Print Page - Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software

Title: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 22, 2013, 11:29:23 pm

I don't think it's a good idea to crowd up the other topic with bug reports. If we have a separate topic, we'll have a resource for bugs that have already been reported, bugs that have been fixed, features that are requested, and for people to be able to see at a glance what bugs the Prime has to make a more informed decision about what they are buying. We'll also be able to keep the "Let's hack the HP Prime" topic for discussion about hacking it.

To start it off, I'll quote a few bug lists from the aforementioned topic.

Spoiler For sailerboy:

Quote from: sailerboy on September 21, 2013, 07:00:31 pm

Quote from: timwessman on September 21, 2013, 05:45:31 pm
Quote
Also is the calc really sold with OS 0.025.5106? A version number under 1.0.0 often means it's a beta... ???

Nope. That is a common convention, but really has nothing to do with the state of things. That whole menu is for factory use and they control numbers and versions there. I honestly have no idea what they really are using there or what it is supposed to mean. I suspect it has something to do with bootloader stuff.

Quote from: iconmaster on September 21, 2013, 12:19:48 pm
some features feel incomplete

Examples please?

I'd like to add onto the incompleteness.

This certainly feels like a beta. There are certain things from a UX standpoint that don't seem to work as expected. I've screen-capped a couple of them using the connectivity software:

After trying to type the following integral in, I got the weirdest, most undescriptive error that I've ever seen on a calculator. Trying to copy/paste yielded the same result, yet retyping the function gave the correct result.
(http://i.imgur.com/f7WpvUt.png)

Trying to find the integral of any trig function (as far as I can tell, only tested it with sin/cos) yields the following message on the screen. I understand that the calculator uses taylor series to approximate an integral, but that message doesn't give me any useful information as a user, and since it requires user interaction to dismiss (it doesn't go away automatically), it is very annoying.
(http://i.imgur.com/IwyRrV4.png)

In the below picture, both the function on the top and the bottom are equivalent, but the Prime refuses to evaluate the top symbolically.
(http://i.imgur.com/qwPKctE.png)

Implicit multiplication seems to work randomly. 13x seems to work, but 13sin(x) throws yet another, even less descriptive error.
(http://i.imgur.com/mzeMZOF.png)

Other implicite multiplications that seem to not work as expected are π(10) (This returns a bad argument value error, which seems to suggest that it's intended for the Prime Counting Function, but that doesn't work as expected either.). Various other implicit multiplications either error, or do not work as expected. In the same picture, prettyprint (textbook notation?) doesn't seem to work for e. instead of typing something like e^x (or even the nicer e^x), it does exp(x)
(http://i.imgur.com/q7fS485.png)

I love the prime, and the graphing is very fast, but these are glaring errors that really take me out of the entire experience. Also, if I wanted to enclose a part of an expression in parenthesis, i have to follow these steps:

Navigate to beginning of part I want enclosed
Push () button
Push right dpad
Push backspace
Navigate to end of part I want enclosed
Push () button
Push backspace

With the Nspire, these were the steps:
Highlight part I want enclosed
Push ( or ) button

OR

Navigate to beginning of part I want enclosed
Push ( button
Navigate to end
Push ) button

Finally, if I make an error in my input (forget the dx for the integral, forget to square something properly, etc), the calculator doesn't allow me to fix it, it reformats the function in some random way, and then throws up an error.

I'm trying really hard not to compare this to my Nspire from a UX point of view, since I recognize the need to differentiate from one's competitors, and a direct copy would be boring, but when these UX decisions affect the usability of the calculator, it gets annoying.

Spoiler For iconmaster:

Spoiler For critor:

Spoiler For DJ Omnimaga:

Spoiler For iconmaster:

Spoiler For sailerboy:

Spoiler For iconmaster:

Spoiler For DJ Omnimaga:

Spoiler For iconmaster:

Updated on September 22nd, feel free to post here if you don't see your bug/feature request in the list. Spoilers for ease of use.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 23, 2013, 12:22:06 am

Bug 1:

Code: [Select]

WHILE 1 DO
FOR X FROM 0 TO 320 DO
FOR Y FROM 0 TO 240 DO
GETPIX_P(X,Y)▶P;
RECT_P(X-INT(.05*Y),Y-INT(.05*X),X-INT(.05*Y),Y-INT(.05*X),P,P);
END;
END;
END;

After running this program once and letting it loop through the While at least once, the next time you run it you will get an argument error until rebooting the emulator. In certain cases, the argument error will occur even if you didn't let the While loop go on at least once. Also, this causes the Tunnel game to stop working.

Bug 2:

Code: [Select]

DIMGROB_P(G1,120,48,RGB(255,0,0,128));
TEXTOUT_P("HELLO",G1,0,0,7);
FOR Z FROM 1 TO 800 DO
RECT_P(RGB(Z/4,Z/4,255));
BLIT_P(G0,0,0,Z,Z,G1,0,0,10,8,RGB(255,255,255,128));
WAIT(0.03);
END;

If you run this program then quit with ON, on the screen saying the error user aborted message, if you click the LCD, then press a key and land on a different screen, if you decide to go back to the program list screen, pressing the arrows will no longer move the selection around (although it will still let you choose a different program. you just won't see what you have selected).

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on September 23, 2013, 07:05:01 am

Here's a bug: When the calculator is in the Dark GUI setting, the labels created in the Numeric view of the Geometry app appear behind the Light GUI's background.

(http://i.imgur.com/vAsbbtJ.png)

Another one: In the emulator, the ? prefix in the CAS is a synonym for xcas's findhelp function, which does nothing on the calc. In the physical calculator, however, using it causes a crash.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 23, 2013, 11:01:54 am

I know that this has been said over and over again, but I'll say it again here:

The screen's got multi-touch. Why don't we have pinch to zoom on the graph? Or we could do taps too, two fingers for zoom in, 3 fingers for zoom out. it's just intuitive to have a touchscreen and to be able to pinch to zoom.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Keoni29 on September 23, 2013, 11:05:31 am

Is there a smooth zooming feature already? If so it would be quite easy to implement this too.

Title: Re: Re: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 23, 2013, 11:43:55 am

Quote from: sailerboy on September 23, 2013, 11:01:54 am

I know that this has been said over and over again, but I'll say it again here:

The screen's got multi-touch. Why don't we have pinch to zoom on the graph? Or we could do taps too, two fingers for zoom in, 3 fingers for zoom out. it's just intuitive to have a touchscreen and to be able to pinch to zoom.

yeah it was one of the main complaint in TI-Planet review of the calc a few months ago. The multi touch is not developed enough yet :(

I would prefer two fingers to zoom out, though, much like on phones.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on September 23, 2013, 03:40:57 pm

Another bug. This time, it's with units. I think the image says it all:

(http://i.imgur.com/aBWBOAb.png)

And another suggestion, this time with the Views key. Okay, so we have Numeric, Plot and Symbolic views, right? Well, we have two different uses of the term view: One, in the 3 basic screens, and another in how these screens can be looked at. This is needlessly confusing terminology. Maybe if the Views key lived up to its name by displaying all the available views, including the views you can get with the current Views key. So, for example, the Function app Views menu would look like this:

Symbolic View
Plot View: Autoscale
Plot View: Decimal
Plot View: Integer
Plot View: Trig
Numeric View
Split View: Plot/Plot
Split View: Plot/Numeric

Or maybe those 'plot view' and 'split view' menus could be sub-menus. I don't know, you're the HP official here Tim.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Sorunome on September 23, 2013, 03:45:39 pm

well, it is correct, isn't it? It might be a wierd way to right m/s down, but it is correct, right? :P

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on September 24, 2013, 11:08:12 am

Quote from: iconmaster on September 23, 2013, 03:40:57 pm

Another bug. This time, it's with units. I think the image says it all:
(http://i.imgur.com/aBWBOAb.png)

Yes, that is something that I'm not a fan of either. There is a very good technical reason at a low level for it, and the only way to get around it is kind of a hack. Still, I've logged it.

Quote

Or maybe those 'plot view' and 'split view' menus could be sub-menus. I don't know, you're the HP official here Tim.

The key really is for user created views, and saved "special" views instead of the main 7. However, I do see the confusion. Perhaps sticking them into a submenu and leave the top level ones that are accessable with a single keypress could aleviate that some. In actual use, those special views get used primarily as a quick way to autoscale, or set a specific graph setting in most cases.

Thank you everyone for comments/changes sent along. I've logged these for review.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Streetwalrus on September 24, 2013, 12:58:37 pm

Quote from: Sorunome on September 23, 2013, 03:45:39 pm

well, it is correct, isn't it? It might be a wierd way to right m/s down, but it is correct, right? :P

If you're taking about the second one then over here it's the normal way to write it for scientists.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on September 24, 2013, 03:36:09 pm

This one's more a suggestion than a bug: Despite being in CAS mode, using the Define box only creates 'normal' functions, not xcas ones.

Another bug: This program errors with "Invalid input" when I hit ENTER, yet works fine in debug mode:

Code: [Select]

EXPORT CURSOR()
BEGIN
LOCAL X,Y,K,C,P;
0▶X;0▶Y;0▶P;
WHILE 1 DO
 //WAIT()▶K;
 WAIT(.05);
 IF ISKEYDOWN(4) THEN
  RETURN {X,Y}; 
 END;
 IF ISKEYDOWN(2) THEN
  GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C;
  BITNOT(C)▶C;
  PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C);
  Y-1▶Y;
  GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C;
  BITNOT(C)▶C;
  PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C);
 END;
 IF ISKEYDOWN(12) THEN
  GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C;
  BITNOT(C)▶C;
  PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C);
  Y+1▶Y;
  GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C;
  BITNOT(C)▶C;
  PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C);
 END;
 IF ISKEYDOWN(7) THEN
  GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C;
  BITNOT(C)▶C;
  PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C);
  X-1▶X;
  GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C;
  BITNOT(C)▶C;
  PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C);
 END;
 IF ISKEYDOWN(8) THEN
  GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C;
  BITNOT(C)▶C;
  PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C);
  X+1▶X;
  GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C;
  BITNOT(C)▶C;
  PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C); 
 END;
 IF ISKEYDOWN(30) THEN
  REPEAT
   MOUSE()▶P;
   P[1]▶P; 
  UNTIL P[5]==#1;
  B→R(P[1])▶X;
  B→R(P[2])▶Y; 
 END; 
 END; 
END;
END;

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 25, 2013, 09:45:10 am

Another thing was, how the heck are you supposed to take a derivative? Whatever way it was coded is definitely not intuitive.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on September 25, 2013, 03:08:31 pm

Quote from: sailerboy on September 25, 2013, 09:45:10 am

Another thing was, how the heck are you supposed to take a derivative? Whatever way it was coded is definitely not intuitive.

You've lost me on this one. There are 3 quite easy ways. Press CAS to switch to symbolic mode, open the template, select the d<box>/d<box> template, type it in. Or else type diff(func, var), or just sin(x)'

Are you in the HOME screen? If so, you are probably using X which is a predefined real number, instead of 'x' which would be a symbolic object with no definition.

In home d(sin(X),X=<num>) would let you do a numerical at a specific point.

