Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!darkstar!ucscb.UCSC.EDU!funkstr
From: funkstr@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Larry Hastings)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Howzabout _proper_ fractions on the HP 48sx?
Summary: answered my own question -- but please still answer my other two!
Keywords: I _hate_ it when I do this!
Message-ID: <10472@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Date: 30 Dec 90 09:50:49 GMT
References: <10469@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Sender: usenet@darkstar.ucsc.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: Knowledge Dynamics Corporation
Lines: 38


+-In article <10469@darkstar.ucsc.edu>, I wrote (asked):
|
| [ The HP 48sx will convert any ]
| number into a best-approximation fraction (or just about) using the ->Q
| command.  However, if the original number was greater than 1 (or less than -1)
| the fraction it generates is _always_ improper.
| [ Could someone write an HP 48sx program to generate proper fractions? ]
+----------

I'd been hesitating posting this for a week, and I finally went and posted
it -- and mere hours later, I figure out the answer all on my own.

In case you're wondering, this is it:
<< DUP IP SWAP FP ->Q + >>

(The trick being that a "algebraic object" 'foo' plus a number X comes out
as 'foo+X' -- and if you reverse X and 'foo' on the stack, you get 'X+foo'.)

However, I'd still appreciate an answer to my other two questions:

+----------
| 	1) what ->ASC is and why I need it (I do a lot of up/downloading
| 	   to/from my HP 48sx and haven't needed it yet, it seems)
| 	2) how to conveniently use the "UP" command that someone wrote (the
| 	   one that lets you go "up" the built-in menus)
+----------

(On #2, I've been thinking that I may just put it someplace convenient on
the "user mode" layout, and just never leave user mode... after all, I never
use SIN, COS, or TAN... but that may just be too silly.)

--
larry hastings, the galactic funkster, funkstr@ucscb.ucsc.edu

I don't speak for Knowledge Dynamics or UC Santa Cruz, nor do they speak for me

"Roar, I say, ROAR!" --Foghorn Leghorn (as a fire-breathing dragon), Tiny Toons