50g

Guy Teague wrote:

> can't tell you how much i appreciate you taking the time to do this dave. if
> you write a book you'll have at least one sale assured. i'll send a deposit!

When I first got my HP-49G+, I had no idea of how to do these things.
So I started lurking on Usenet in the comp.sys.hp48 group. The people
there are (for the most part) very knowledgeable, and are very willing
share that knowledge, although of course you have to put up with a small
amount of the usual Usenet hooey, trolls and such, who are less
prevalent than in other groups but not entirely absent. I read that
group, played with the calc (which is essential), and printed and read
the most important docs, which are the User Manual and Advanced User
Reference. Now, my knowledge is tiny beside some of the others,
particularly the regulars on comp.sys.hp48, but I know enough to be
helpful here, and my enthusiasm hasn't run out yet, so I can help...

<snip>

> i even went one step further and assigned the system filer to the held key
> and filer6 to the 'leftshift files' key since i much prefer filer6 but want
> to have the original around. now i'll just have to remember that 'usr' icon
> since i've never paid any attention to it previously. i guess the trigger
> will be that i'll get the system filer instead of filer6 if its not set.

In my case, Filer6 is assigned to the regular key, and if I want the
regular Filer, I could just unset user mode. (I have a program called
FMAN.BIN assigned to the held key, but I shouldn't really have done
that, since I use it so rarely.)

<snip>

> speaking of making it easy for the user, the most useful app i found in my
> digging was called 'formo' by dante camargo who is so good a programmer that
> even his spanish-only programs such as 'recta' and 'libkit' are easier to
> use than 99% of the english language programs. and i don't speak a word of
> spanish.

(goes and looks) Yes, that does seem like a very useful piece of
software, and quite "easy to learn". I myself don't like it much as it
stands, since it doesn't really behave like a "normal" HP program, and
provides far too much "help" I don't really want. It's also reliant on
changing the state of several flags, which it leaves changed when I use
the standard ON key to cancel out of it.

> anyway, since i'll be using formo constantly, i resent having to dig into
> the library for it, especially since i have yet to find a way to safely and
> easily rearrange the items in the library directory in order to anchor it as
> the first selection. that's why i was hoping i could use appman to put this
> program into the apps list. (btw: thought i'd mention that utool installs
> itself into apps automatically, the only app i've yet installed that did
> that).

Well, you could in fact use APPMAN for that. Or you could assign it to
a key.

> so how do i address a library file whose executable is down one directory
> and execute it from an assignable key or my custom menu? i suppose i would
> have to include a 'chdir' command in the eval statement perhaps? but i'm
> even having trouble determining the exact name of the actual executable
> considering the 5-char truncation.

You're correct, essentially. I'll go stick FORMO in my calc in my
HOME/Misc directory... Hmm, it's a library, and therefore doesn't
really belong there. Instead, I'll put it in my Flash memory, port 2.
I'll just use Filer6 to move it to Flash, done. I reboot using ON-C to
automatically attach it. I press the CAT key (RS-SYMB), then ALPHA-F,
and scroll down to see that the command is FORMOS. OK. So, I can make
a program << FORMOS >> to attach to a key. What key? Maybe the EQW
key, with the RS held? That currently makes a set of tickmarks I don't
use much, so it seems reasonable. OK, row 4, col 3, held RS, so that's
43.31, then ASN. Done.

To execute a program for deeper within your directory structure, you
could make a program like this:

<< PUSH HOME Misc FMAN.BIN EVAL POP >>

PUSH saves a copy of the current flags and directory.

HOME changes to the HOME directory.

Misc changes to the Misc subdirectory, if you have one, and you are in HOME.

FMAN.BIN EVAL executes FMAN.BIN.

POP restores the saved flags and directory from the previous PUSH, so we
go back to where we were before changing to HOME/Misc.

I can also type PUSH, and then modify my STARTUP program to say << POP
PUSH >>, so that whenever I start my calc it puts my flags back the way
I had them before the previous PUSH.


--
Dave Boyd
"If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall
like a house of cards. Checkmate." -Capt. Zapp Brannigan, D.O.O.P.