Oh, and last edit... did you try selecting the "differentiate" from the CAS->calculus and clicking the HELP key. That would pop up more info.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on September 25, 2013, 03:38:25 pm

Today's bug: Okay, this one's really hard to describe, as it's apparently non-deterministic. It's similar to DJ_O's issues. At some point in time, SUBGROB and DIMGROB just started failing to work. They were working as documented earlier; now they just give me an 'invalid input' error whenever I try to use them. In one case, the use of SUBGROB, instead of giving an error, just stopped program execution dead and returned immediately, inside an infinite loop no less! Debugging them is even worse. Sometimes when going over one of the error statements in the debugger, the calculator will just crash, but not all the time.

Today's suggestion: It's about debugging. When you hit 'Cont' on the debugger, it just goes along like normal. If there's an error, it gives the message as usual, but the error's almost useless as no line of code is pointed to. Getting the line of errors is the point of debugging! Maybe if Cont just stepped through really quickly instead of just running the program as usual, we could get the line of the errors without pressing 'Step' a lot or setting up a lot of breakpoints.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: SpiroH on September 25, 2013, 04:39:46 pm

Quote from: iconmaster on September 25, 2013, 03:38:25 pm

... Debugging them is even worse. Sometimes when going over one of the error statements in the debugger, the calculator will just crash, but not all the time.

What sort of debugger is it? What type of system state info does it provide? Any chance of screenies? BTW, I like the crash sound! ;)

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 25, 2013, 04:55:57 pm

Yeah I noticed that iconmaster. I never really used a debugger before, though, so I didn't understood why it went so quickly through the code without letting me know where the error is.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 25, 2013, 07:23:58 pm

Quote from: timwessman on September 25, 2013, 03:08:31 pm

Quote from: sailerboy on September 25, 2013, 09:45:10 am
Another thing was, how the heck are you supposed to take a derivative? Whatever way it was coded is definitely not intuitive.

You've lost me on this one. There are 3 quite easy ways. Press CAS to switch to symbolic mode, open the template, select the d<box>/d<box> template, type it in. Or else type diff(func, var), or just sin(x)'

Are you in the HOME screen? If so, you are probably using X which is a predefined real number, instead of 'x' which would be a symbolic object with no definition.

In home d(sin(X),X=<num>) would let you do a numerical at a specific point.

Oh, and last edit... did you try selecting the "differentiate" from the CAS->calculus and clicking the HELP key. That would pop up more info.

This was a result of me being with TI for so long, I've gotta admit.

However, in the template, I only see the notation for a partial derivatives, which is not something I was used to. I didn't see the d<box>/d<box> thing that you're thinking of, just this: ∂<box>/∂<box> I'll upload a picture of that screen just to make sure that I'm in the right place when I get home.

Trying to type the ' without typing degrees first was challenging. I could use the diff notation (and actually, I forgot about it), but it comes up so much I was hoping for a shortcut like the integral.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on September 26, 2013, 12:04:42 am

Quote from: sailerboy on September 25, 2013, 07:23:58 pm

However, in the template, I only see the notation for a partial derivatives, which is not something I was used to.

Out of curiosity, where in the world approximately are you from (USA here)? I personally prefer the d/dx*(expr) syntax myself and used it most frequently, but apparently the majority of the world uses the d()/dx syntax much more frequently (at least from the studies we've done).

Quote

∂<box>/∂<box>

Yes, that is the right one. Just lazyness on my part to avoid searching out a ∂ character while typing. :-)

Quote

Trying to type the ' without typing degrees first was challenging.

There are two quick places. First, the shift parenthesis key has a '<box>' on it. This is used to quote (not evaluate) arguments. Mainly, it is applicable for RPN use. You can just remove one of those and you have a single tic mark. Second, the quick character key on the shift-9 function has a tic mark there as well.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 26, 2013, 12:11:33 am

Not really a bug, but did you ever have plans to add a mode in the emulator that makes its speed identical (with no exception) to the real calculator (kinda like WabbitEmu for TI calcs)? The issue is that if people use the emulator to develop programs that are dependent on a specific speed, we have to send them on the real calc over and over because the emulator speed is misleading.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 26, 2013, 12:16:38 am

Quote from: timwessman on September 26, 2013, 12:04:42 am

Quote from: sailerboy on September 25, 2013, 07:23:58 pm
However, in the template, I only see the notation for a partial derivatives, which is not something I was used to.

Out of curiosity, where in the world approximately are you from? I personally prefer the d/dx*() syntax (USA here), but apparently the majority of the world uses the d()/dx syntax much more frequently (at least from the studies we've done).

I'm from the good ole US of A (California if you want to be precise). I've only ever learned the d/dx*() syntax. I've certainly never seen the ∂ character before. When I looked it up on wikipedia (by searching for "upside down 6"), I got this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_derivative

This notation for partial derivatives were certainly not something I've ever seen in math class before, and at first glance, the notation confused me. I'm currently a math minor in university, and I've taken several upper division math classes, and though I've seen the concept of partial derivatives (that's a Calc 1 topic IIRC), I've never seen that notation before.

Would it be hard to, on startup, ask the user's locale? Say, American English vs British English vs Australian English all have their own quirks, and while the differences would be minor, it would prevent confusion like this.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Adriweb on September 26, 2013, 02:12:33 am

Delta is a quite well-used greek letter used in almost any science topic, though (math, physics, chemistry...)

Thats what sad with US education, I guess :(

(I can actually judge since I've spent one year there (senior year in HS, with an AP Calculus class), and did the rest of my scolarity in France)

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 26, 2013, 02:48:39 am

The problem with USA is that they still use the English system (eg miles, Farheneit, pounds) instead of the metric system (km, Celsius, kilograms) that is used almost everywhere else. However, since USA is by far the largest developed market, it can't be ignored, so you pretty much have to let user choose the syntax. That said, it isn't always possible, so sometimes US people have to adapt to standards, I guess.

Even in Canada there are people who use the English system, because we only started using the metric system in the 70's. Since schools weren't developed much back then, most older people have never got used to the metric system and even younger people like me occasionally use the imperial system (for example, i still use pounds for my weight). Stores that sells fruits and other things where the price is based on quantity also display their prices based on pounds as a marketing tactic, since the price per pound looks cheaper than the price per kilograms.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: SpiroH on September 26, 2013, 03:51:49 am

Quote from: adriweb on September 26, 2013, 02:12:33 am

Delta is a quite well-user greek letter used in almost any science topic, though (math, physics, chemistry...)

You are quite right!

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on September 26, 2013, 02:48:39 am

The problem with USA is that they still use the English system (eg miles, Farheneit, pounds) instead of the metric system (km, Celsius, kilograms) that is used almost everywhere else.

Yeah, that reminds me of the old joke: "What do you call a person that speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call a person that speaks one language? American."
But "The Times They Are a-Changin", i guess.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on September 26, 2013, 10:56:37 am

Quote from: sailerboy on September 26, 2013, 12:16:38 am

I'm from the good ole US of A (California if you want to be precise). I've only ever learned the d/dx*() syntax.

Yeah, specifically I was referring here to placing the d/dx to the *left* of the expression instead of the expression above the dx part. I didn't realize the derivative symbol itself was unfamiliar!

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 26, 2013, 11:21:04 am

Quote from: adriweb on September 26, 2013, 02:12:33 am

Delta is a quite well-used greek letter used in almost any science topic, though (math, physics, chemistry...)

Thats what sad with US education, I guess :(

(I can actually judge since I've spent one year there (senior year in HS, with an AP Calculus class), and did the rest of my scolarity in France)

I use delta all the time! We tend to use Δ as the symbol for delta, not ∂ though. Wikipedia says it's an old style way of writing it (though it's greek, so any letter is "old"). In terms of derivatives and integrals, instead of using Δ we tend to use "d", as Δ implies "change in a quantity", which is generally an expressible value. Using "d", on the other hand, implies an infinitely small value.

I'm also familiar with the "prime" notation (eg. (x^2)'=2x), though less so, since I'm an engineering major, so we tend to use the d/dx format more often.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on September 26, 2013, 04:37:29 pm

I had a bug for today, but I forgot it in the hours I've been away from these forums. So I'll just tell you some places where the Help doesn't show up!

Today's bug: There's no Help section when pressing the Help button for the Characters menu, any of the coose boxes (templates, the ! menu, etc.) or the Memory Manager.

Today's Suggestion: There's only 10 graphic variables ever?? If we want to use sprites, we can only use the 10; if we want more, we have to hot-swap them out using DIMGROB, which can't possibly be memory/speed efficient.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on September 26, 2013, 05:04:49 pm

Quote from: iconmaster on September 26, 2013, 04:37:29 pm

Today's bug: There's no Help section when pressing the Help button for the Characters menu, any of the coose boxes (templates, the ! menu, etc.) or the Memory Manager.

Thank you. The integrated system-wide help stuff is actually one of the most ambitious parts of the whole system and it is just so darn easy to miss places because of the sheer volume.

Quote

Today's Suggestion: There's only 10 graphic variables ever?? If we want to use sprites, we can only use the 10; if we want more, we have to hot-swap them out using DIMGROB, which can't possibly be memory/speed efficient.

The G1-G9 are really meant for temporary scratch locations. For example, they aren't saved on a power cycle or sent to the pc. However, it probably would be good to make sure the other commands work with local or exported grobs. Thanks for the reminder.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on September 26, 2013, 05:46:55 pm

Quote from: timwessman on September 26, 2013, 05:04:49 pm

The G1-G9 are really meant for temporary scratch locations. For example, they aren't saved on a power cycle or sent to the pc. However, it probably would be good to make sure the other commands work with local or exported grobs. Thanks for the reminder.

Oh. I only said this because it errored out when I tried to use a local variable as a grob.

...Of course, And that's only because I'm still afflicted with the 'error out every time' bug. I'm an idiot. So I guess there's more than 10 grobs after all?

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 26, 2013, 08:27:31 pm

Quote from: timwessman on September 26, 2013, 05:04:49 pm

Thank you. The integrated system-wide help stuff is actually one of the most ambitious parts of the whole system and it is just so darn easy to miss places because of the sheer volume.

Since there are so many bugs and feature requests, I just wanted to say, this is my favorite part about the calculator, that I don't have to go digging through a manual to figure out how something works.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 26, 2013, 11:44:08 pm

Yeah same. That said, I didn't realize it existed until someone told me, though. I was sure that Help was just some general quick start guide like in some computer apps. I didn't realize it was an help section for almost everything. Maybe the first time the calc is started it should show a pop up notifying the user that the calc has on-calc help and just selecting something in the menu then pressing Help will show how to use that function? Else, maybe update the calc packages so that an updated PDF guidebook comes with them?

Quote from: iconmaster on September 26, 2013, 05:46:55 pm

Quote from: timwessman on September 26, 2013, 05:04:49 pm
The G1-G9 are really meant for temporary scratch locations. For example, they aren't saved on a power cycle or sent to the pc. However, it probably would be good to make sure the other commands work with local or exported grobs. Thanks for the reminder.

Oh. I only said this because it errored out when I tried to use a local variable as a grob.

...Of course, And that's only because I'm still afflicted with the 'error out every time' bug. I'm an idiot. So I guess there's more than 10 grobs after all?

