DM42

[MDBarrett88]

Hope it's not too late to jump in, but I had a thought about the DM42 that I'd like to share. If I understand correctly from the images/teasers posted earlier in this thread, this device will have an extra 6 buttons dedicated to soft menus. The way I see it, it would be a shame to not utilize them to cram more functionality into this calculator. I propose adding shifted functions to this top row of keys. My idea is to add all the functionality of the HP 17BII to the DM42 in order to give it all the functionality that the Pioneer series has to offer. Dedicate a shifted key to each of the items in the 17BII Main Menu: "FIN", "BUS", "SUM", " TIME", and "SOLVE". Let me go through these.

• FIN: This option leads to a menu of financial features, including time value of money, interest conversion, cash flow calculations, bond valuation and depreciation.
• BUS: This menu helps perform business calculations like % markup and whatnot. I'll admit that this is not the most important menu, as most calculations could be pretty easily figured without this menu.
• SUM: the 42S already has a pretty healthy stats menu, but the sum menu in the 17BII could add the ability to name, save, edit and load lists pretty easily. I think these functions would be worth adding one way or another.
• TIME: if the DM42 is going to have time functionalities (and I hope it does), I think a time menu would be a good place to put them.
• SOLVE: I know that the 42S already has a solver, but it requires the equation to be entered as a program, and must evaluate to 0. On the 17BII, in this menu, equations can be entered in directly, not necessarily having to equal zero, and variables can be solved for.
  

For more info on these menus in the 17BII, the manual for the 17BII+ is on HP's website, and describes these. If I'm making a wish list of what I would like to see in this calculator, I would add a few things to the base functionality of the 17BII. For instance, on the 17BII, in the SUM menu, lists can be of only one variable, and it would be nice to allow lists of 2 variables. Also, why limit the SOLVE menu to being only able to evaluate variables? I would like to see it with the ability to evaluate numerical integrals of stored equations. I would also rename it form SOLVE to EQN, to avoid confusion with the existing SOLVER menu.
To allow for these functions, accommodations would need to also be made in the PRINT and CLEAR menus of the DM42. PRINT would need to include REGS and TIME options, and CLEAR would need options to clear anything that these menus introduce, such as an option to clear the time value of money menu. Adding these options, and these menus, would make the DM42 a functional superset of the 42S and the 17BII, incorporating some of the best that the Pioneer series has to offer.
Some final thoughts:
You cannot access shifted functions on the soft menu keys when there are soft menus open on the 42S, so maybe make them behave as on the 50g, where you need to hold the shift key and press the function key to access the shifted function.
Another neat feature on a Pioneer is the the 32SII's decimal point fraction functionality. That may be a nice thing to include.
I do realize that the people at SwissMicros are already hard at work on finishing the hardware, and that the free42 project already has a list of priorities. I am not making demands, rather some suggestions and humble requests.
TL;DR: I think the DM42 could include functions not only from the 42S, but also the 17BII.
If you have been keeping track, I have only utilized 5 of the 6 top buttons. What would be a good thing to include on the last one? What do you all think of giving a scientific calculator financial functions? Would you do anything different? What? Any other thoughts?