Seeking DIY4X update

[David Griffith]

I'm hungry for an update on the DIY4X project. Any news on case material and manufacture? What's the status of the code? Any sort of deadlines or such?

[Eric Smith]

All further work is on DIY5. At the HHC conference there was an overwhelming lack of interest in a 41C-compatible calculator; all of the interest was in calculators more like the 42S and WP-34S.

Case material is ABS plastic.

If there was any news I'd have posted it here already.

[Ángel Martin]

Hi Eric, I recently watched the HHC video with your talk. I could not see the raise of hands when you asked "41 vs. 42 ALPHA style", but I hope the "soft ALPHA" didn't win.... or it did?

Looking forward to DIY5!

[Walter B]

AFAIK, alpha letters are requested to be printed on the keyplate like on the WP 34S.

[Matt Agajanian]

How would the extended symbols/punctuation characters be entered? For example, might '&' be entered like this: [ALPHA] [g SHIFT] [9] ?

[Walter B]

Not decided yet. Please see pp.62 and 129 of the WP 34S manual for a viable approach on a platform not allowing for menus. Keyboard space is still limited - so some mental links are necessary to avoid clutter - while menu space is abundant on a DIY5 allowing for softkeys.

Edited: 13 Nov 2012, 5:05 a.m.

[Eric Smith]

I think it would be perfectly fine to have a character menu in addition to the character-per-key ALPHA mode. Didn't the 48 have that?

[Eric Smith]

My recollection is that no one wanted to the 42S-style alpha soft menu.

[Ángel Martin]

Quote:

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no one wanted to the 42S-style alpha soft menu.

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Thank goodness for that :-)

[David Griffith]

I kind of like the way the HP42s does menus

[Eric Smith]

Surely you don't like using the menu for ALPHA mode? Everyone else seems to prefer the character-per-key approach, like the 41 and 48.