Where do we usually download released firmwares for HP calculators ?

Yup, it would be great to have this kind of information on the wiki

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.

some features feel incomplete

Examples please?

Also, Sailerboy on IRC last night has complained about cryptic error messages when using some math equations and stuff on the main screen. Sadly the logs appears to be offline though so it would be hard to retrieve the screenshots he did. Nonetheless, they were definitively cryptic or even non-existent.


Also Iconmaster I think they decided to cut down ASM features because of concerns about cheating tools like PTTKiller on TI calcs. However the door is supposedly not fully closed. I just hope that people who hack the calc use common sense and restrict their use of ASM/C for games and legit tools if it ever becomes possible on this calc. Staff will most likely delete any cheating program from the forums anyway, like with PTTKiller. Also, I think the higher focus on algebraic view or whatever it is called, rather than RPN, was to make the calcs easier to use for more people, so that people won't get a TI instead.

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.

Ah I see Tim, I worried that the OS was still in beta lol, but if that was the case, I would have been surprised at how stable it is per beta standards (at least, from what I saw in the emu). I hope it's quite stable for myself in its final form too .   

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.


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.


In the below picture, both the function on the top and the bottom are equivalent, but the Prime refuses to evaluate the top symbolically.


Implicit multiplication seems to work randomly. 13x seems to work, but 13sin(x) throws yet another, even less descriptive error.


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)



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.

Also, there's no way to select the item on drop-down input boxes without touching the screen. I'd think you could hit ENTER to open up the dropdown, but no.

You can use plus and minus to go between options in drop down boxes, but this is definitely not a great solution.

Also, what is the user function supposed to be used for? I tried looking in the manual and couldn't find anything. It's under shift+help.

Quote from: sailerboy on September 21, 2013, 07:14:26 pm

Also, what is the user function supposed to be used for? I tried looking in the manual and couldn't find anything. It's under shift+help.

It redefines keys. You make programs with the KEY function instead of the EXPORT function, and the function's name is K_ and then the key's name (numbers are themselves, but more complex key names use This Case). You then press User and then the key you redefined to execute the program. I know; at first, I was used to the 50g notion of adding functions to a userkey list and thus thought the key was useless; as it turns out, there's a different method for userkeys on the Prime.

Is this comparable to anything that TI has?

Is this comparable to anything that TI has?

It's kinda like the TI-89's kbdprgm keys, but better. With my 50g, I usually had USR-LOCK on at all times.