One workaround about the 10 GROB limit is to simply store multiple sprites or images in one GROB. They can be any size, but I think there is a limit on how much data you can store at once. Just take a part of your sprite sheet, store it into GROB2, dim GROB1 so that it's empty but large enough to fit all your sprites, then copy it in GROB1, then overwrite GROB2 with the next part of your sprite sheet before copying it below the 1st sprite sheet in GROB1, and so on. Then once you are done, GROB2 can be used for other things, such as a parallax background. Just setup a 336x256 GROB2, then fill it with 16x16 sky sprites. Afterward, using for loops, put a tilemap using your sprites and map data of your choice into a GROB3 of the size of your choice (for example, if your map is made of 256x15 tiles, then the GROB should be 4096x240 pixels large.)

Then just copy the necessary 320x240 chunks of GROB2 and 3 into GROB0 (the screen). I am unsure about how fast is this, but hopefully this should work unless the calc has bugs preventing it from doing so.

EDIT: if you are concerned about RAM usage (I think you have 16 MB to yourself and a 4096x240 image should be about 2 MB large and stored temporarily), then you can instead use 8x8 tiles and a 2048x120 image. The calc BLIT command supports scaling, so you can simply display 160x120 chunks at 2x zoom.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 27, 2013, 01:24:37 pm

I've got another question that may seem simple. How does one do Polynomial division?

For example, I entered (x^7+4x^3+8)/(x^2+2) in the cas mode, and it just rewrites it as a fraction. I tried using "simplify()", but that doesn't change it at all. To do division, I have to go to the on screen menu, select CAS, select Polynomial, Algebra, Quotient, and input the function, but even then, I get "Gen [int] Error: Bad Argument Type"

I know that this was alluded to in Cemetech's review of the HP Prime, but he never really gave a solution for the problem beyond just saying that it was an indescriptive error.

Also, one thing I just noticed: If I wanted to find the limit of, say, 1/x as x goes to zero from the positive side, I have to enter "1" instead of just entering "+", likewise if i wanted to find it from the negative side, I would have to enter "-1" instead of just "-".

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on September 27, 2013, 03:40:07 pm

Today's Bug:
(http://i.imgur.com/8sMQoKB.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/smLqhwl.png)

Today's Suggestion: the right arrow character should be a synonym for -> in the CAS. Having -> when a perfectly good UTF character exists is quite odd.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on September 27, 2013, 03:42:35 pm

Quote from: sailerboy on September 27, 2013, 01:24:37 pm

I've got another question that may seem simple. How does one do Polynomial division?
...
To do division, I have to go to the on screen menu, select CAS, select Polynomial, Algebra, Quotient,

Nearly there. Put your first poly in the first argument, and the second in position 2. Just like the nspire, it is a 2 argument function.

quo(x^7+4x^3+8,x^2+2)

Quote

Also, one thing I just noticed: If I wanted to find the limit of, say, 1/x as x goes to zero from the positive side, I have to enter "1" instead of just entering "+", likewise if i wanted to find it from the negative side, I would have to enter "-1" instead of just "-".

Yes. It can take either '+' or '-' with tick marks, but not + or - directly as it is interpreted as an operator. This is an item that is in the list of things to improve. It displays correctly on calculation, but the input needs enhancement here.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 27, 2013, 04:47:30 pm

Quote from: timwessman on September 27, 2013, 03:42:35 pm

Nearly there. Put your first poly in the first argument, and the second in position 2. Just like the nspire, it is a 2 argument function.

quo(x^7+4x^3+8,x^2+2)

That seems like a lot of steps to get to something that occurs fairly often. Why can't I just do (polynomial 1)/(polynomial 2) for division?

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on September 27, 2013, 05:00:25 pm

Quote from: sailerboy on September 27, 2013, 04:47:30 pm

That seems like a lot of steps to get to something that occurs fairly often. Why can't I just do (polynomial 1)/(polynomial 2) for division?

Is your Simplify level on Off? If it is, remember that the CAS won't change your variables at all. I always have it on Maximum.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 27, 2013, 05:23:43 pm

Quote from: iconmaster on September 27, 2013, 05:00:25 pm

Quote from: sailerboy on September 27, 2013, 04:47:30 pm
That seems like a lot of steps to get to something that occurs fairly often. Why can't I just do (polynomial 1)/(polynomial 2) for division?

Is your Simplify level on Off? If it is, remember that the CAS won't change your variables at all. I always have it on Maximum.

I have simplify off since CAS does weird things sometimes, but there's the simplify button on the screen. I tried pushing that and it had no effect.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on September 27, 2013, 05:23:44 pm

Quote

Quote
quo(x^7+4x^3+8,x^2+2)

That seems like a lot of steps to get to something that occurs fairly often. Why can't I just do (polynomial 1)/(polynomial 2) for division?

You can. However, your divisor in this case is not a clean piece of your first polynomial and leaves a remainder. Which calculator will directly take that specific input and spit out x^5-2*x+8x? I would call that a bug. Observe: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28x^7%2B4x^3%2B8%29%2F%28x^2%2B2%29 (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28x^7%2B4x^3%2B8%29%2F%28x^2%2B2%29)

Try this one: (21*x^3-35*x^2)/(7*x). That one will cleanly work out (no remainder) and reduce as you are expecting.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on September 27, 2013, 05:36:20 pm

Quote from: iconmaster on September 27, 2013, 03:40:07 pm

Today's Bug:
(http://i.imgur.com/8sMQoKB.png)

Eh? What is wrong with this? You have a 2 item vector with 2 sub vectors (size of 1 and size of 2)?

Quote

(http://i.imgur.com/smLqhwl.png)

Today's Suggestion: the right arrow character should be a synonym for -> in the CAS. Having -> when a perfectly good UTF character exists is quite odd.

Not seeing what this image is supposed to show... :-?

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on September 27, 2013, 05:59:36 pm

It might be me being stupid with math, but why does that return "n"? That's a string! Also, I thought the correct format for vectors was [

,[y]], not [
[y]]...

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 28, 2013, 12:17:31 am

Another bug: Trying to differentiate the equation (2/3)(x^2+1)^(3/2) gives weird output. Here is the image:

(http://i.imgur.com/cg4KUsG.png)

And here is the expected result: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=differentiate+%282%2F3%29%28x%5E2%2B1%29%5E%283%2F2%29

Also, with the TI Nspire, i was able to quickly and easily able to create functions for certain math problems, like so:

f1(x,a,b):=x^2+ax+b

And for any value I then typed in for x, a, and b, it would substitute that in the equation. Is there an easy way to do something like this in the Prime?

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on September 28, 2013, 09:13:29 am

Today's Bug: Doing a numerical expression of the form (1)2 in the CAS results in an error. The CAS does not handle implicit multiplication well.

Today's Suggestion: I wish there was a | key in the Math palette, as I use that character in assumption statements a lot.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: SpiroH on September 28, 2013, 09:22:17 am

Quote from: sailerboy on September 28, 2013, 12:17:31 am

Another bug: Trying to differentiate the equation (2/3)(x^2+1)^(3/2) gives weird output. Here is the image:

Yeah, that's a very odd output indeed, to say the least? I wonder, have they thoroughly tested symbolic differentiation?

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: fhub on September 28, 2013, 10:26:47 am

Deleted!

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: SpiroH on September 28, 2013, 10:33:28 am

Quote from: fhub on September 28, 2013, 10:26:47 am

Quote from: SpiroH on September 28, 2013, 09:22:17 am
Quote from: sailerboy on September 28, 2013, 12:17:31 am
Another bug: Trying to differentiate the equation (2/3)(x^2+1)^(3/2) gives weird output. Here is the image:
Yeah, that's a very odd output indeed, to say the least? I wonder, have they thoroughly tested symbolic differentiation?
The problem is not the differentiation, the problem is even earlier in the interpretation of the expression (2/3)(x^2+1)^(3/2).

If you enter the same expression but with an explicit multiplication character, i.e. (2/3)*(x^2+1)^(3/2), then everything works fine.
But without this * after (2/3) this expression seems to a completely different thing, not even an usual math expression but a 'function' like f((x^2+1)^(3/2)) with '2/3' as 'name' of the function, i.e. '2/3'(.....). And that's the reason why the differentiation doesn't work for this 'function' of course!
Just try to experiment a bit with this strange expression and you'll see that is not anything you would expect - crazy indeed!

Franz

Hi Franz, long time no see. Welcome back!
Yeah, it ought to be something 'stupid' like that! I mean, no implicit times operator! Cheers,

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Lionel Debroux on September 28, 2013, 10:36:31 am

Quote

I wonder, have they thoroughly tested symbolic differentiation?

At least, the Prime is still a very young platform, unlike the Nspire, whose whole Nspire OS 3.x family has been a disaster for correctness...

And yeah, the DWIM principle (or at least, what looks like something along those lines) seem to produce many strange effects and racking up a few nerves on MoHPC and beyond.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: fhub on September 28, 2013, 10:36:42 am

Deleted!

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: fhub on September 28, 2013, 10:51:03 am

Deleted!

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on September 28, 2013, 12:37:40 pm

Quote from: iconmaster on September 28, 2013, 09:13:29 am

Today's Bug: Doing a numerical expression of the form (1)2 in the CAS results in an error. The CAS does not handle implicit multiplication well.

Nope, using yak/bison does have limitations...

Quote

Today's Suggestion: I wish there was a | key in the Math palette, as I use that character in assumption statements a lot.

First row, 3 column. Not what you were looking for?

Quote from: fhub on September 28, 2013, 10:51:03 am

Now I'm absolutely disappointed about this HP-Prime (and its CAS), and I'll definitely stay with my good old TI-92+/Voyage 200 with its (modified) Derive CAS which is clearly better and more reliable than this 'hobby project' XCAS. ;)

Depending on what you are looking for, that is definitely a valid belief.

xcas is definitely a much more powerful and capable cas then what is on the nspire if you purely look at what it will integrate/calculate/do, but you are correct it lacks the polish and "user friendliness"* that ti has put into their system. (*provided you want the result like a student would expect) In many cases there are just assumptions about the input, and some funky unexpected syntax.

Judging from what many have said, there really have not been any improvements or capability enhancements since the derive time (nspire cas seems basically identical to the 89 machines).

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 28, 2013, 01:12:58 pm

Quote from: fhub on September 28, 2013, 10:36:42 am

Quote from: sailerboy on September 27, 2013, 01:24:37 pm
I've got another question that may seem simple. How does one do Polynomial division?

For example, I entered (x^7+4x^3+8)/(x^2+2) in the cas mode, and it just rewrites it as a fraction. I tried using "simplify()", but that doesn't change it at all. To do division, I have to go to the on screen menu, select CAS, select Polynomial, Algebra, Quotient, and input the function, but even then, I get "Gen [int] Error: Bad Argument Type"
It seem that XCAS has no function implemented that does what you want, i.e. 'divide out' 2 polynomials (or a ratio of 2 polynomials).
Most other CAS have such a function (e.g. 'divout'), but you can define such a function yourself in the HP-Prime CAS:

divout(p):=quo(numer(p),denom(p))+rem(numer(p),denom(p))/denom(p)

Now if you enter divout((x^7+4x^3+8)/(x^2+2)) you get exactly what you want - an 'integer' part of the polynomial division and a 'remainder' part.

Franz

How do you define a function? I tried using f(a,b) := <function>, but it turned that into "table(a,b = <function>)"

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: fhub on September 28, 2013, 01:38:53 pm

Deleted!

