Release 0.7.2 "Light" - Libraries, Characters menu

This release introduces four relatively significant features:

1. An Equation Library
2. A more general Library
3. Character menus
4. A character modification catalog

There are also a number of bug fixes and improvements.

Features

• The Equation Library is similar in principle to what is found in the HP50G. It is intended to store equations covering a variety of topics. The Equation Library is accessible using the EQS key (🟦 '()'). It is presently only very sparsely populated, but a future release should add the equations listed in Chapter 5 of the HP50G Advanced User's Reference Manual. Elements of the Equation Library appear as named Equation Objects. The Equation Library is configured by file config/equations.csv.

• The Library is similar to the Equation Library, but for all kinds of objects such as programs or code snippets. The Library is accessible using the LIB key (🟦 VAR). It can be used to customize your calculator, and is intended to play the roles of the CST variable (quick access to common features) and Library Objects / XLIB (external extensions to RPL). Elements of the Library appear as named Library Objects. The Library is configured by file config/library.csv.

• The Characters Menu lets you enter Unicode characters easily, by presenting various classes of characters, such as RPL, Greek or Punct. The Characters Menus is accessible using the CHAR key (🟦 2). It can be used to enter international characters (e.g. Greek or Cyrillic), as well as special characters such as arrows or blocks. The Characters Menu is configured by file config/characters.csv.

• The Characters Catalog appears when the Catalog is active and the cursor is inside some text object. It gives you access to characters that are visually close to the character on the left of the cursor. For example, after typing A, the presented choices include À, a or α. The Characters Catalog is configured by file config/characters.csv.

• compare: Add comparisons for true and false values

• Add TEVAL command (timed evaluation)

Bug fixes

• Do not add unnecessary parentheses in ratios, e.g. (A+B)/(X-Y)
• Make sure we can save back the configuration files correctly
• Improve access path checks to accept config:constants.csv.
• Avoid syntax error in 1/(1+x) due to 1/ being seen as a fraction
• unitfile: Remove slight risk of bad menu display after garbage collection
• date/time: Make sure we save the stack and last args for Date, Time, ...
• parser: Skip spacing when parsing numbers (to parse back →Text result)
• time: Fix rendering of DMS time in lists, matrices, vectors
• catalog: Fix a subtle bug on DM32 leading to a crash using the catalog

Improvements

• constants: Get values of special π and e by name
• constants: Add prefix in editor to identify constants, equations and xlib
• constants: Represent constants with an index for memory and performance
• constants: Parse units containing text
• constants: Allow RCL to recall a constant value
• units: Direct insertion of units after numbers
• menu: Update Roll and RollDown menu entries
• show: Show all decimals for decimal values
• help: Display the correct on-line help topic for constants
• catalog: Use less memory for the sorted IDs
• integrate: Use numerical computations for faster convergence
• locals: Improve error message for bad locals
• graph: Improve graphical rendering of constants (bold) and equations
• graph: Do not add unnecessary parentheses in ratios
• tests: Add tests for characters menu/catalog
• tests: Fix the . vs 0. test
• ui: Do not enter DMS inside text
• tests: Display disabled tests in gray
• catalog: Keep a single spelling, e.g. no add duplicates
• tests: Add extra delay in the wait for update
• makefile: Add dependency of 'all' to the decimal constants
• save: Improve rendering control when saving files
• stack: Do not save stack in plot, integration or solver
• debug: Disable debugging when launching a program from function key
• simulator: Avoid piling up QT draw requests
• doc: Update performance numbers for 1M loops
• simulator: Add sound support
• simulator: Lazy screen refresh
• dmcp: Add UI refresh callback
• simulator: Move QT-dependent code out of dmcp.cpp
• Add reduced font
• runtime: Various changes to isolate QT build from the rest

Release 0.7.1 "Whip" - Bug fixes

Inserting variables, constants or units in a program was broken!
Also a few less critical fixes.

