HP48 FAQ Section 7: Questions about programs
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See Appendix E-1 for more info.
See Appendix E-5 for more info.
You can also access the BBS online at ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/calculators/
You can also access the HP Calculator BBS via a modem (note that this is a long distance call for most people):
(208)-344-1691 2400 bps, 8N1
(541)-715-3277 9600 bps, 8N1
See Appendix E-4 for more BBS sites.
Files that end with ".zip" are pkzip archives, which originated in the MSDOS world. One program that can extract the files in ".zip" archives is the InfoZip "unzip" program.
Binaries and source can be found at http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/
Files that end with ".gz" have been compressed using the "gzip" compression command. To uncompress these files, you must use either the "gunzip" or "gzip -d" command. The "gunzip" program can also uncompress ".Z" files. Binaries should be on all Unix systems, but if not you can try ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/
More information should be there on binaries for other platforms.
Files that end with ".Z" have been compressed using the Unix "compress" command. To uncompress these files, you can use the "uncompress" command on Unix. The "gunzip" program can also decompress these files.
Another compression program gaining popularity is bzip2. bzip2 is a freely available, patent free, high-quality data compressor. It typically compresses files to within 10% to 15% of the best available techniques, whilst being around twice as fast at compression and six times faster at decompression.
Source and binaries for common platforms are available at http://www.muraroa.demon.co.uk/
In the past, programs for the HP48 posted on comp.sources.hp48 were posted in the "ship" format. This format made it easier for the moderator to distribute programs, but made it more difficult for users to extract and use these programs. Some people still use ship.
To extract programs distributed in the "ship" format, you need the following:
Once you have a copy of the "ship" and "unzip" programs, you use "ship" to convert the ship-encoded file into a .zip file, and you use the "unzip" program to extract the HP48 files from the ".zip" file.
The functions ASC\-> and \->ASC were written by William Wickes to facilitate transferring HP48 binary objects in an ASCII format (useful when transferring objects via electronic mail or bulletin boards). Some HP48 objects, like libraries, cannot normally be converted into ASCII, unlike program objects, and these functions make it possible to do so.
The \->ASC function converts the object in level 1 into an ASCII string, which can then be uploaded to a computer for mailing.
The ASC\-> function converts the string object in level 1 back into an object. A checksum is used to ensure that the decoding is correct.
A copy of these programs are given in Appendix A-1, near the end of this file. Note however, that these functions aren't used much anymore. The standard in the newsgroup seems to first zip the programs together and post them uuencoded. But, you may still need these utilities for extracting older files you download.
The HYDE library is a library that changes the messages on your HP48. It works on all versions of the HP48 and is available on Goodies Disk 2. The program (HYDE.TXT) is in the DNICKEL directory needs to be converted with ASC\->. The instructions (HYDE.DOC) for the program are in the HORN2 directory. The library is 3679.5 bytes, small enough to keep on your HP48 so you can install it on a friend's when they're not looking.
Follow the previous instructions for installing the library, then go to the library menu and run HYDE.
However, getting rid of the HYDE library is a little trickier. First you must type JEKY on the command line. This will disable the HYDE library and restore the standard set of messages. Then you can follow the normal instructions for deleting a library.
The Minehunt game is a game built in to the G/GX. It was also included on the HP Equation-Library Card (for the HP48 SX).
It is located in the UTILS menu of the left-shift(purple) EQ LIB menu. (Left-Shift {EQ LIB], {UTILS}, {MINEHUNT}). See page 25-14 of the manual for a game explanation and picture.
It is located in the UTILS library.
You can save a game by pressing the STO button. This creates a variable with the name MHpar. If you are in the directory containing that variable, you will resume your old game when you run MINEHUNT.
To select the number of mines for your next game just store a number in a variable, Nmines (it's case sensitive), and you'll get that many mines. If you store a negative number, you'll get the absolute value of that many mines, AND all mines will be visible.
You can also move diagonally if you use the numbers as arrows: 1 is down+left, 2 is down, 3 is down+right, 4 is left, 6 is right, 7 is up+left, 8 is up, and 9 is up+right.
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