Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: some more 48SX questions
Message-ID: <1991Apr28.010558.28283@zoo.toronto.edu>
Date: Sun, 28 Apr 1991 01:05:58 GMT
References: <6723@acorn.co.uk>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <6723@acorn.co.uk> asmith@acorn.co.uk (Andy Smith) writes:
>As I like to keep my display tidy, I make frequent use of the DROP key on
>the 28. This has been moved to a shifted position on the 48. Why? Can the
>DEL key take on the functionality of the DROP key?

The backspace key is DROP if you are not in the middle of entering something.
Speaking as a new 48 owner who's still in the process of reading the manual
and experimenting, HP has done a pretty good job of making the 48 usable by
putting useful functions on unshifted keys in common modes.  However, you
do have to read the manual to find out about them.  While I realize that
HP couldn't put a complete set of markings on the keyboard -- you couldn't
possibly follow it -- I think they could usefully have gone a bit farther
than they did.

>The brackets do not seem to be split on the 48 keyboard. How do you get
>nested brackets??

Invoking brackets gets you a matched pair, with the cursor left inside them.
To nest, just put another pair inside the first one.

>How do you get lower case letters?

Alpha letter is uppercase, alpha leftshift letter is lowercase.  (And alpha
rightshift letter is special characters, which are impossible to remember
without a chart; HP really should have put these on the keyboard.)  There
is also a lowercase lock, which I think is alpha leftshift alpha.
-- 
And the bean-counter replied,           | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
"beans are more important".             |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry
