ProgrammingHelp is an application developed for Psion OPL programmers. ProgrammingHelp enables you to easily convert values from e.g. decimal to hexadecimal, octal and/or binary. Besides that it shows the programming codes of the KMOD- en KEY-button combinations on the screen. You can also find out how a letter in a certain font will appear on the screen if you selected Roman 16 , bold and double height.
All this information is presented to you in one single screen, as is shown in the next graph:
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Below follows a description of the functionality of the application, according to the shown graph.
Value conversion:
With ProgrammingHelp, you can easily transform a decimal value into an octal or binary equivalent. The following notations are supported in ProgrammingHelp: Decimal, Hexadecimal, Octal, Binary and Character. ProgrammingHelp converts any number to any another notation. An example is shown in the following part of the screen:
In this picture the following values are entered:
Value1=60, Value2=20 together with the operand='+'. The total is calculated as 80. Further, the decimal value is converted in the other notations:
50 (Hexadecimal), 120 (Octal), 01010000 (Binary) and P (Character). On the binary field, bits 7 (most left bit) until 0 (most right bit) are shown on the screen. By pressing the arrow-up key you can scroll respectively to bit 15 until 8, bit 23 until 16 and bit 31 until 24. Especially if you are programming a lot with OS-calls, it's a big relieve to have this functionality.
WYSIWYG
What You See Is What You Get. A commonly used phrase, but not applicable to programming on the Psion. Standard, there are lots of fonts in memory. The problem however is, that only after translating the OPL program you can see the results of the code on the screen. Upfront it is not easy to estimate if e.g. a character fits into a Box with certain dimentions. ProgrammingHelp gives you the solution to that, as is shown in the next graph:
The character 'P' is printed here with a Roman 16 font, mixed with bold and double height styles. You can also see that Programminghelp calculates the height and width (number of pixels) of the character. Also the programming codes are shown (gFONT=8, gSTYLE=9). By putting this code in front of the character 'P', you will have an excact replica of the printed character here.
The following fonts are supported by ProgrammingHelp: Series 3 Normal 8, Series 3 Bold 8, Series 3 Digits 6x6, Mono 8x8, Roman 8, Roman 11, Roman 13, Roman 16, Swiss 8, Swiss 11, Swiss 13, Swiss 16 and Mono 6x6. You can mix any of these fonts with one or more of the following styles: bold, underlined, inverse, double height, monospaced and italic. This gives you more than 9.000! different possibilities to print a character. ProgrammingHelp will help you experimenting, to find the proper setting to get the best results.
Code from different keys
When you are programming, you will have to feed your program different key codes that will result in a certain action. Only in this way your program can be interactive with the user. There are a lot of conversion tables available, that can help you in this task. Generally this is quite time consuming. ProgrammingHelp gives a simple solution:
The picture shows that after pressing the ESC-key, the code 27 is generated. It also shows that the modifier keys (PSION, SHIFT and/or CONTROL key) are not touched, because KMOD=0. Every key combination can easily be monitored this way, and the resulting code can easily be put in your program by using the generated code (KEY- and KMOD-value) of Programminghelp.
But, there is more. In the background the Psion generates more (system)codes, called events. When the date changes, a so called event_date_changed event is triggered. This code can be seen on the screen as well (in this case: $405).
Entering values
The input of values is fairly easy. First choose the notation (with the DIAMOND-key) you want to have (Dec, Hex, Oct, Bin or Char). The status window (see picture) shows you your present preference. Further, push the spacebar and enter the value(s) you want to convert including the operand ( +, -, *, /, AND, OR, none). Press enter, and the results will be showed to you.
History:
Version 1.0 (December 1997):
Overige informatie
ProgrammingHelp is very handy application. With ProgrammingHelp you can save a lot of time programming. ProgrammingHelp is an application running on a Psion Series 3a, 3c and 3mx. It needs about 15 Kb of memory. To download the application, please go to the Download page. You can download the application for free. You are then able to use the full functionality. To register, please go to the Registration page.