Help of PoloCalc


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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 : 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. 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.

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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