Posts: 167
Threads: 31
Joined: Jun 2006
Well, I answered at least part of my own question. The book "Extend Your HP-41" by W.A.C. Mier-Jedrzejowicz, Ph.D. (Second Printing November 1985) Has an Appenix C - System Bugs, Nasty Surprises, and ROM Revisions. On page 635 there continues a section on the HP-IL Development Module and a bug with the OCTIN and BININ functions. It reads "A bug that can be good or bad is that the hexadecimal entry keys A-F are not disabled during execution of OCTIN and BININ. When one of these keys is pressed before any numeric digitsa have been entered, the key's defaultfunction is displayed as if it was a program step and the input function is terminated; this happensin user mode too. If you release the key before the the function is nulled then the function you are executing (OCTIN and BININ ) is stored as a program step at the current position in the current program, even if you are in run mode. If you have entered at least one digit, numeric entry is terminated and the default function, or the assigned function in USER mode, is executed, as should happen. As it alters programs unexpectedly, this is a bad bug unless youa are a synthetic programmer who want to change a program without decompiling it. The OCTIN or BININ step will open up a new register iuf there are not two bytes available at the current position. This will change the positions of other bytes in the program, but compiled jumps will be decompliled when you next enter and leave PRGM mode, or when you turn the HP-41 off and on (unless you have Bug 8). If the OCTIN or BININ is executed in a running program or single-stepped then the program pointer will move and a byte will be entered into the program at its new position. These OCTIN and BININ bugs are also present in the Advantage module." The "-ADV CONV B " version of the Advatage module corrected and eliminated this bug.