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on September 28, 2013, 01:48:38 pm

I'm using the Prime's OS that it came with. There hasn't been an update, has there?

(http://i.imgur.com/BN9Omrh.png)

EDIT: I tried redefining, and it seemed to work. Strange...

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: SpiroH on September 28, 2013, 09:24:32 pm

Quote from: fhub on September 28, 2013, 10:51:03 am

...
Better said: it WAS quite interesting, until I found out all these terrible issues and problems of the used XCAS! :(
Now I'm absolutely disappointed about this HP-Prime (and its CAS), and I'll definitely stay with my good old TI-92+/Voyage 200 with its (modified) Derive CAS which is clearly better and more reliable than this 'hobby project' XCAS. ;)

I can understand your point! Probably it's just nowadays life and we're getting older... It seems it has become a 'de facto' behaviour from many IT companies, like MS, Apple, TI and so forth. It's up to the final customer to pay both the high item's price and also look for bug corrections (which is also very expensive indeed!). This is quite a cheap (although not very honest) way to improve a product without having to allocate extra resources and money.
Please be patient, we need your (HP) help over here. ;)

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 28, 2013, 10:53:37 pm

Quote from: fhub on September 28, 2013, 10:51:03 am

because of a very bad forum reaction on your great kArmTI emulator).

Thankfully that has been resolved as soon as staff (the guys in blue and brown colors) were alerted about the issue (shortly after you left), otherwise staff were threatening bans for any future KarmTI bashing. One or more of them later tried to circumvent the ultimatum by downrating every post that praised the emulator, but he was probably caught a while ago because I haven't seen this happen in a long while.

I personally wish that you didn't leave just because of a few people out of many, although I can understand you considering it took a long while before the issue gets resolved (although I think at first there was confusion about the legality of KarmTI, which probably delayed the process, but harassment is even less legal anyway). After all, Omni is supposed to be a forum free of any hostility (it's even written on the front page, although you have to remember that admins are not slaves and have a life besides moderation) and this is partially why it reached record activity a few years ago. In fact, without Omni resurrection in 2008, the TI programming community would probably have been gone long ago.

Anyway back on topic, thankfully the HP Prime is much less buggy than the HP 39gII because I hardly saw reports about the calculator freezing completely after 30 seconds of use to the point where it required a firmware re-install. But yeah I was disappointed that many of the bugs went unresolved before the release, even though they affect maths. That said, however, it's not like TI and Casio calcs were always much better. The 83+, for example, had bugs that remained unresolved for almost 15 years, and TI has no staff that regularly monitors popular calc forums like Tim Wessman does with HP. Also add the fact that at least, the HP Prime is much less locked-down than the Nspire, has a much better BASIC language alternative (that can officially be programmed on-calc), a free emulator and much better specs (except RAM).

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Lionel Debroux on September 29, 2013, 02:41:03 am

Quote from: timwessman

Judging from what many have said, there really have not been any improvements or capability enhancements since the derive time (nspire cas seems basically identical to the 89 machines).

The Nspire series' CAS has seen marginal bugfixes (several bugs listed in Bhuvanesh Bhatt's file about the TI-68k CAS are no more) and improvements (the Nspire can compute all digits of e.g. 2^3000, while the TI-68k series is limited to 2*(2^2047-1)+1; IIRC, Taylor expansion was made faster; and of course, some functionality for the definition domain of a function).
The data structures and API haven't changed much, as shown by my 1:1 port of the core of an Aitken's delta^2 algorithm on an old Nspire OS version: http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/437/43727.html . My Nspire port is non-interactive because we don't enjoy the same level of EStack integration as we do on the TI-68k series; I've never spent time reverse-engineering OS 3.1.0.392 to find all functions I need , and then using Excale's much more recent trick for pattern-matching ( http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=11927 ).
However, since OS 3.0.1.1753 in April 2011 (!), most of those improvements and bugfixes have been counterbalanced by genuine CAS bugs which neither the TI-68k series, nor the earlier Nspire OS versions, ever had. The set of bugs is different on every OS 3.x release.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: SpiroH on September 30, 2013, 09:24:32 am

Quote from: Lionel Debroux

And yeah, the DWIM principle (or at least, what looks like something along those lines) seem to produce many strange effects and racking up a few nerves on MoHPC and beyond.

As far as "user friendliness" is concerned, and this is definitely NOT a minor issue(!), the average student would expect the Prime to be, at least, something better and not worse than the nspire. So, in this particular respect, AFAICT, Prime seems to be a disappointment with its funky syntax (considering the main target are the students). They'll improve it, in the coming OS release, for sure, if they want to survive. :-\

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 30, 2013, 03:19:42 pm

Yeah I agree. They can't afford to ignore bug reports or do what a different HP guy did on another forum and act as if they are false reports (after all, we bought the product, so HP should do an effort to track down bugs too rather than giving the entire homework to students.) Else, if they don't fix those useability quirks, they'll shoot themselves in the foot again and this calc will fail to gain a market share. TI and Casio can afford to screw their products up only because they already have a large market share, which HP currently lacks.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 02, 2013, 02:05:03 am

Bug report for the emulator: When you hit CTRL+C to copy particularly large code (19 KB, for example) from the program editor to somewhere else (such as Notepad), the emulator crashes. This makes it impossible to distribute source code of large programs. This is the program in question, by the way (please do not redistribute on a CD/download archive/etc, in case I re-use it in a project. I would rather release the final product first if it comes to fruition. You can post the source here, though, since I might need it))

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Adriweb on October 02, 2013, 03:06:39 pm

Why would you do it like that, though, when you can see the variables through the ConnKit, in a much more user-friendly way ?

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 02, 2013, 04:19:03 pm

Because I can't get the connectivity kit to detect the emulator. I am using the TI-Planet version and on my computer, it looks different than in the screenshot:

(http://img.ourl.ca//conkit.png)

By the way copying from emulator works fine with 9 KB programs. Some complex games will get particularly large, though.

EDIT Ok it seems that the TI-Planet download link was outdated. I got another copy from ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/calculators/Prime/ and it works fine now.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Adriweb on October 02, 2013, 07:32:22 pm

Ah, yeah, the hosted one has to be updated - but at least on my comp it asked if I wanted to update, so it's not too bad.

Anyway, I never had any issue with emulator detection :o

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 02, 2013, 08:03:53 pm

Well with the alternate download it worked fine now. It's with the TI-Planet version (without the vertical tab things to the left) that I had problems.

At one point it might be good if I or someone else made a topic in this section listing the essential tools and doc to get started on HP Prime programming.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: user1 on October 05, 2013, 08:33:31 am

Small inconsistancy in the user interface with keyboad shortcuts in units - not all of them have the shortcut (top left of unit selection box)

For example they are there with Time units but not with Volume or Distance

Small bug but annoying all the same.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on October 05, 2013, 12:22:50 pm

Quote from: user1 on October 05, 2013, 08:33:31 am

For example they are there with Time units but not with Volume or Distance

Small bug but annoying all the same.

The issue here is basically that the grid chooser shortcuts are supposed to follow a physical layout. However, the keys just run out if you have more then 16 (the grid between the 7 and + keys).

Three options we available in my mind:
1. Just do a normal "numbering" like the list choosers where it does 1-9, A-P, and not worry about matching the physical arrangement like seen on the screen.
2. Do the physical layout but be limited to that 4*4 grid. If more, don't have them.
3. Do #2 but then do A-P for others.

I chose to implement #2 after investiagating the others and testing. It was the one that most people seemed to agree seemed the best. Would be happy to revisit #3 (or another variant) if enough people seem to think it is a good idea.

Comments?

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: user1 on October 06, 2013, 07:04:45 am

Hi,

First of all many thanks for taking the time to respond.

For consistency you should be able to use the letter keys as thats how I shortcut my way into the units sections that don't fit on the screen - temperature etc

I appreciate that you used a 4x4 grid but really you can use all the keys - its just small inconsistencies that niggle. If you use the touch then it's no big deal but if you are key based like me and have to use units a lot it's a bit frustrating.

Ideally this could all be customisable and I could rearrange the units so that the ones I use less appear on the second pages.

I use RPN and the way this is handles in the 50g is so much better. For example I am having to convert from litres to gallons by adding 10 litres to 0 gallons which is far from intuitive.

Another bug is in that calculator try adding 1 degree Celsius to 1 degree farenheight :(

Any idea when a firmware update is planned?

Many thanks again.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 12, 2013, 11:57:45 am

I finally got my HP Prime (with current firmware)! *.*

Anyway now for new bug/issues/etc reports, unless I am really doing something wrong:

1) (Emulator) Sending a program that is too large (for example 23 KB large) freezes the emulator most of the time and in all cases it will never actually send. The only way to send programs this large is to open them in the connectivity kit then copy the code in a new program on the calc, but that can be annoying since it takes a long while to add the program to the calc.

2) (Emulator) Often, the emulator will stop detecting the calc randomly, requiring you to unplug then plug back the calc every few second or so in order to send programs.

3) (Emulator) Not really a bug, but the reset option is very misleading there: On the real calc, a reset will just reboot the machine. However, on the emulator it really wipes out the entire memory. It might be better to add a warning asking you to confirm if you really want to lose all progress.

4) (Connectivity kit) When saving large programs, it can take multiple tries until it finally gets updated on the calc or appear there. Also it takes a very long while before the calc content appears in the list.

5) (Calculator) BLIT_P doesn't work properly on calc in some cases. In my Tunnel program, for example, in the intro that stretches the screen up, even if I tell it to update the entire screen it only updates parts of it most of the time. After running other programs, however, sometimes it works fine, but then you run the Tunnel game again and the glitch comes back. ALso, after a fresh reset the stretching effect won't even work at all. Or maybe it's an issue with DIMGROB?-EDIT: Figured out why I had this happening. Solved.

6) (Calculator) In certain cases, the Tunnel game and pretty much every other program will stop working past the stretching animation at the beginning, giving an ERR: Argument or Invalid Input errors. I don't know why this happens yet, though, but I had this happen with another program before.

7) (Calculator) In certain cases, the program catalog screen will remain frozen and accessing the APPs menu will be impossible, so that you no longer know what you are selecting (although the navigation at the bottom of the screen will still update depending of what you selected). I believe both issues #6 and #7 are more common when exiting programs with ON, and in both cases, you need to reset the calc with ON+SYMB (or using the reset button on the back).

8) (Cosmetic issues) The calculator slidecase is a little bit too loose, so the calc can move slightly in it. On the other hand it holds the calc pretty well, so no risks of falling off it.

9) (Cosmetic issues) It is very hard, sometimes impossible to read the yellow text on the calculator keys under certain type of lightning

10) (Cosmetic issues) There's no key to access semicolons, which is a big problem considering almost every line of code ends with a semicolon. Having to go to the Charmap everytime is annoying.

11) (Cosmetic issues) The reset hole is too small. It should be made so at least a pen can fit. That said, a nice workaround is the ON+SYMB combo, but that can be a bit problematic if someone is at school and forgets what the key combo was. I had plans to mod my calc case with a knife to stretch up the hole, but since there is ON+SYMB I'll probably not bother.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on October 13, 2013, 01:48:59 pm

Thanks.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on October 12, 2013, 11:57:45 am

10) (Cosmetic issues) There's no key to access semicolons, which is a big problem considering almost every line of code ends with a semicolon. Having to go to the Charmap everytime is annoying.

