Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!ubc-cs!fs1!ee.ubc.ca!jmorriso
From: jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca (John Paul Morrison)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Trouble with the FM set to ',' on HP48SX
Message-ID: <1990Oct9.100156@ee.ubc.ca>
Date: 9 Oct 90 17:01:56 GMT
References: <1358@dksoft.incom.de> <1990Oct6.074820.18403@santra.uucp>
Sender: root@fs1.ee.ubc.ca
Reply-To: daveg@ee.ubc.ca
Distribution: comp
Organization: UBC Electical Engineering VLSI Lab
Lines: 24

If you think about it, there really isn't any bug or anomaly with the
'.' or ','.
The same happened on my old 28s.

As far as I know, a real number in memory does not have a ',' or '.' in
it anywhere.
That is only when it is displayed. Real numbers in memory are in a form
that has no reletion to how  they are displayed. The sign bit and
exponent and mantissa are all squished in together.
But a name or string is different: If the is a ',' or '.' in a name, it
is REALLY there
(at least in ascii form). Would you like it if a string containing this
text had all its
periods and commas reversed when you flipped the flag that controls
this???

When stuff gets entered at  the command line for a name, it gets parsed
according to the flag,
so thats when the trouble pops up. but then there are lots of 'names'
which can be represented but the interpreter won't like and it will beep
at you. Names like '' and 'C++' can be created and used, but not by
conventional ways.

John Paul Morrison