studio, I guess I'll have to give it a go. Keep in mind that this is just a personal use mod, you don't fork a project like this for personal mods. I'll keep it orange for computer use, it might go (much?) more yellow, as discussed.

Just an emulator question: What's the point of the active BEG annunciator? I don't think this is just a beginners' calc


Here are the WP 31S in orange and in the colour scheme I mentioned in other post. The key has to be yellowish than the legends, or else it would be too subdued.


       



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(*) There's this %CH that could go away... but this is just a layout mod that wants to keep it that way. Because otherwise I would be tempted to add WP 34S number bases for BIN/HEX or formula storing capability and it wouldn't end happily.