PCalc layout loose ends
October 4, 2014 at 7:30 AM by Dr. Drang
In the post I wrote a week ago, in which I showed how to make a custom PCalc layout and a few functions for calculating tips, I said that I couldn’t make the functions work in both algebraic and RPN modes because of a subtle difference in how PCalc treats the y-register in those two modes. With PCalc version 3.3.1, that difference has been smoothed over, and the same functions (demonstrated in the Josh Asch screenshot in the update to that post) can now be used for both modes.
I’ve updated the tip functions to reflect this change. If you’re interested, you can download and install the tip layouts and tip functions and they’ll work in both modes.
Here’s the RPN version, before and after the calculation of the tip. After calculation, the tip is in the y-register and the total is in the x-register.
Here are “after” screenshots of the algebraic version. Although it’s possible to have the y-register displayed in algebraic mode, most people don’t, but you can switch between the two values by tapping the key.