Bug fixes

• decimal: Apply MinimumSignificantDigits to Sig modes
• tests: Fix missing ] at end of vector
• ui: Insert commands for unit conversions, constants and variables
• tests: Adjust help screen snapshot for authors
• menus: Do not clip text for hierarchical menus
• constants: Do not use units that don't parse correctly
• dmcp: Day of week convention adjustment
• help: Fix YouTube video preview

Full Changelog: v0.7.0...v0.7.1

Release 0.7.0 "Temple" - Graphics Equation Rendering

This release introduces a few major improvements, including graphical rendering of equations and matrices, the Show command to display large objects full-screen, customizable constants, and date-related operations.

New features

• Graphical rendering of equations, fractions, matrices, vectors and lists. In graphical rendering mode, variables are showin in italics.
• Constants in the ConstantsMenu, split into categories, and loading from an optional config/constants.csv file, in a way similar to what existed for units.
• Inverse trigonometric functions (asin, acos and atan) now produce unit objects with the current angle mode as a unit. This can be configured by the SetAngleUnits / NoAngleUnits flags.
• Cycle (EEX key) now cycles between angle units.
• R→D and D→R commands to convert between degree and radian in a purely numerical way (no unit). This is for compatibility with HP.
• Add →Deg, →Rad, →Grad, →πr commands, which convert a number to the target unit using current angle mode, and convert an angle to the target angle unit.
• Conversion from DMS to HMS and from HMS to DMS
• Rendering of dates: 19681205_date renders as Fri 5/Dec/1968, with a format configuration using the same flags as for the header. Note that the date format is YYYYMMDD, not the same as on HP calculators. This allows YYYYMMDD.hhmmss for dates with time.
• Date and Time command to return the current date and time. Additionally, DateTime returns both date and time, and ChronoTime returns the time with 1/100s precision.
• →Date and →Time commands to set the system date and time
• Date+, DDays and date arithmetic using + or -, using day units for the results. As an extension relative to HP calculators, these will accept fractional days, or other time units. For example, adding 1000000_s to 19681205_date generates a date with time result, Tue 16/Dec/1968, 13:46:40
• JulianDayNumber and DateFromJulianDayNumber commands to convert between dates and Julian day numbers. These commands also accept fractional input.
• Show command showing a full-screen graphical rendering of the result on the stack. The resut is size-adjusted. For example, you can display all digits in 200!. If the result does not fit on the screen, you can scroll using the ◀︎ and ▶︎, as well as 8, 6, 4 and 2. The maximum pixel size for Show is set by MaxW (default is the width of the LCD), the maximum height is set by MaxH (default is 2048 pixels).
• AutoScaleStack and NoAutoScaleStack settings to automatically adjust the font size for the stack elements.
• Support for system flags -20 to -26 (infinite results, overflow and underflow).

Bug fixes

• simulator: Adjust DMCP month off-by-one error
• Repair insertion of while loops and similar commands on the command line
• Use stack format when drawing an object with DrawText (DISP)
• Arithmetic on unit objects no longer auto-simplifies, e.g. 1_s 1_s - returns 0_s and not 0.
• Perform computations for →Q using integer values, which avoids an issue where increasing the number of iterations with an unachievable precision could prodduce 1/1 as the fractional result.
• Repair auto-simplification for i*i=-1
• Display a negative mixed fraction as -1 1/3 and not 1 -1/3.
• Do not insert () after a multiplication in algebraic mode
• Accept units and tagged objects in PolarToReal and RealToPolar
• Accept angle units as input for →DMS
• Off-by-one clipping error in header, erasing the shift annunciator
• Fix help for FC? (incorrectly stating that it tested for flat set)
• Lookup units and constants in a case sensitive way
• Fix labels for ExpFit and LinFit in RegressionMenu.