Alpha +

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 13, 2013, 03:46:17 pm

Oh wait didn't see that one lol. Since there is no Alpha key for ./= and Space/_, I totally missed the lonely semicolon to the right. D:

I'll post a video of #5.

EDIT: Here is it (however in the video I removed the wait command in the tunnel code so it's as fast as in Critor's vid):

EDIT 2: Source code:

Code: [Select]

EXPORT Tunnel()
BEGIN
DIMGROB(G1,320,240);
BLIT_P(G1,0,0,320,240,G0);
FOR Z FROM 2 TO 239 STEP 3 DO
BLIT_P(G0,0,0,320,240,G1,0,0,320,240-Z);
WAIT(0.01);
END;
1▶C;
0▶P;
100▶Y;
20▶T;
128▶L;
0▶L1(512);
 
FOR Z FROM 0 TO 16 DO
INT(RANDOM(100))▶L1(2*Z+1);
60-INT(RANDOM(4))▶L1(2*Z+2);
END;
RECT_P(0,0,319,219,RGB(30,100,255),RGB(30,100,255));
RECT_P(0,35,319,219,RGB(0,100,0),RGB(0,100,0));

TEXTOUT_P("2013 DJ Omnimaga  (www.omnimaga.org)",122,25,1,RGB(255,255,255));
FOR Z FROM 0 TO 10 DO
TEXTOUT_P("Score:",Z,0,7,RGB(25*Z,255-(25*Z),0),250);
TEXTOUT_P("τ υ η η ε ι  ρ ɾ ί м ɛ",122+Z,0,7,RGB(0,25*Z,0),250);
END;
FOR Z FROM 0 TO 4 DO
LINE_P(0,Z+35,319,Z+35,RGB(0,20*Z,0));
END;
WHILE Y>0 DO
FOR Z FROM 0 TO 15 DO
C+1▶C;
IF C>16 THEN
1▶C;
END;
L1(2*C+2)▶O;
L1(2*C+1)▶Q;
RECT_P(20*Z,40,20*Z+19,O,RGB(0,50+Q,0),RGB(0,50+Q,0));
RECT_P(20*Z,O,20*Z+19,O+L,RGB(100+Q,130,50),RGB(100+Q,130,50));
RECT_P(20*Z,O+L,20*Z+19,246,RGB(0,50+Q,0),RGB(0,50+Q,0));
IF Z=0 THEN
RECT_P(0,Y,8,Y+12,RGB(0,0,0),RGB(150,150,255));
RECT_P(2,Y+4,14,Y+8,RGB(0,0,0),RGB(255,0,0));
IF Y<O OR Y+12>O+L THEN
−9▶Y;
END;
END;
END;
TEXTOUT_P(P,70,2,6,RGB(0,0,0),200,RGB(30,100,255));
TEXTOUT_P(P,72,2,6,RGB(5,255,255));
P+1▶P;
L1(2*C+2)▶S;
INT(RANDOM(100))▶U;
S+INT(RANDOM(30)-15)▶Ans;
IF Ans<45 THEN
45▶Ans;
ELSE
IF Ans>213-L THEN
213-L▶Ans;
END;
END;
C+1▶C;
IF C>16 THEN
1▶C;
L-1▶L;
END;
Ans▶L1(2*C+2);
U▶L1(2*C+1);
Y-(5*ISKEYDOWN(2))+(5*ISKEYDOWN(12))▶Y;
WAIT(.01666);
END;
FOR Z FROM 0 TO 7 DO
INVERT_P();
WAIT(0.05);
END;
DIMGROB_P(G1,122,30);
BLIT_P(G1,0,0,122,30,G0,0,0,122,30);
RECT_P(RGB(30,100,255));
REPEAT 
GETKEY▶Z;
BLIT_P(G0,INT(RANDOM(10)),INT(RANDOM(10)),320-INT(RANDOM(10)),240-INT(RANDOM(10)),G1,0,0,122,30);
WAIT(.02);
UNTIL ISKEYDOWN(4)=1 OR ISKEYDOWN(30)=1;
END;
END;

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 14, 2013, 03:12:59 pm

New bug report:

1) During a loop with no key input command such as ISKEYDOWN in it, if you touch the screen, release your finger then touch the screen again for over one second, the calculator freezes. I had this happen with all my programs except the Tunnel game.

2) The screen feature causing the backlight to dim after 30 seconds of non-use actually activates when programs are running too. Not sure if intentional, but that might be annoying in certain cases.

3) APD (auto-power-down) doesn't work while in plot mode (viewing graphs). The calc will remain turned ON forever.

4) There are some display glitches (although usually minor) when scrolling around graph windows. Some graph lines might cut off. It almost only happens when scrolling vertically. See video for the glitch in action:

Btw I LOVE the graphing capabilities of this calc! Zooming is quite easy with + and - keys and the touch screen gestures are nice. The best thing would be pinch zooming.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 19, 2013, 01:01:21 am

UPDATE!

I managed to solve my issue with BLIT_P and DIMGROB_P. It was a stupid mistake from my part because I forgot the extra P at the end of the DIMGROB command. My bad. So I added strikethrough on issue #5, which you can disregard for now.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: sailerboy on October 19, 2013, 02:02:51 am

It's been a while since I've posted, but I'm back.

One thing that's really bugged me is the simplify feature. In certain instances, it seems to make things much more complicated. I know that this is a bad example, since it's already as simplified as possible, but it illustrates what I mean:

(http://i.imgur.com/YJdMD7w.png)

Here's a better one:

(http://i.imgur.com/MTQU6qS.png)

I would expect the calculator to combine the 5 and the 1/11 to make 5/11, or some other simplified thing. I'm not sure what the fascination of putting everything under the log is, it certainly doesn't make it easier to read, write, or type.

Also, when's the OS update coming out? The way Tim talks about it makes it seem that some, perhaps many of these issues are already fixed.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Lionel Debroux on October 19, 2013, 02:34:44 am

Let's see what Tim has to say (assuming he's allowed to say anything), but while it would be great to see the bugs fixed very quickly, it's not very likely that (in the absence of extremely severe bugs) a new OS release is going to be published next week, "only" two months after the previous release. The end of 2013 or beginning of 2014 would be a more realistic timeframe.

In general, large pieces of software need some QA (beta-testing, etc.), often several weeks, before release, even with an automated Continuous Integration system which helps prevent regressions (in the parts covered by the test suite). TI is known to perform weeks of beta-testing (timestamps embedded into a new OS upgrade are usually 3-4 weeks old at the time the OS is published), though I find it dubious whether they perform automated testing (or at least, their test suite is persistently inadequate).

Also, keep in mind that besides performing bugfixes, Tim and other HP calc developers have to work on new features: for instance, at some point, official 3D graphing will certainly become an option. Maybe not now, but hopefully far quicker than it did for the Nspire series, which lacked that capability for 4 years.

Title: Re: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on October 19, 2013, 11:54:20 am

Since someone made an HP PPL 3D grapher, I wonder if this would have any influence on when HP implements their own?

Quote from: Lionel Debroux on October 19, 2013, 02:34:44 am

TI is known to perform weeks of beta-testing

O.O

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 10, 2013, 05:10:52 pm

UPDATE:

1) When you create a new program in the connectivity kit with an invalid name, which then changes to new_program by default, then try to save it, the connectivity kit crashes with a "The program has encountered a problem and must close" message.

2) Another issue is that when you place the cursor with the touch screen in the program editor to edit text there, it often moves to a different location by itself after blinking, usually one or two chars away, resulting in accidentally inserting text at the wrong location.

3) A considerable slowdown occurs when holding down keys. For example, a program that runs at 15 images per second with no key pressed will run at 12 FPS with keys pressed. My Tunnel, with all timers removed, drops from 60 FPS to 40 when keys are pressed. This might cause issues if someone decides to create a game involving timing.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Phil Wipf on November 11, 2013, 03:27:37 pm

Hello,
I haven't been able to make user-keys for all the keys, mainly the HOME key, and also the ab/c key. I do hope in the future all the keys will be user-programmable. Perhaps I am not doing it right. I did notice that, while programming a user key for K_Home doesn't have any effect in the home screen, if you go into home settings for example, and then use the HOME key to return to the home screen, in that case the user key program DOES take effect. That definitely seems to be a bug or at least some strange inconsistency.

Here are some useful key-override functions that work well, in case anyone has been trying to do similar, it did take me a bit to figure out what key number to return, and how to refresh the screen so it's a nice seamless mode switch, just like if you use the settings menu, even leaving the input line intact.

It would be really nice to be able to assign these type of programs to, for example, the HOME key. Especially if one could check to see if the home screen is being displayed already before switching modes... for example, one push of HOME takes you to home screen, if already there, one push switches to/from RPN mode. I do feel that RPN should have had it's own button, like CAS, but as a practical substitute, having the HOME button switch modes with a second press, would be just as good.

Hopefully in the future we'll be able to easily assign our programs to ... SOFT KEYS (!!!Hurrah!!!)

Code: [Select]

KEY K_Sin()
BEGIN
  IF Entry==2 THEN Entry:=0; ELSE Entry:=2; END;
  STARTVIEW(-8,0);
  STARTVIEW(-1,1);
  RETURN 5;
END;

KEY K_Cos()
BEGIN
  Base:=(Base+1) MOD 4;
  STARTVIEW(-8,0);
  STARTVIEW(-1,1);
  RETURN 5;
END;

KEY K_Tan()
BEGIN
  HFormat:=(HFormat+1) MOD 4;
  STARTVIEW(-8,0);
  STARTVIEW(-1,1);
  RETURN 5;
END;

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 11, 2013, 03:35:43 pm

Heya and welcome here. Glad to see another HP Prime user/owner. :D

Unfortunately I can't help you, since I haven't used the custom/user-key features, but hopefully if Tim Wessman passes by, he can help you.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Phil Wipf on November 11, 2013, 04:12:22 pm

Thanks!

Yes, I should be more clear or at least keep it simple. I love the calculator and I have high hopes for continued updates/fixes/improvements, and my optimism comes mainly from seeing TW's comments here and on MoHPC.

The Bug and/or request is that the K_Home user key override doesn't work when in the home screen--the HOME key retains it's usual effect of "nothing" from there, but if you are on another screen, for example the home-settings screen, then the user key override program DOES run. This seems exactly backwards from (possibly) intended function. If not on the home screen I could agree that the HOME key should take you there and I could understand making it difficult or impossible to user-override this function. But once on the home screen, the HOME key doesn't do anything, so it would be useful/reasonable to override it's function there.

Code: [Select]

KEY K_Home()
BEGIN
  IF Entry==2 THEN Entry:=0; ELSE Entry:=2; END;
  STARTVIEW(-8,0);
  STARTVIEW(-1,1);
  RETURN 5;
END;

This seems to not work when I want it to (while on the home screen), but does work when I don't want it to (when pushing HOME to return from home-settings).

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Phil Wipf on November 11, 2013, 04:19:47 pm

Simple feature/modification request

The touchscreen does a really good job of allowing me to do almost everything with hard keys instead of touch, I do like that because when your fingers are on the keys it just seems quicker and more intuitive to use the keys.

