Help of PoloCalc
Index
About RPN notation
If your are interested in using PoloCalc, you probably know the
efficiency of the Reverse Polish Notation (RPN). Maybe you are so used
to your HP calculator that you are unable to adapt usual desktop calculators
(my case). For those unfamiliar to the notation you only have to consider
only two rules :
-
Each number entered is placed into a FIFO stack;
-
each operation is performed between the latest two number entered into
the stack.
This notation is very efficient with computations that requires a lot of
parenthesis : the expression « a * ( b + c ) / ( d - e )
= » that requires 14 key hits becomes «
a E b E c + * d E e - / » with the RPN notation (12
key hits, where E is the Enter Key).
The upper part of the calculator board shows two text fields. The first
and bigger one displays the state of the stack on six lines. The second
one (just below the keys Cst, Sto, Var, Rm) is the input field. Before
any operation, the value of the input field (if the input field contains
a value) is transfered at the top of the stack. Thus, there is no need
to enter :
«5 Enter 3 Enter + »
In order to add 5 and 3. Actually, just enter :
«5 Enter 3 + ».
Index
Main functions
Constants and variables management
The [Cst] key pops up a menu that give access to constants previously
defined by the user. The values of these constantes are stored in the text
file : « constantes.hph ». This file can be edited and changed
with any file editor. The syntaxt is quite intuitive : any name followed
by a numeric value, separated by one or several blank(s) or tab(s) is considered
as a new const. A single name on a line start a sub menu that will contains
all the following variables.
The [Sto] key takes the latest value, or the value of the input
field, as the name of a new variable. The value stored in this variable
is the previous value of the stack. The name of the variable must have
a "string" type. Any previously defined variable can be recovered by the
key [Var].
The [Var] key pops up a menu allowing access to variable previously
defined by the [Sto] key. It is unactivated if no variable has been
defined.
The [Var] key pops up a menu allowing deletion to variable previously
defined by the [Sto] key. It is unactivated if no variable has been
defined.
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Inverse key
The Inverse key (top left of the calculator keyboard) swich on the "inverse
mode". This modify the behaviour of the keys located in the three first
lines of the caculator keyboard.
-
The [Copy] key become [Cp All], which allow the copy of all
the stak instead of only the last result;
-
The [x2] key becomes the square root key ([Sqr]);
-
The [Pow] key become the root key ([Root]);
-
The [ln] key becomes [Exp];
-
The [log10] key becomes [ 10^];
-
The [cos] key becomes [acos];
-
The [sin] key becomes [asin];
-
The [tan] key becomes [atan];
A second click on the Inverse key resets initial functions.
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Drop key
The [Drop] key deletes the last element of the list (bottom of output
field). The shortcut for this key is F5. If the down arrow (other shortcut)
is used instead the last element of the stack is copied in the input field
before deletion.
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CLR key
The [CLR] key delete all the stack content. There are two shortcut
for it: « Suppr » or « Del » (according to your
keyboard), and « Verr Num » (to respect the correspondance
between the calculator board and the numeric keyboard).
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Swap key
The [Swap] key swaps the two last elements of the stack.
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Pick key
The [Pick] key removes the last element of the stack (or the element
in the input field if it exists). Converts it into an interger "n" and
copies the element of rank n (n from the bottom of the stack). In other
terms, it brings down at the bottom of the stack any data anywhere in the
stack.
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Copy key
The [Copy] key copies the last value of the stack (presumably the
result of your computations) into the keyboard. This allows to paste it
in any other application (for example the text you are writting). The [Cp
All] key (obtained with the inverse key - see Inverse
key ), copies all the stack into the clipboard.
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Enter key
The [Enter] Puts the input field value into the stack (and clears
the input field). But if the input fiels is empty, the [Enter] key
duplicates the last value of the stack, just as the « Dup »
item of the Stack Menu .
Undo key
The [Undo] key restore the stack as it was before the latest operation.
If the latest things you entered where "2 +", + is considered as the latest
operation. Thus the stack recovered with undo includes a "2" that can be
easilly removed by a [Drop].
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Menus
File menu
Save default : this function saves the content of the stack in a
default file whose name is not asked to the user. At any moment, the user
can recover the state of the stack (at the last backup) using the Load
default item of the menu.
A backup is always performed at the end of any PoloCalc cession. Thus
it is always possible to recover the state of the stack at the end of the
last cession wwith the Load default item of the menu (this is very
useful if you close the calculator by mistake).
Save to file : this function saves the content of the stack in
a file named by the user (by default a *.poc file). The file content is
not erased at the end of the cession. Thus the state of the stack can be
reloaded any time later by the Load file item of the menu.
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Edit Menu
This menu includes "Copy" et "Copy All" which have
the same behaviour of the Copy key . And, VERY
IMPORTANT : "Undo" (shortcut « Alt+u ») that allows
to recover the stack state before the last operation performed.
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Stack Menu
This menu includes stack management functions. Some of them are also available
through calculator keyboard of shortcut : Dup ( Enter
key ), Drop ( Drop key ), swap ( Swap
key ), pick ( Pick key ) and CLR ( CLR
key ).
-
Swap :
-
swaps the two last elements of the stak ;
-
Dup :
-
duplicates last element of the stack (or the element in the input field
if it exists);
-
Dupn :
-
removes the last element of the stack (or the element in the input field
if it exists). Converts it into an interger "n" and duplicate the n last
element of the stack;
-
Pick :
-
removes the last element of the stack (or the element in the input field
if it exists). Converts it into an interger "n" and copies the element
of rank n (n from the bottom of the stack);
-
Roll :
-
removes the last element of the stack (or the element in the input field
if it exists). Converts it into an interger "n" and removes the element
of rank n to put it at the bottom of the stack;
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"?" Menu
This menu give you access to the "About" window and the Help file provided
you have a resources directory including help.htm and gpl.htm.
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Shortcuts
The numeric keys of the calculator keyboard and the classical operation
keys (+, -, *, /) correspond exactly to computer keyboard numeric pad.
The first three lines (12 keys from top left to bottom right) of
the calculator keyboard correspond to the key F1 to F12 of your computer
keyboard.
-
F1 for the Inverse key;
-
F2 for [Copy] (the Copy key) or
[Cp
All] if inverse mode is on;
-
F3 for [+/-];
-
F4 for [1/x].
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F5 for [Drop], the Drop key;
-
F6 for [Swap], the Swap key;
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F7 for [Pick], the Pick key;
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F8 for [Undo], the Swap key;
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F9 for [ x2] or [sqr] if inverse mode is on;
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F10 for [Pow] or [root] if inverse mode is on;
-
F11 for [ln] or [exp] if inverse mode is on;
-
F12 for [Log10] or [10^] if inverse mode is on;
The [Drop] key has another shortcut the down arrow (see Drop
Key ).
the [Copy] / [Copy All] key, has also to shortcuts «
Alt+c » and « Alt+Shift+c».
« Ctrl+c » and « Ctrl+v» have
the classical "copy" and "paste" behaviour on the selection of the Input
Field.
The keys +, -, * etc... that are located above the letters only
echo the character in the input field. This allows for example to write
scientific style numbers such as « 2.3e-4 ».
The CLR function has two shortcuts : « Num Ver » and «
Del. »
Noteworthy is that some shortcut are given in the menus.
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