Improvements

• tests: Adjust tests to match bugs fixed in v0.6.5
• dms: Accept entering minutes without third dot, e.g. 1.2.3 ENTER
• menus: Split the Time, Date and Alarm menus
• Split rendered objects at space boundaries. This notably ensures that large numbers are split at digit grouping boundaries, and makes it possible to display larger programs on the stack. The rendering of programs and matrices/vectors/lists has also been fine-tuned.
• The "white circle" glyph has a thicker border, makes it more readable in menus.
• doc: Update the list of unimplemented features
• menus: Draw a white circle for disabled flags, and allow the menu function to toggle the flag. This made it possible to reduce the number of menu entries for flag-heavy menus.
• Mixed fractions are now the default, as opposed to improper fractions
• doc: Improve the quickstart guide
• doc: Improve the documentation for sin, cos and tan
• tests: Make it possible to interrupt a running test
• help: Skip HTML tags, e.g.
• simulator: Add screenshot capability, and reduce window height
• menus: ToolsMenu selects time, date or angle menu based on units

Full Changelog: v0.6.5...v0.7.0

Release 0.6.5 "Testimony": Small bug fixes

This release does not contain much because FOSDEM took a lot of energy.

New features

• menu: Connect ceil and floor functions
• Add real to polar conversions
• units: Add dms unit to angles menu

Bug fixes

• decimal: Compute ln(0.002) correctly
• integer: Do not parse degree sign if in a complex
• units: Fix parsing of angle units
• font: Add radian glyph

Full Changelog: v0.6.4...v0.6.5

Release 0.6.4 "Healing": Testing and fixes

This release focuses on heavy testing of the new variable-precision decimal stack. Adding tests also means finding bugs.

Another significant change is support for fixed-precision hardware-accelerated floating point, using 32-bit and 64-bit IEEE754 binary floating-point representation. Since this uses a binary format, some decimal values do not map to decimal correctly. For example, displaying 1.2 with a large number of decimals will show residue, because 1.2 does not have an exact (zero-terminated) representation in binary.

New features:

• plotting: Make refresh rate configurable
• menu: Add / key to FractionsMenu
• hwfp: Add support for hardware-accelerated floating-point
• menus: Add hardware floating-point flag to MathModesMenu
• ui: Allow multiple uses of . to insert DMS separators
• HMS: Editing of HMS values in HMS format

Bug fixes:

• stats: Fix crash on variance with single-column statistics
• algebraic: Clear error before evaluating the function
• functions: Correctly emit a type error for non-algebraics
• ui: Make sure we save stack if closing the editor
• logical: Fix mask for rotate left with 64-bit size
• logical: Make sure we save args for single-argument logicals
• flags: Update flags on FlipFlag, consume them from BinaryToFlags
• stack: Show multi-line objects correctly
• lists: Returns Bad argument value for index with bad arguments
• lists: Return an empty list for tail of empty list
• arithmetic: →Frac should not error on integers
• power: Do not shut down during WAIT if on USB power

Improvements:

• menu: Shorten the labels →QIter and →QPrec to avoid scrolling
• stack: Avoid running same code twice on simulator
• ids: Add aliases for hardware floating point
• functions: Optimize abs and neg
• ui: Replace calls to rt.insert with calls to insert
• menu: Reorganize fractions menu
• dms: Do the DMS conversion using fractions
• list: Adjust multi-line rendering
• copyright: Update copyright to 2024
• text: Return null text when indexing past end of text

Testing:

• tests: Increase the delay for help to draw
• tests: Add tests for hardware-accelerated floating-point
• tests: Add shifts and rotate tests
• tests: Check flag functions
• tests: Test DMS and HMS operations
• tests: Add test for integrate using decimal values
• tests: Test multi-line stack display
• tests: Add tests for GETI
• tests: Min and max commands
• tests: Repair last regression test
• tests: Check behaviour of 0^0
• tests: Avoid string overflow in case of very long message

Full Changelog: v0.6.3...v0.6.4

Release 0.6.3 "Come and See": Repair test suite

The focus of this release was to reactivate the test suite and fix the problems that were found activating it.

New features:

• HMS and DMS operations
• unit: Rendering of dms and hms units
• Allow · as a multiplication sign in equations
• ui: Display 'E' cursor inside parentheses
• graphics: Accept based integers as position for DrawText
• complex: Add setting to switch between 2+3i and 2+i3.