But one thing I can't find a key for is switching tabs in the Toolbox or similar screens. From Math to User for example. Perhaps Shift>right/left?

Very minor issue!!!

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 13, 2013, 10:49:40 pm

I am unsure if Tim Wessman and others are still reading this thread since most of the bugs are reported on MoHPC, but I ran into another issue:

In the connectivity kit, after opening the emulator, it now shows an error at the bottom of the screen saying "Size error (too big) - Message dropped", and in the emulator content list, my engine3D2 program (which is 62 KB on-calc and in the emulator) always remains missing, while on the emulator it shows up. I am unsure if it's because I have close to 200 KB of stuff on my calc or if it's because the Connectivity kit is unable to display programs larger than 50-60 KB? ???

By the way, the source code in text format (pasted in Notepad) is 442 KB.

Also, I find it strange that this program is 62 KB, while my previous version called engine3D was 47 KB despite having about 4-5 times fewer GROB data ???. Are you sure that the size of programs displayed in the program menu on the calc is right?

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Ryleh on November 14, 2013, 12:14:02 am

I've gotten an error where backing up a program (and inserting my own files such as .hpprgm files found around the net) into the backup.zip while I have a custom app (3D grapher in my case) causes the primary 'function' to corrupt upon restoring it onto the calculator. Only way to remedy the issue is to clear all of the Apps memory from the memory management viewer. Without doing that the calculator resets everytime the app button is hit.

Understand most of these are a stretch but there's no harm in asking...

Requested features:

Password/customizable splash screen (depicting owner's information). This could probably tie in with the exam mode in some interesting ways.
Multi-user configurations (separate from one another, different settings, different programs, different everything). Would work out great for students or professionals. Having lots of superflous programs is annoying and allocation of variables, lists, custom definitions is miserable. The setting and resetting of various settings can be a pain to. Being in 4 math heavily classes right now that all require drastic things makes managing the calculator a chore.
Ability to manipulate/sort/hide functions from the toolbox
Toolbox functions being more indicitive or representative of what they actually look like long-hand. Parenthesis, square brackets, commas, etc# to enter information is pitiful in some functions. Very disproportionate amongst themselves too in how straightforward data entry is. Making a program to reskin each feature used is ridiculously tedious and cumbersome.
Ability to add your own formula templates, units, sub-sections of the characters(favorites maybe?)
Ability to manipulate items in the toolbox
Universal copy/paste
Different fonts size settings for different applications
Better note-taking formating options available from the connectivity kit when typing stuff directly into the calc. While a stretch, a built in split-screen viewer for the note-home/cas view would be fantastic.
Ability to log results from running programs somewhere (notes possibly?)
Program functions have the []s for required fields in a common format for how it would be commonly used. Something like ["title"], {[whatever, whatever, RGB]}. Auto-indentation

Note:
I might aggregate more requested features and arrange it neatly

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 14, 2013, 02:30:54 am

Yeah I would like an universal copy/paste too, same for the note-taking stuff.

By the way, another issue that I noticed with the calc is that the link port seems kinda loose. I am a bit concerned about that. I hope it doesn't break after a while :/

EDIT: FATAL BUG: In certain cases it seems (perhaps large programs or heavy DIMGROB/BLIT usage?), if you connect the calc to the computer, some programs might be messed up during runtime. For example, in the following screenshot (which I scaled down to half its size):

(http://img.ourl.ca//hpprime3dupdate.gif)

1) If I connect the cable before the program is ran, then the 3D blocks will not appear at all and the FPS counter will say 90-100 (I use the TICK command for it btw). Only the background will appear behind.
2) If I connect the cable while the program is running, then the FPS counter text will start displaying garbage.
3) In one occasion, the screen messed up then the calc froze, requiring pushing the small reset button with a needle.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: SpiroH on November 14, 2013, 10:06:57 am

Solution: Do not connect the cable for god's sake! I mean, obviously the link activity is interacting with the foreground job. There should be a programmatic way to prevent it.
Nice ad, btw. :P

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Ryleh on November 14, 2013, 03:40:20 pm

My USB port is loose too.
I really hope HPs new line has a long and prosperous future. Lots of things can be improved upon.

Another error I've gotten when manipulating the backup file is that it can turn most of my notes into 'Asian' characters.

Title: Re: Re: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 14, 2013, 09:23:12 pm

Quote from: SpiroH on November 14, 2013, 10:06:57 am

Solution: Do not connect the cable for god's sake! I mean, obviously the link activity is interacting with the foreground job. There should be a programmatic way to prevent it.
Nice ad, btw. :P

true, but it's annoying to have to disconnect the cable to test my code changes on-calc then reconnect it to send updates over and over.

Also this isn't meant to be an ad? ???

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Phil Wipf on November 14, 2013, 10:49:44 pm

Bug:
When programming with the MOUSE() function, with two pointers going (two fingers on the screen), if you pick up the finger for the first pointer, then suddenly both pointers are at the location of the second finger, and then when you pick up the second finger, the second pointer often gets "stuck", where the mouse function is returning data for the second pointer only, first list is empty, and this goes on indefinitely, with nothing touching the screen, until you touch the screen again. This happens regularly when you (1) touch finger1, (2) touch finger2, (3) lift finger1, (4) lift finger2. I narrowed it down to when you do steps (3) and (4) quickly, as if pulling both finger off at the same time, but second finger a bit behind. The closer together the lifts are the more likely it is to stick.

It seems to be related to the fact that the second pointer gets "taken over" by the first pointer when you lift the first finger, that is, when you lift the first finger leaving the second finger down, the data coming in the first list from MOUSE() suddenly become the coordinates of the second finger, and the data coming in the second list "stick" at wherever the point was, and when both fingers are lifted then both lists become empty. I'm sure this is known and maybe considered normal, but I wanted to point out about the second pointer becoming more permanently "stuck" if you remove the fingers quickly.

I guess it's easy enough to just ignore the second list from MOUSE() if the first list is empty, but I have to say the touch screen with the two independent pointers is really fun to program with because it works so well, and the possibilities seem endless, so it's a shame that the two pointers are not quite "independent".

Let me know if anyone wants more information.

Phil

Edit: I was thinking about this more, and I realized it isn't too hard to recognize when the first pointer suddenly jumps to the location of the second, and take care of the issue that way, but I do think it's a bug and could more easily be fixed in the code for the MOUSE function itself.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 16, 2013, 12:58:52 am

Ouch this sucks. That said, for the mouse, if I decide to use it, I planned to only use one finger at a time. Can this bug still get in the way with 1 finger at a time, such as when the user accidentally touches the screen with a second finger?

Also, regarding the wrong program file sizes, this is what I meant:

(http://img.ourl.ca//thisisnotright.png)

Those 6 sub-programs got code that is roughly the same size, yet the last one shows a size 4 times larger than the others. I am suspecting that program size loops back to 0 once it hits 64 KB, since the 6th one is supposed to be a bit smaller than the rest. On my calc, I only have those 6 programs, plus SHWexec (which is now the name of my 3D engine), along with a smaller unrelated program that is 1 KB. The memory menu says I have 449 KB of program files. If you add 64 KB to the 5 first data programs then do the sum of each file sizes, then you pretty much reach 449 KB.

Basically, SHWData1 through 4 should be 76 KB each, while SHWData5 should be 80 KB. Those seems to be detected by the connectivity kit when connecting my calc, although it obviously takes a long while (SHWExec took like 10 seconds, while the Data program takes between 1 and 10 minutes each). They send in about 25-30 seconds (although one took almost twice longer).

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: SpiroH on November 25, 2013, 05:42:40 pm

Quote

HP Prime - This is ridiculous
Message #1 Posted by Michael de Estrada on 25 Nov 2013, 2:25 p.m.
For the third time I've had to re-format the flash drive on the Prime to recover the OS. This time the settings screens locked up and I couldn't make any changes. When I did the restore from my pc with the connectivity kit, I got the old Apps key reboot routine, so I had to re-format again. Next I transferred some programs from my Emulator to the Prime, but the Apps transfer caused memory to explode, so I'll have to type them all back in on the Prime, which I'm not about to do.
But it gets better, since now programs that used to work no longer do, despite all settings being the same. CAS solve won't work in a program despite working fine previously, so basically the program is now worthless.
In short, this calculator is a nightmare, and possibly the worst product ever to wear the hp logo. I may continue working with the Emulator, but the physical Prime is going into permanent storage.

Do you need a good laugh? Look it up!
http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/forum.cgi?read=256942#256942

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 25, 2013, 05:58:40 pm

Wow that sucks, and sorry to hear about his calc. That said, there were major improvements over the HP 39gII (which the Prime is based on), because the 39gII was ten times worse in terms of stability. I think that HP should have waited until the product is more stable, doing more rounds of testing, before releasing it. In addition to that, maybe they could have offered more people to beta-test it before the final release. Granted, the calc missed back-to-school sales due to its late release, so they still have a lot of opportunities to fix everything before next year, but the problem is that many people already bought the calc for use in school or work and since the calc was bought online for the most part, this means no warranty, unless HP is kind enough to send them a fixed calc regardless, considering the problems it has.

So far, mine works fine, but that might be because I tried to avoid accessing the spread sheet and some other apps now that I heard about the major issues.

If such problems become widespread, do you think that a class action against HP might be in order or does this only apply for offline purchases? Granted, we are happy that one of the programming team member is active here and helping us, but it's HP administration/marketing teams' fault for rushing the product into the market instead of delaying the release to polish it further (which wouldn't have been much of a problem considering the calc was already late into the school year), and now, people who paid $110-150 probably have a bricked or malfunctioning calc with no way of recovery.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: SpiroH on November 25, 2013, 06:20:48 pm

Yeah, let's hope it's an isolated case, but i don't think so, unfortunately for many! :-X

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 25, 2013, 07:11:23 pm

Mine seems fine so far, despite many connections with the connectivity kit, to send or receive files. I wonder if he was using Send to Classroom or the regular Save feature? I heard that send to classroom worked differently.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Han on November 26, 2013, 11:35:42 pm

Quote from: iconmaster on September 24, 2013, 03:36:09 pm

This one's more a suggestion than a bug: Despite being in CAS mode, using the Define box only creates 'normal' functions, not xcas ones.

