BACO

A small tool for representing a user binary in all bases simultaneously (HP49/HP49+)

When pressing BACO (the name comes from Base Conversion), the calculator waits on input for representing a binary in any of the four modes DEC, BIN, OCT, HEX in all modes at once.Example: complete BACO's input line with 123456789 and ENTER First print the input digits, append h, d, o or b as usual (alpha mode is already set), then press ENTER. That displays the number in all four number bases and leaves it on the stack in current base mode whenever the screen is left with OK or ENTER.You see such an example in the screen-shot. If the binary is too long, the screen can be srolled. The little arrow at the screen's right margin indicates in which direction. If no h, d, o or b at the input digits was appended, BACO does the most reasonable it can do: it completes the input with the indicator of the current number base which is always displayed in the header. Clearly, if # 1A is in the edit line and you are currently in DEC mode, ENTER errors because A is a digit only in the HEXA system. In this case, the base indicator h must be written at the end of the input line so that it looks like # 1Ah. Only this gives BACO complete information for starting the conversion. 

Example. Assume our ancestors had accepted the Octal system (which would have been of great advantage in every respect). When we would have the "Millenium 4000"? Print 4000 and append o so that you have # 4000o in the input line. Press ENTER and you see that would happen anno 2048.

What is the advantage of BACO? Clearly, you may put a user binary on the stack, invoke the the BASE menu und cyle through the different representations sequentially with the menu keys. But BACO can be used inside another program. For instance, to end it with the BACO screen,


 Wolfgang Rautenberg - raut@math.fu-berlin.de - www.math.fu-berlin.de/~raut