Bug fixes:

• decimal: Fix precision loss for addition with carry
• Base: limit range of bases to 2-36
• files: Do not add a trailing zero when reading a text file
• decimal: Adjust MinimumSignificantDigits behaviour
• units: Do not auto-simplify 1.0 during conversion
• decimal: Normalize parsed numbers
• solver: Fix sign error in epsilon exponent for solve/integrate
• parser: Accept x! as input
• simulator: Avoid faulty break-through in switch statement
• complex: Make tag higher-priority than complex
• editor: Adjust cursor and select correctly during replace
• decimal: Fix display of 0.2 in NoTrailingDecimal mode
• complex: Save this in a GC pointer when it can move
• arithmetic: Do not fail because of surrounding error
• decimal: Clamp int32 conversions from decimal
• commands: Parse exp10 correctly in expressions
• decimal: Avoid infinite loop computing expm1
• ids: Do not allow parsing of structures
• dmcp: Make sure the tests don't block on wait_for_key
• decimal: Use correct angle unit for negative gamma values

Improvements:

• settings: Add classes that save/restore a given setting
• Add XSHIFT to shift to XSHIFT state directly
• Add NOSHIFT constant to simplify test writing
• ui: Add a variant of close_editor without trailing zero
• decimal: Cache gamma_ck values (accelerate gamma and lgamma)
• Replace magic constant -1 with EXIT_PGM
• doc: Record performance data for 1000 iterations of SumTest
• decimal: Add tracing for gamma / lgamma function

New tests:

• Add tests for arithmetic truncation on short bitsizes
• Add tests for on-line help
• Add test for plotting flags
• Add test for Unicode to text conversions
• Add test for rectangular complex display options
• Add tests for plot scaling functions
• Add tests for the sorting functions
• Add test for parsing text with quotes inside
• Add test for file-based STO and RCL
• Add test for 2^256 computation (buf #460)
• Fix indentation of [PASS] or [FAIL] for UTF8 characters
• Add tests for units and conversions
• Add a keyboard test checking the single-colon insert in text
• Add test for i*i=-1 auto-simplification
• Add basic test for numerical integration
• Add test for fraction formats
• Add solver test
• Add missing tests
• Add test for immediate STO (#390)
• Add tests for the Cycle command
• Add test for catalog feature
• Add test for "smart" keyboard shortcuts introduced in 0.4.6
• Add regression test for #371
• Add tests for editor operations
• Test stack operations
• Add test for GXor, GOr and GAnd
• Add test for ResetModes
• Add plotting test for every decimal function
• Add image checking for graphical tests
• Add tests for graphic and text drawing commands
• Make it possible to individually run tests.
• Add plotting tests
• Add test parsing the various spellings for commands

Full Changelog: v0.6.1...v0.6.3

Release v0.6.2 "Kephas": Restoring the test suite

The focus of this release was to complete the transition to the variable-precision decimal code. The full regression test suite was restored, with only two tests still failing (complex asin and asinh). The two missing functions, Gamma and LogGamma, were implemented. This also exposed many bugs that were fixed.

New features:

• NumberedVariables setting to allow 0 STO to ease RPN transcoding (#690)
• ClearStack (CLEAR) command
• Variable-precision gamma and lgamma functions (#710)

Bug fixes:

