Release 0.8.2 "Honor Seats" - Equation Library Examples, Assignments

[c3d]

This release is focusing on the testing, validation and usability of the equation library contributed by Jean Wilson. To that effect, it
introduces a new kind of objects, assignments, that only exist on the DB48x and have no direct equivalent on original HP calculators. It also completes the support for library equations in the Root command.

Here is an example that illustrates these capabilities, testing the Ohm’s Law & Power equation in the library:

V=240_V  I=32_A
@ Expecting [ R=7.5 Ω P=7 680. W ]
'ROOT(ⒺOhm’s Law & Power;[R;P];[1_Ω;1_W])'

If you are reading this release note directly on the calculator, you can simply click ENTER while the text above shows up, and it will be copied in your editor. You can change the values of the input variables to explore various possibilities.

In this example, V=24_V is an assignment object that assigns the value 24_V to the global variable named V. It is almost equivalent to 24_V 'V' STO V, except that the value placed on the stack is the assignment object itself. In other words, evaluating V=24_V places V=24_V on the stack. This makes it easy to edit or evaluate assignments on the stack using the interactive stack. In particular, you can select an assignment on the stack wiht the interactive stack and use the Eval (F3) function to restore the variable to the value in the assignment.

The ROOT command in the example illustrates how you can directly use equations in the equation library as argument to Root, and use the multiple-equation solver to solve for more than one variable at a time.

All the examples in the on-line help are now also tested automatically, in order to ensure that all the given examples give the expected results.

Features

• Implement CustomMenu, whicih is toggled by successive presses on the VAR key. An example is shown in the Demo.48s file. The
  content of the CST or CustomMenu variable is used to define this menu.
• The documentation now contains numerous executable examples. These examples are identified by a Markdown code block with the rpl syntax colorization indicator. They can be executed directly from the on-line help on the calculator by hitting ENTER while the code block is shown on the screen.
• The test suite automatically tests all the documentation examples.
• New equation sets: Light Propagation and Ultrarelativistic Cases
• Four new equations in Energy & Momentum equation set
• Assignment objects in the form Name=Value, e.g. A=3.
• The solver now emits assignment objects for the solution
• ▶ command to store while keeping value on stack. As an extension relative to the HP50G, this command also works inside RPL algebraic
  expressions. For example 3▶A stores 3 in A and returns the value in A. The command is called Copy (the HP50G ARM calls it
  ▶ (Store))
• The Root command now accepts library equations as input.
• Arrays and lists are now accepted in algebraic expressions, using ; as a separator between values. For example, '[1;2;3]+[4;5;6]'
  adds two vectors using an algebraic notation. Vectors can contain algebraic expressions. For example '[x+1;y+2;z=3]' is a valid
  vector expression.
• The solver now accepts algebraic input, including for the multiple equation solver using vectors as input.
• Ad RombergPlot example to Library and Demo file. This example shows how the Integrate command evaluates the underlying function.
• menus: Add XRng and YRng to the PlotMenu

Bug fixes

• Fix a sign bug in the Simple Slope equation
• Fix "Too many open files" error while saving constants
• Avoid infinite loop for unterminated case statement
• What follows a unit in an algebraic expression is no longer ignored.'330_m-20_m' was incorrectly interpreted as '330_m', now
  correctly computes '310_m'.
• Fix and document the Integrate imprecision and iteration settings.
• text: Respect display settings in →Str. For example, 3 FIX 0.1 →Str now returns "0.100" and not "0.1", like on HP calculators
• Repair parsing of HP-style complex numbers, e.g. (12;3)
• Refactoring of object insertion in text editor to fix various bugs, including the Echo command in the interactive stack inserting the
  object at the end of the text editor instead of at the cursor position.
• Do not issue Invalid digit for base on the console parsing 1E-10
• Fix null-dereference issue in to_decimal_if_big, which could be triggered if interrupting an Integrate command using the EXIT key.
• Avoid occasional garbage at right of menu area
• simulator: Ensure Copy correctly quotes equations
• Move image for E Field Finite Line to right section

Improvements

• Add references to keyboard overlays in the documentation
• Add documentation for the Root command
• Improve the way we generate the image files in the Makefile
• Improve solver behaviour when a solution is not found. Notably, the solver is more likely to converge towards an extremum, and is more likely to find complex roots.

Full Changelog: v0.8.1...v0.8.2

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This discussion was created from the release Release 0.8.2 "Honor Seats" - Equation Library Examples, Assignments.