The most common use for the ADK is to edit Notes on the calculator. Students seem to find the idea of being able to take 'cheat notes' into tests quite irresistible! In some places teachers require that students reset the calculator before any test but in Western Australia (my home) we took the opposite view. Since all the calculators on the market allowed the storage of text to varying degrees, and since it was quite easy to write a small program to make it look like the calculator had been reset when it had not, we decided to avoid the problem by allowing all students to take up to four A4 pages of notes into all our exams containing any material they want. We've found that this works very well and the revision needed to create these pages usually proves very useful.
Whether you are editing an existing Note or creating a new one, the process is essentially the same because, although it is possible to create Notes from scratch using the ADK, the simplest method is to create the Note on the calculator, upload it to the PC and edit it there with the ADK. The edited Note can then be sent back to the calculator.
Doing it the long wayIt is also possible to create a Note directly on the ADK using the File/New command. Just choose the Object Type as "Note" and enter the name that you want to see appear on the calculator. This will not necessarily be the same as the one that the file is saved under due to the restriction of 8 characters, no spaces, no punctuation. The disadvantage of doing it this way is simply that you have to perform one extra step in order to make your note visible to the calculator. To do this, choose "Aplet Library" from the File menu. When you do you will find that the window below will open up with a list of files in the right hand window and a list of currently registered objects in the left window. In this case I have already chosen the file I created in the right hand window and clicked on the button labelled "Add <=". As you can see, the left window displays both the object's filename and calculator name. . If this was originally an empty directory then when you click on "Done" it will display the message below: This is simply asking you if it is ok to create the two special files HP39DIR.CUR and HP39DIR.000. Click on Yes. You should now be able to download your note to the calculator. . More information on these files can be found on one of the following pages called "Corrupted Files". |
Last modified: 19 Dec 2007 Sitemap Home Contact Me |