Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!uunet!coplex!disk!corpane!herman
From: herman@corpane.uucp (Harry Herman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: some more 48SX questions
Message-ID: <1991Apr27.221856.5115@corpane.uucp>
Date: 27 Apr 91 22:18:56 GMT
References: <6723@acorn.co.uk>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Corpane Industries Inc.
Lines: 87

In <6723@acorn.co.uk> asmith@acorn.co.uk (Andy Smith) writes:

>Thanks for the help with my previous questions. I am really pleased to find
>there are so may enthusiasts like me.

>I am still unsure about the 48SX. Yes its faster and expandable etc, but
>these will only be useful to me for hobby type work to start with. 

>One of the things I use most is the base conversions, but I could not find
>these on the 48. Are they as easy to access on the 48 as they are on the 28?

They are located in TWO different locations.  One is one the 3rd or 4th
screen of the MODES menu, and the other is on the first screen of the MATH
BASE menu.

>As I like to keep my display tidy, I make frequent use of the DROP key on
>the 28. This has been moved to a shifted position on the 48. Why? Can the
>DEL key take on the functionality of the DROP key?

No.  However, HP makes it easy to use the DROP and SWAP keys without having
to shift them.   If you have no command line in progress, press the key
with DROP or SWAP over it, without typing the left-shift key, and they do
the left-shift function.  Also, pressing the up-arrow key with no command
line in progress puts you in the stack scroll mode, which allows you to
scroll through the WHOLE stack (not just the 4 visible lines), and also
allows you to edit or PICK or ROLL or ROLLD the current item without having
to remember the level number and then get out of scroll mode and then
type the appropriate n PICK or n ROLL or n ROLLD.  And pressing the down
arrow key with no command line in progress will let you edit the object
on level 1 of the stack instead of having to type left-shift EDIT.

Also, when entering programs, the DUP command is not present on the keyboard.
So, to enable you to enter DUPs without having to go to the PRG STACK menu
every time you want to DUP, you can press either left-shift ENTER or
right-shift ENTER.  They both work.  Unfortunately, I have never seen this
in the manuals, I just discovered by accident one day.

>The brackets do not seem to be split on the 48 keyboard. How do you get
>nested brackets??

When you press the [], {}, "", (), or <<>> keys, the HP48 automatically
puts a blank in between the symbols (eg. [ ]) and positions the cursor
BEFORE the closing symbol.  Since you are normally in INSERT mode, pressing
the key again inserts another set inside the first set, etc.

>How do you get lower case letters?

To enter one lower case letter, type alpha (unless the alpha indicator is
already lit at the top of the screen) and then type left-shift and then
the letter you want.  If you have alpha-lock in effect (you pressed
alpha twice, or are using a command that already activated the alpha-lock
feature) and you want to enter several lower case letters, then type
left-shift alpha.  This locks alpha-lock in lower case mode until
left-shift alpha is pressed again, or the entry mode is exitted with ENTER
or ATTN.

>Anyone know anything about issue F

>Answers to any of these questions and also any views from those who have
>moved from a 28S to a 48SX already would be very welcome.

I had an HP28C and and HP28S when the HP48SX came out.  I got my company
to purchase the HP48SX for me just for the unit math capabilities and
the fact that non-RPL people could use the equation writer for entering
equations and because I could back the calculator up to a PC with the
built-in serial interface and KERMIT.  

After using the HP48SX for a few days, I found it harder
and harder to use the HP28s, so I finally broke down and bought myself
an HP48SX just to use at home!  Today I saw a note in this conference
from somebody with an HP28S that wants to rename a directory on the
HP28SX w/o moving all the variables one variable at a time.  I got my
HP28S out, and was so lost with it that I had to give up.  On the HP48SX,
doing that is trivial since you can recall whole directories to the stack,
but the HP28S does not let you do that.  There are so many things that
are easier on the HP48 than on the HP28, that I would probably have to
get the HP28 manual out in order to do much of anything with it again.

>Thanks in advance,

>Andy
> 

You are welcome.

				Harry Herman
				herman@ukma!corpane