• Do not leave bad expression on stack after error (#663)
• Reject unit conversion between undefined units (#664)
• Accept names of menus on the command line (#669)
• tests: CLEAR clears stack and errors (#672)
• The : characters now starts a tag on empty command line (#673)
• Do not evaluate tagged objects too early (#674)
• test: Entry and editing of equations (#677)
• test: type returns negative values in "detailed" mode (#678)
• Run loop end pointer not GC-adjusted for last allocated object (#679)
• Do not erase alpha indicator when clearing busy cursor (#680)
• Do not emit trailing space when rounding 1.999 to 2. (#687)
• Allow expression rewrites to deal with pow (#694)
• Reject « character in symbols and commands (#695)
• Rendering of spacing for decimal numbers (#699)
• Improve precision of atan function
• Rendering of + and - operators in compatibility modes (#700)
• Rounding of decimal numbers no longer generates bad characters (#702)
• No longer error out rendering symbolic complex (#703)
• Parse complex numbers correctly inside equations (#704)
• Ensure sqrt(-1) has a zero real part (#705)
• Do not drop last digit of decimal subtraction (#706)
• Evaluate expressions during expression pattern matching (#708)
• LastMenu executes immediately while editing (#711)
• Add back missing angle glyphs in font (#712)
• Return correct angle quadrant for atan2 (#715)
• Get no longer rejects arrays as index values (#718)
• Get returns correct error for bad argument types (#718)

Improvements:

• Update .gitignore entry
• Automated testing of setting flags (#657)
• Automated testing of non-flag settings (#670)
• Test fixed-base based numbers using HP-compatible lowercase notation (#675)
• Test fraction rendering using fancy digits (#676)
• Add test for "compatible" variant of type command (#678)
• test: Recover from error during data entry (#681)
• Increase default MaxNumberBits to 4096 (#686)
• tests: Add test for cube root of -8 (#685)
• tests: Data entry for Σ, ∏ and ∆ (#689)
• Restrict STO to names, natural numbers and specific IDs (#688)
• doc: Document flas file access for STO and RCL (#691)
• list: Optimize iterators to avoid copies (#692)
• tests: spacing-independent testing of structure rendering (#693)
• tests: adjust test suite for variable-precision decimals (#696)
• tests: Automatically exit if -T option is given (#697)
• tests: Check we don't accept . as meaning 0. for RPL compatibility
• Add modulus alias back for abs (#707)
• Improve convergence speed and accuracy for logarithms
• Add decimal::make to minimize risk of sign errors
• Display stack level at top of stack level, not bottom (#709)
• Improve complex sqrt accuracy on real axis (#714)
• tests: Test decimal functions at full 34 digits precision (#716)
• Complex sqrt and cbrt with full precision (#717)
• tests: Take into account additional expression simplifications

Signed-off-by: Christophe de Dinechin christophe@dinechin.org

Full Changelog: v0.6.0...v0.6.2

Release 0.6.1 "Happy New Year": Quick bug fixes

A few quick bug fixes that make DB48X a bit more usable.

New features

• Setting to display 2+i3 instead of 2+3i (#660)
• HMS and DMS operations (#654)
• Special 1_dms and 1_hms units rendering in DMS / HMS (#650)

Bug fixes

• Improve behavior of +/- key while editing (#658)
• Do not accept base 37 (#656)
• Insert for statement in program instead of executing it (#655)
• Hide trailing decimal separator for decimals with integer values (#653)
• Fix display of 19.8 with 0 FIX (#652)
• Implement true decimal to integer conversion (#648)

Improvements

• doc: Record performance data for 0.6.0
• doc: Udpate status file

Full Changelog: v0.6.0...v0.6.1

Release 0.6.0 "Christmas": Introducing variable precision

This release was a bit longer in coming than earlier ones, because we are about
to reach the limits of what can fit on a DM42. This release uses 711228 bytes
out of the 716800 (99.2%).

Without the Intel Decimal Library code, we use only 282980 bytes. This means
that the Intel Decimal Library code uses 60.2% of the total code space. Being
able to move further requires a rather radical rethinking of the project, where
we replace the Intel Decimal Library with size-optimized decimal code.

As a result, release 0.6.0 introduces a new table-free and variable-precision
implementation of decimal computations. In this release, most operations are
implemented, but some features are still missing (e.g. Gamma function). This
release will be simultaneous with 0.5.2, which is functionally equivalent but
still uses the Intel Decimal library. The new implementation is much more
compact, allowing us to return to normal optimizations for the DM42 and regain
some of the lost performance. On the other hand, having to switch to a table
free implementation means that it's significantly slower than the Intel Decimal
Library. The upside of course is that you can compute with decimal numbers that
have up to 9999 digits, and a decimal exponent that can be up to 2^60
(1 152 921 504 606 846 976).