Another bug: This program errors with "Invalid input" when I hit ENTER, yet works fine in debug mode:

Code: [Select]
EXPORT CURSOR() BEGIN LOCAL X,Y,K,C,P; 0▶X;0▶Y;0▶P; WHILE 1 DO //WAIT()▶K; WAIT(.05); IF ISKEYDOWN(4) THEN RETURN {X,Y}; END; IF ISKEYDOWN(2) THEN GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C; BITNOT(C)▶C; PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C); Y-1▶Y; GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C; BITNOT(C)▶C; PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C); END; IF ISKEYDOWN(12) THEN GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C; BITNOT(C)▶C; PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C); Y+1▶Y; GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C; BITNOT(C)▶C; PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C); END; IF ISKEYDOWN(7) THEN GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C; BITNOT(C)▶C; PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C); X-1▶X; GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C; BITNOT(C)▶C; PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C); END; IF ISKEYDOWN(8) THEN GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C; BITNOT(C)▶C; PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C); X+1▶X; GETPIX_P(G0,X,Y)▶C; BITNOT(C)▶C; PIXON_P(G0,X,Y,C); END; IF ISKEYDOWN(30) THEN REPEAT MOUSE()▶P; P[1]▶P; UNTIL P[5]==#1; B→R(P[1])▶X; B→R(P[2])▶Y; END; END; END; END;

Not sure if this was ever addressed, but the reason you are getting different behavior is due to the fact that debugging necessarily means you touched the screen (you pressed "DEBUG" on the menu). The system processes all touches and signifies that it has finished handling the touch event via the MOUSE command. So when you call MOUSE, it actually returns the last touch -- you pressing the DEBUG menu option -- along with the signal that it was handled. However, when you run it from the command line (and presumably have not touched the screen), then MOUSE returns two empty lists -- which would result in invalid input later on when you try to pull elements out of empty lists.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: MacBernick on December 06, 2013, 07:56:11 pm

Just a quick remark, it took me a while to understand why my program was crashing randomly with no apparent reason. I realized that PPL doesn't like a RETURN statement inside a loop (at least a while loop). It's not obvious at all, since it worked for a couple of iterations, then the program kept crashing on a random instruction.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 06, 2013, 08:02:43 pm

Yeah, some error messages are still kinda cryptic.

Also bug report on my side:

-The calc rebooted after letting my polygon program loop for a very long while (several minutes) before interrupting it. Not sure what caused it, though.
-My pseudo 3D-effect program from last month still doesn't work properly once you connect the calc to the computer. It can be annoying to test on calc when charging. I suspect that it has something to do with the TICKS command, because the frame rate counter I made is totally messed up too when this happens (shows 100-900 FPS instead of 21-23).
-The emulator crashes then restarts when running into an INT command.
-In the original Tetris program posted on HP Museum a while ago (not the updated one), keypresses don't do anything in the emulator.
-In the FILLPOLY_P help, the syntax for the example is wrong and doesn't work. Or maybe it should work but a bug causes it to not to? I had to replace everything with brackets to get it to work.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: The_King on December 06, 2013, 08:08:56 pm

back to the units

how bout this

3/2=3/2
ans=3/2/2

happens a lot on my 3.1 nspire cas cx

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Han on December 07, 2013, 12:36:09 pm

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 06, 2013, 08:02:43 pm

-The calc rebooted after letting my polygon program loop for a very long while (several minutes) before interrupting it. Not sure what caused it, though.
-The emulator crashes then restarts when running into an INT command.

The first issue is likely due to a memory leak. As for the second issue, are you using INT for integration? Or did you use it to find integer values of a decimal? The former is how it's implemented on the HP Prime (that is not to say, however, that INT does not have any bugs). For integer values, use IP.

Based on my own experiences with the calculator, the error handling on the calculator is likely the cause of MANY issues inside programs -- and even worse in apps. It would not surprise me to find out that crashes are the result of mishandled errors.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 08, 2013, 01:18:30 pm

Nah INT wasn't used there. I stopped using INT entirely because it crashes in the emulator whenever used (it says The application has crashed and will be restarted.), plus it's incredibly slow. Other crashes that happens in the emulator are when you try to display stuff from outside the top of a GROB when using scaling. On calc it displays garbage, but on the emulator it crashes. Although I guess it's normal, it can be annoying during debugging, since on the emulator this means losing all progress on the program (since it's only saved once shutting down the emulator rather than closing the program).

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 16, 2013, 02:29:11 pm

Some minor issues:

-If you press Shift then ON during program execution, it turns the calc off before even exiting it. Turning it back on exits the program. In one occasion it wouldn't turn back on and I had to do the ON+Symb combo.
-And of course the backlight dims even inside a program if you don't press any key for a while
-A major slowdown occurs when pressing keys in a program, unless these keys are used by it (via the getkey commands, for example)
-The calc reboots when plugging it to the computer sometimes.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 18, 2013, 07:44:35 pm

Emulator (or connectivity kit) bug: Sometimes, when the connectivity kit is open, if you try to connect the calc to the HP Prime emulator, the emulator becomes sentient... O.O

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Eiyeron on December 19, 2013, 06:53:36 am

Terminator prototype? Or GLaDOS?

Title: Re: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 19, 2013, 09:30:07 am

I don't know which one, but it literally takes control of the Prime emu keypad/touchscreen and likes the apps section a lot.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: SpiroH on December 19, 2013, 09:34:19 am

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 18, 2013, 07:44:35 pm

..., the emulator becomes sentient... O.O

Wat ya mean, crashes? Come on, no euphemisms please! :P

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Eiyeron on December 19, 2013, 10:54:33 am

Dors it connect to the emu as it would with a normal calc?

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Han on December 19, 2013, 12:42:32 pm

Yes, you can transfer directly between emulator and the actual calculator, bypassing the connectivity kit altogether.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 21, 2013, 11:10:47 am

Another bug, this time with BLIT_P

If you try to scroll a BLIT around using, for example, BLIT_P(G1,0,0,320,240,G1,0,1,320,241);, it just displays something messed up rather than scrolling it as it's supposed to do.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Han on December 22, 2013, 12:06:47 pm

That's not scrolling as you are using G1 as both the input and the output of the BLIT. So as the BLIT command carries out the copying, the bits in G1 are changing! Assuming G1 is a larger graphic, then you should blit to G0 different sections of G1.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 22, 2013, 12:59:17 pm

Ah ok, I thought that it would be supposed to temporarily copy G1 into another memory area while it's being updated before putting it back into G1. What would be the fastest method for shifting G1 content around?

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Han on December 22, 2013, 01:52:28 pm

I'm not sure about speed, but one approach is to just double the width of G1 so that it contains two copies of what you want to scroll. So if you have a 320x240 image, and the far right edge is created so that it is seamless with the far left ledge if we were to lay a duplicate copy side-by-side, then a simple loop using BLIT_P(G0,0,0,320,240,G1,i,0,320+i,240); would scroll horizontally (requires G1 to be 640x240). In fact, you can create a much larger G1, and use BLIT_P to copy the appropriate 320x240 window into G0. So G0 is used to scroll the window within G1. Or did you already try this and it was too slow?

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 22, 2013, 02:03:37 pm

I actually tried with an extra 320x240 GROB (G2) but I noticed an impact on speed. It wasn't really slow, but for very fast scrolling I would definitively have needed to scroll every two pixel or higher.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Han on December 25, 2013, 12:19:03 am

Code: [Select]

export VSCROLL()
begin
  local i;
  dimgrob_p(G1,320,240);
  blit_p(G1,G0);
  for i from 239 downto 0 step 1 do
    blit_p(G0,0,0,G1,0,240-i,320,240);
    blit_p(G0,0,i,G1,0,0,320,240-i);
  end;
end;

This scrolls the current screen pretty fast. Modifying it for horizontal scrolling is also pretty fast.

Code: [Select]

export HSCROLL()
begin
  local i;
  dimgrob_p(G1,320,240);
  blit_p(G1,G0);
  for i from 319 downto 0 step 1 do
    blit_p(G0,0,0,G1,320-i,0,320,240);
    blit_p(G0,i,0,G1,0,0,320-i,240);
  end;
end;

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: bb010g on December 25, 2013, 07:05:56 pm

There should be a INPUTSTRING to go along with INPUT. It just sets var to the string of what was input, so the user can do whatever they want without typing quotes.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 31, 2013, 01:23:20 am

Quote from: Han on December 25, 2013, 12:19:03 am

Code: [Select]
export VSCROLL() begin local i; dimgrob_p(G1,320,240); blit_p(G1,G0); for i from 239 downto 0 step 1 do blit_p(G0,0,0,G1,0,240-i,320,240); blit_p(G0,0,i,G1,0,0,320,240-i); end; end;
This scrolls the current screen pretty fast. Modifying it for horizontal scrolling is also pretty fast.

Code: [Select]
export HSCROLL() begin local i; dimgrob_p(G1,320,240); blit_p(G1,G0); for i from 319 downto 0 step 1 do blit_p(G0,0,0,G1,320-i,0,320,240); blit_p(G0,i,0,G1,0,0,320-i,240); end; end;

Thanks for this. I'll keep this in mind the next time :)

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 04, 2014, 04:17:55 pm

Not really a bug, but more feature suggestions:

-The ability to see how much RAM is being used and the total amount of RAM. Maybe in the Memory menu?

-The ability to see how much program/variable/application storage memory (I assume it's the Flash, right?) is left.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 08, 2014, 01:57:47 pm

Suggestion:

-Make it so that in the program menu, the Enter key runs the program instead of opening the program editor. This is how it works on TI and Casio calculators (other than the Classpad) and it would considerably reduce risks of users accidentally modifying program code when a program exits. I often found myself landing in the program editor due to mashing Enter in certain games or programs and accidentally adding an extra linebreak splitting the first line of code in half. Also, since I am so used to pressing ENTER to run programs, I often press it by mistake in attempt to run the program, only to end up in the editor.

-Password protection for program code. Although I discourage closed sourceness so we can learn in this free community, password protection could fix the issue mentionned above.

-A variable type with values that won't get erased even after pressing the Reset button on the calculator back nor exiting the program menu. This would make it possible for programmers to let the user save his program settings, game saves and highscores without losing them all everytime he accidentally opens the program code then exits.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: bb010g on January 09, 2014, 09:12:08 pm

Feature Requestions:
1. Will we be getting the «»'s back soon? I really like them for debugging and things. You already have a RPN→BASIC framework set up (I'd think, with working RPN in home and function symbolic view input ("'X' 2 *" to "'X*2'").
2. Will there ever be named vars like in the other HP calculators (with nice menus and stuff)? You could make it an option on the last page of Home settings.
3. Is calc-to-calc IO planned or scrapped? You say to ignore it in the packaging, but you do have it implemented a bit...
4. Will we see built in 3D geometry? The CAS produces commands for it when you run the example for plotparam.
Bugs:
1. Help > Main says "This is the online help system for your HP Prime." The help is repeatedly referred to as such elsewhere. (Also, if it says that, where can we find the help online? :))
2. General crashiness when using menus a lot without closing it. Try going into CAS and doing Toolbox > CAS > Polynomial and pressing left-right repeatedly; it gives a crash pretty handily.
3. Geometry Symb's default GA is undef, you can keep it that way if you hit cancel. Attempts to set it from CAS have no effect upon repeated sets.
4. Advanced Geometry Symb: Tapping upon a non-null V var doesn't show the same menu as if you pressed Edit.
5. SIN(π)≠0. I get the exact same number on my 35s. I don't know if you can fix it, but it would be nice.
6. User Keyboard help page does not specify how to set User keys. It looks useful, but I'm lost.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: MacBernick on January 17, 2014, 10:28:07 am

I think I ran into a bug, sorry if it has already been reported.

The append() function seems to be broken when using non-exported globals. Look at this code :

Code: [Select]

lst;

EXPORT appendTest()
BEGIN
  RECT();
  lst := {1,2,3};
  TEXTOUT_P(lst,0,0);
  lst := append(lst, 4);
  TEXTOUT_P(lst,0,20);
  FREEZE;
END;

The output is in the attached screenshot. It produces a Bad Argument error, and the funniest : variable lst seems to contain the error message as a string.
If adding EXPORT to variable declaration it works fine.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on January 17, 2014, 01:19:41 pm

The reason why is append is a CAS command and the CAS can't access local/temp variables since it has no way to get at the object.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: MacBernick on January 17, 2014, 01:41:12 pm

This OS is a mess :(

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on January 17, 2014, 02:14:23 pm

Note the correct way to do this is replace the append line with lst(0):=4; which works fine.

