50G CASINFO & CASDIR Question

[Matt Agajanian]

Hi there. What is lost if I delete these? Is there a way to recover these if their contents are vital to the 50G?

Edited: 28 Apr 2012, 10:26 p.m.

[peacecalc]

Hi Matt,

what you are deleting? The directory "CASDIR" or "CASINFO"?

"vital to the 50g", do mean in RAM memory?

Sincerely
peacecalc

[Matt Agajanian]

In an effort to clean up my working with the 50G after I tried some examples in the manual, I know I deleted CASINFO but, I may have deleted CASDIR by accident. In the event that CASDIR is still intact, how can I check?

As for 'Vital,' I am concerned with accidentally deleting OS, System, necessary files and functions crucial to the 50G's operation.

Edited: 29 Apr 2012, 8:11 p.m.

[Tim Wessman]

If the folder, object, or directory is needed for operation of the calculator, it will ALWAYS be checked for and created as needed.

The only real way you can screw something up is to mess with things into the hidden directory without knowing what you are doing.

TW

Edited: 29 Apr 2012, 8:12 p.m.

[Raymond Del Tondo]

Quote:

---

The only real way you can screw something up is to mess with things into the hidden directory without knowing what you are doing.

---

And even in that event the calc could be reset to normal functionality by initiating a cold start, as described in the manual.

[Bart (UK)]

So Tim, if I am correct it should do no harm to delete CASDIR - it will just be re-created (and variables in it created as and when certain CAS functions are used). Also items like 'VX' can be changed (default contents is 'X' and setting this to another letter is the same as MODE -> CAS and changing "Indep var:" ). As long as these things are not done while the CAS is busy with something.

And hidden things are hidden for a reason - so users generally can't cause crashes. Now many users do play with the hidden stuff, but they know the risk of losing all their data, variables and programs.

But in response to Matt's question of damaging or deleting the OS, that would not be possible by deleting some visible system directories, right?

Of course, taking Matt's question further - the OS is re-loadable, but how is the boot-loader stored? on Flash or ROM? Can that be damaged?

[Matt Agajanian]

And I presume, getting to the hidden directories takes some technically detailed commands and parameters that aren't easily accessed through the normal operation. So, if this is what it takes, I would seriously need to go out of my way to truly mess this up. Right?

[Tim Wessman]

Yes.

When I say "mess it up", I mean that you'll probably lose the contents of your RAM. That is the extent at which you can mess things up accidentally.

TW

[Matt Agajanian]

No problem then, right? Being that after I was going through the manual's examples, there was no need for me to reuse anything that was (what I presume) created for the usage of the example at hand. I though to clean up the the memory by removing the data recently created for the example I just tried.

Edited: 29 Apr 2012, 9:11 p.m.

[Tim Wessman]

I have noticed most your posts seem to be in response to something someone else wrote, but they almost always are placed as if you clicked on the poster above. It makes it a bit hard to follow the thread. Are you clicking the "reply" button on the post that you are responding to? Or somewhere else?

Sorry for asking, it has just seems very strange to me to see that...

For example, look at the post I responded to with this. It appears you are responding to my previous post, yet it appears as if you are actually replying to yourself. :-|

TW

Edited: 29 Apr 2012, 9:42 p.m.

[Matt Agajanian]

I try to follow the hierarchy/outline but, perhaps with this one, I pressed 'Respond' under the wrong posting author and inadvertently posted under my own comment when I was intending to post in response to you. Sorry. My goof. Perhaps you could give me an example of how subsequent postings are sup[posed to go.

Thanks

Edited: 29 Apr 2012, 9:54 p.m.

[Tim Wessman]

I am not trying to be picky here or make anyone feel bad or anything. However, I do find it hard to follow the thread sometimes when I don't know to which post someone is responding.

Here are three recent examples. If you look at those (compare the indentation and where they are positioned), the way the posts are threaded it appears you are having a wonderful conversation with yourself. :-)

Now these are fairly easy to figure out, but I do remember some in the past that there were at least 2 or 3 possible posts to which your followup could have been responding to.

Just take a second, and then click "respond" on the exact post to which you are responding. That will keep the threading consistent and help the discussion flow better. Thanks!

TW

Edited: 29 Apr 2012, 11:43 p.m.

[Ethan Conner]

It has been my experience that clicking respond on the proper post does not mean it will end up where it should in the thread.

[Tim Wessman]

Hmm. I had not noticed that before and retract this whole OT discussion. :-)

It just seemed to happen with Matt's posts quite frequently lately and I noticed it. However, sample size may have something to do with that. ;-)

TW

[Bart (UK)]

Where mesages are displayed depends on what viewing optionds you have selected and what other messages have been posted in response to a particular message - but I have always seen it correctly noted as "in response to message xx by xxxx" in the header of the mesage. And as threads become longer and spawn sub-threads, it does start looking messy.

I agree with Tim that Matt has a habit of replying to his own messages when actually responding to someone else. Usually I can follow where he's at by interpreting what he's typed. But as mentioned with long & messy threads it becomes more difficult - and then it helps to look at "in response to message xx by xxxx", and it doesn't help when it says "by Matt in response to message xx by Matt".

So Matt, kindly click on "Respond" of the actual message that you are replying to and not your own one above that. Note, this is just a friendly request, I welcome your posts and like reading them - please continue to contribute :-).

[Matt Agajanian]

Thanks for the tip and clarification.

[Bart (UK)]

Hi Matt,

Even if you damage or delete the OS, with the 50g that should not be a problem - you can re-load it. It is available here: HP-50G ROM 2.15, instructions are included but if you need help you know here to ask :-).

[Software49g]

> - you can re-load it. It is available here

And the unofficial ROM update (OSE+HLP) is available from my site,

as this official ROM from HP is *over* three years old.



Regards,

Andreas

http://www.software49g.gmxhome.de