New features

Variable precision decimal floating point implementation for arithmetic,
trigonometrics, logs, exponential and integer factorial. Other functions may
still return "unimplemented error".

Bug fixes

None. If anything, this release introduces bugs in computations and performance
regressions. However, it frees a lot of space for further DM42 development.

Improvements

The Precision setting now sets the number of digits with a granularity of one,
between 3 and 9999. Ideal use of memory is with multiples of 12 digits, e.g. 12,
24 or 36 digits, where decimal packing does not cause lost bits.

Performance on the DM42 is somewhat improved, since it is now possible to return
to a higher level of optimization.

Regressions

In addition to lower performance and unimplemented functions, this version no
longer builds a compatible QSPI. This means that returning to the DM42 requires
flashing both the QSPI and the PGM file.

Full Changelog: v0.5.2...v0.6.0

Release 0.5.2 "Christmas Eve": Reaching hard limits on the DM42

This release was a bit longer in coming than earlier ones, because we are about
to reach the limits of what can fit on a DM42. This release uses 711228 bytes
out of the 716800 (99.2%).

Without the Intel Decimal Library code, we use only 282980 bytes. This means
that the Intel Decimal Library code uses 60.2% of the total code space. Being
able to move further requires a rather radical rethinking of the project, where
we replace the Intel Decimal Library with size-optimized decimal code.

As a result, release 0.5.2 will be the last one using the Intel Decimal Library,
and is release in parallel with 0.6.0, which switches to a table-free and
variable-precisions implementation of decimal code that uses much less code
space. The two releases should otherwise be functionally identical

New features

• Shift and rotate instructions (#622)
• Add CompatibleTypes and DetsailedTypes setting to control Type results
• Recognize HP-compatible negative values for flags, e.g. -64 SF (#625)
• Add settings to control multiline result and stack display (#634)

Bug fixes

• Truncate to WordSize the small results of binary operations (#624)
• Fix day-of-week shortcut in simulator
• Avoid double-evaluation of immediate commands when there is no help
• Generate an error when selecting base 1 (#628)
• Avoid Number too big error on based nunbers
• Correctly garbage-collect menu entries (#630)
• Select default settings that allow solver to find solutions (#627)
• Fix display of decimal numbers (broken by multi-line display)
• Fix rendering of menu entries for Fix, Std, etc
• Detect non-finite results in arithmetic, e.g. (-8)^0.3m (#635, #639)
• Fix range-checking for Dig to allow -1 value
• Accept large values for Fix, Sci and Eng (for variable precision)
• Restore missing last entry in built-in units menu (#638)
• Accept Hz and non-primary units as input for ConvertToUnitPrefix (#640)
• Fix LEB128 encoding for signed value 64 and similar (#642)
• Do not parse IfThenElse as a command
• Do not consider E as a digit in decimal numbers (#643)
• Do not parse min as a function in units, but as minute (#644)

Improvements

• Add OnesComplement flag for binary operation (not used yet)
• Add ComplexResults (-103) flag (not used yet)
• Accept negative values for B→R (according to WordSize)
• Add documentation for STO and RCL accessing flash storage
• Mention True and False in documentation
• Rename MaxBigNumBits to MaxNumberBits
• Return HP-compatible values from Type function
• Minor optimization of flags implementation
• Catalog auto-completion now suggests all possible spellings (#626)
• Add aliases for CubeRoot and Hypothenuse
• Align based number promotion rules to HP calculators (#629)
• Expand the range of garbage collector integrity check on simulator
• Show command according to preferences in error messages (#633)
• Avoid crash in debug_printf if used before font initialization
• Update performance data in documentation
• Add ability to disable any reference to Intel Decimal Floating-point library
• Simplify C++ notations for safe pointers (+x and operartor bool())
• Fix link to old db48x project in README.md

Full Changelog: v0.5.1...v0.5.2