Title: Re: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 17, 2014, 05:38:57 pm

Tim do you think next version could have a way to save exported vars beyond code recompile? If I play a game with highscores then open the code by mistake, once I exit my highscores (stored in exported vars) are lost.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: MacBernick on January 17, 2014, 05:40:58 pm

Thanks for this syntax, I didn't see it in documentation.

I really don't see how anyone could figure out that inserting at index 0 would push a value at the end of the list, and I don't want to know the logic behind this ^^

Thank you for your fast answers.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: bb010g on January 17, 2014, 07:09:52 pm

If you have no CAS variables and press edit from their menu in Memory, the calc crashes.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: MacBernick on January 31, 2014, 12:17:22 pm

Quick suggestion for the FILLPOLY syntax.

I think it should accept this syntax for list of points :

{[[x1],[y1]], [[x2],[y2]], ...., [[xn],[yn]]}

This way, using translation, scaling, rotating matrix to all the points could be done in a single operation :

{list of point} * [rotation matrix], for example would rotate all the points at once.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on April 04, 2014, 04:28:24 pm

It's been TOO LONG. SO here's some more bugs! Enjoy!

Today's bug: I have a bug with the INPUT command in my new Tetris game. My physical calculator turns off whenever it reaches it. It just turns off. I turn it back on, and program execution continues like normal, INPUT command succeeding and everything.

Today's suggestion: I can't find any functions to alter system settings. Are they in predefined variables, or functions, or what? I'd like to be able to, for example, switch angle modes to the correct one in a program.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 04, 2014, 05:26:38 pm

Heya, nice to see you back. I was wondering where did all the HP crowd go last Winter (every HP Prime game programmer pretty much vanished overnight once January was over. Maybe they got scared at the recent influx in Nspire topics :P)

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on April 06, 2014, 02:37:30 pm

Quote from: iconmaster on April 04, 2014, 04:28:24 pm

Today's suggestion: I can't find any functions to alter system settings. Are they in predefined variables, or functions, or what? I'd like to be able to, for example, switch angle modes to the correct one in a program.

VARS->HOME is where most items of interest will reside. Yes, they are in variables. Note however that some can be overridden by application variables (AAngle takes priority over HAngle) and so to do things properly you need to handle those.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on April 07, 2014, 04:15:39 pm

Quote from: timwessman on April 06, 2014, 02:37:30 pm

VARS->HOME is where most items of interest will reside. Yes, they are in variables. Note however that some can be overridden by application variables (AAngle takes priority over HAngle) and so to do things properly you need to handle those.

How did I not notice that?? Silly me.

A suggestion! I've also have been having trouble when coding recently with aligning my text on screen. I want ti centered, but I can't figure out how big a string will be on the screen! A function to give me the width of a given string of a given font would be nice for my GUI-using programs.

I have to say, though, with the new firmware, I'm going great guns on programming! It's actually sorta nice to work in.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 08, 2014, 07:22:24 pm

There's a new firmware? O.O

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on April 08, 2014, 09:24:54 pm

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on April 08, 2014, 07:22:24 pm

There's a new firmware? O.O

Well, new to me. Apparently, it's been available since 2013!

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 08, 2014, 09:47:23 pm

Oh ok lol. You probably meant the December (or November?) update. I thought you meant that a new one just came out within the last few days :P

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on April 09, 2014, 11:42:18 am

Quote

A suggestion! I've also have been having trouble when coding recently with aligning my text on screen. I want ti centered, but I can't figure out how big a string will be on the screen! A function to give me the width of a given string of a given font would be nice for my GUI-using programs.

I have to say, though, with the new firmware, I'm going great guns on programming! It's actually sorta nice to work in.

Well, I am glad you are liking it more. Here is something to ponder on for you though.

The reality is this - there were simply much higher priority items in the initial development and releases needing focused attention and polish. This means there are definitely some holes in the language (to name a few - getting the width of a string, being able to print something as a user in a 2d formula format, or a much nicer terminal) yet you already have what I think is the fastest user language on any calculator (excluding assembly and things that need a computer to do), easy to learn, and yet extremely capable programming language. There are TONS of things that I would personally like to do in the editor, UI, language, and so on to really make it shine.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on April 09, 2014, 03:31:39 pm

Quote from: timwessman on April 09, 2014, 11:42:18 am

Well, I am glad you are liking it more. Here is something to ponder on for you though.

The reality is this - there were simply much higher priority items in the initial development and releases needing focused attention and polish. This means there are definitely some holes in the language (to name a few - getting the width of a string, being able to print something as a user in a 2d formula format, or a much nicer terminal) yet you already have what I think is the fastest user language on any calculator (excluding assembly and things that need a computer to do), easy to learn, and yet extremely capable programming language. There are TONS of things that I would personally like to do in the editor, UI, language, and so on to really make it shine.

Ah yes, I might of guessed that your schedule is a tad... Tight. I'm okay with that! I'll wait as long as I need to... It'll be worth the wait! And besides, the language is pretty great right now, as you said. I can't wait to see what HP releases next!

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 10, 2014, 03:25:32 am

Btw, what's the stance about the idea of adding a new type of variable that is preserved even if you accidentally open the program code in the editor on-calc? For example, for game highscores or Zelda/Final Fantasy save files? I suggested it a few times before and that issue was brought up a while ago too, but it seemed pretty much ignored.

An example of why this is a serious issue: If I take the Tetris game on Omnimaga, my highscores are saved even after exiting and I can go back to view the top 5. However, if I hit ENTER by mistake (which is common for Nspire/84+/Casio users, since on those calc pressing ENTER launches the program) then run the program again, my highscores are gone.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: timwessman on April 10, 2014, 03:41:19 pm

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on April 10, 2014, 03:25:32 am

Btw, what's the stance about the idea of adding a new type of variable that is preserved even if you accidentally open the program code in the editor on-calc? For example, for game highscores or Zelda/Final Fantasy save files? I suggested it a few times before and that issue was brought up a while ago too, but it seemed pretty much ignored.

Its not so much that its been ignored, rather there have just been higher priority items to look at. Another item to consider is that when we make a change we'd rather make a complete change rather then just patching one instance of a hole in capability. In my mind at least, this ties directly in with the whole underlying variable management, apps vs folders vs archived data, where are variables created, how they are created and similar.

There are many different ways to address the issues of "keeping a variable around long term". Your idea of a special variable is one. Another would be direct access to create and store variables into the flash memory. Another would be to have folders in the system. Another would be to put in something like sqlite and give an actual database that could be used or created at will. Another would be the concept of "projects" that had multiple source files, binary blobs, non-modifiyable data, etc.

In short, there are lots of ways to look at the issue and potentially certain of them are more in the long term direction of how we'd like the platform to move.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: bb010g on April 16, 2014, 03:29:02 am

Suggestions from recent game work:
- All the graphics commands should take an optional last argument of alpha. (I'm looking at rect_p and arc_p in particular.)
- arc_p should take an optional fill color after its edge color, filling the section of the circle cut out by the arc. (Circles are a pain to do manually, and it's right there, looking at me...)
- textout_p should take it's GROB first. Everything else does in graphics!
- An option to use fixed-width style for textout_p wouldn't hurt either.
- Pointers or anonymous functions (or just passing functions like variables) would be a godsend. (I know it's a bit like C, but it works. I'd like to stay functional and still modify state, but I can't do that from a function without lists being parsed or global vars, which are icky and hardcoded. Pointers would allow pass-by-refrence.)
- ~~A higher precision version of Time would be nice, even if it's just Unix.~~ (EDIT: I forgot about ticks. derp)
- Includes!

Also, how much does the compiler optimize? I'm a rather functional programmer and like to make smallish functions; would a function like min(x,y) begin return if x > y then y else x end end be inlined each time? If you could give any sort of list, no matter how basic, of compiler optimizations made, that would be awesome.

Loving Unicode in variable names. Can we have a better explanation of user keys on calc? I finally found this (http://edspi31415.blogspot.com/2013/09/hp-prime-tip-setting-up-user-keys.html), but this should be in help.

Thanks for all you guys do, and good luck on your work.

EDIT 2: I would love pointers. Having call-by-refrence and the ability to assign to on-the-fly variables from otherwise pure functions would be awesome... Also, function pointers.
Related to the optimization topic, can we have an inline tag for functions and either that or a const tag for local program variables?
Would an enum type be a possiblity, working synatically like local (and supporting the other operators)?
I know it sounds like I'm wanting C, but C's pretty boss. There's only so much you can do with effectful BASIC, even if it is compiled. ;)

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on June 25, 2014, 05:09:03 pm

Quote from: bb010g on April 16, 2014, 03:29:02 am

- Pointers or anonymous functions (or just passing functions like variables) would be a godsend. (I know it's a bit like C, but it works. I'd like to stay functional and still modify state, but I can't do that from a function without lists being parsed or global vars, which are icky and hardcoded. Pointers would allow pass-by-refrence.)

Well, you can pass around global functions like this:

Code: [Select]

FUNC1()
BEGIN
 MSGBOX("Function One!!");
END;


FUNC2()
BEGIN
 MSGBOX("Function Two.");
END;


EXPORT PASSITAROUND()
BEGIN
 LOCAL C,L={"FUNC1","FUNC2"},A;
 A:=CHOOSE(C,"Choose 1",L);
 EXPR(L(A)+"()");
END;

You can execute multiple statements in EXPR too, I believe, so there's local functions for you, I guess.

EDIT: While I'm here, I might as well add a bug I found. Quoting is fun, and by fun I mean always buggy. This program crashes, but ONLY on my emulator:

Code: [Select]

EXPORT CRASHHYPE()
BEGIN
 RETURN MAKELIST('I+1',I,1,10);
END;

I know it shouldn't work even if it doesn't crash, but I had to try it.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on June 27, 2014, 08:58:21 am

I have another bug! This one's rather crazy.

My calculator has somehow equated the number two with the empty string.

If I type in 2 to the command line, I get back "". Same goes for typing in 1+1. {1,2,3}? No, it's {1,"",3}. 2 is "" even in programs.

2 works fine in the CAS, though.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: Streetwalrus on June 27, 2014, 11:46:37 am

Wut ? O.O That definitely sounds like a nasty bug.

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on June 27, 2014, 12:08:31 pm

Wow we can't even do simple additions involving 2? O.O

Title: Re: Bugs and Requested Features with the HP Prime and Related Software
Post by: iconmaster on November 20, 2014, 09:43:25 pm

About the 1+1="" bug: I reset my device, and it went away. It comes back sometimes, though. I can't even begin to fathom it.

ANYWAYS. Some questions which are probably feature requests!

I was looking at the IFERR block, and I can't find a mechanism to gather information about what caused the error. I though such a thing existed; the help file for TYPE talks about an error data type. Am I looking for something that exists?

Also, #pragma is interesting. Is there any other uses for it other than separators and integer settings?

Omnimaga

Calculator Community => HP Calculators => Topic started by: sailerboy on September 22, 2013, 11:29:23 pm