Been a long time since I posted here. I received my HP Prime a few days ago and generally I am impressed, although I also look forward to the many tweaks and improvements in the firmware we'll likely see in the future, thanks to the dedicated people working on this project. I also wanted to chime in that I agree with those that find the key labels to have poor contrast. I find them quite difficult to read in almost any light! Although my eyesight is not what it used to be, I don't have any issues with my other calculators, like my 15C, 35S or 50g for example. However the keyboard feel and responsiveness of the Prime is fantastic!
While I do like the tremendous programming environment flexibility of my 50g, I also appreciate the easier to read, more "conventional" programming language that the Prime offers, especially since it allows for persistent comments as well. However one bit of frustration has been that I have not been able to figure out how one can access the RPN-mode stack from within a program? Is it possible to read/write values from/to the RPN stack?
The first programs I wanted to write were ones to help with quicker STO/RCL from the stack, mimicking the simplicity of older HP calculators. For example, on my 50g I too found STO and RCL not to be as quick and convenient as, for example, on my 15C, so I created STOX and RCLX programs that reside on the first page of the CUSTOM menu for quick access. When you press STOX, the calculator pauses and waits for a keystroke. It then creates a variable in a special directory with a name corresponding to the numerical key-code of the subsequent key pressed, both unshifted and shifted. STOX then stores the object on level 1 of the stack into that variable. RCLX will recall the object associated with that key-code and push it onto the stack.
My STOX and RCLX programs on the 50g allow me rapid access to over 120 quick "memory locations" and I was hoping to write something similar for the HP Prime (although GETKEY will only allow for unshifted "memory locations", which is still plenty) simply using a list rather than custom variable names, however so far I am stymied by the apparent lack of RPN stack access. I have tried looking in the manuals and have tried Googling, but so far to no avail. Is there an as-yet unpublished way of doing this?
Appreciate any help or suggestions... thanks!
Regards,
Mike Mander