On And.off Keys; Alphabetic Keys; Numeric Keys And Arithmetic Operation Keys; Shift Key - Sharp PC-1500A Instruction Manual

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A. ON AND OFF KEYS
Obviously these keys turn the power on and off. SHARP, to conserve its battery,
1111ill
auto·
matically s hut
(>ff
i f nothing is keye<l in for a period of about seven min\!te$,
vn!ess
a program
is
being executed. Observe inscribed above the ION ! key the ph rase BREAK. The loN I key can b e
used to
BREAK.
or interrupt, the execution o f a program. This function isdescdbed in more detail
later in th is manual_
B. ALPHABETIC KEYS
The Alphabetic keys allow the computer user (you) to give instructions and enter data. In addi·
tion. these keys may be used to designate "storage areas" \Vithin the computer's memory into
and from which you will be able to save o r retrieve data. T his use ... ,ill be covered in the section
on variables. Lower case letters are availa ble through the use of the I sHOFr! and
.SMU
(SMALL)
keys (described below}.
C. NUMERIC KEYS and ARITHMETIC OPERATION KEYS
With these you enter numbers for calculation. The 13'] ,
G ,
CI) , and
!2J
keys tell
SHARP
to
add, subtract, multiply and divide. respectively. The
[L)
key allows the entry o f
numbers in "scientific notation'', The use of th is notation and other soph isticate-d functions are
described in the chapter on Advanced Calculations.
D. SHIFT
This key delivers the secondary functions inscribed above many non·alphabetic keys. For
instance, to type a colon, press ' "''" ' and then the
CI)
(asterisk) key. When the SHIFT key is
followed by an alp'habetic key. the lowcr·case letter is displayed. (NOTE: In the SMALL mode,
the SHI FT preceedi'ng the alphabetic key w ill produ ce an upper·case letter).
When the SHIFT key is activated, the word SHIFT appears in the upper !ch corner of the
d isplay. The shift mode is only active for one keystroke at a time.
The six keys at the top of the keyboard, directly b<Jlow the display window, are called
RESERVABLE KEYS. Using the shift in a mao nner we wi ll decribe later on, you can assign
freque n tly typed commands or other operations to these keys.
NOTE: If you press the IS><•nl key by mistake, press it again to cancel.
E. LOWER-CASE LETTERS and the SMALL KEY
The
~
key allows you to specify lower case for all alphabetic keys. If you do not specify
the SMALL mode, SHARP will select upper·case for you each time you p ress an alphabetic key.
(We c;ill th is the "default" mode, meaning the way in which the machine operates unless you tell
it othervvise.) You can type individuai lower·case letters by pressing the
fSH•FTJ
key before the
letter.
The
SMLJ
key may be used to effect the SMALL mode. In SMALL mode lowerc;ise letters
result from pressing an alphabetic key and individual upper-case letters are displayed by pressing
the ' '"'"' ' key first. When the computer is in SMALL mode, the word SMAL L will appear on the
top portion of the display window. Once you have p laced the computer in SMA LL mode, it w ill
tcmain i n this mode unti l you press the fSMU key again.
NOTE: \Ve recommend that you restrict your use of lowe r·case for the moment. This is because
SHARP only recognizes instructions in upper-case letters. When you learn to program, y ou
.. viii find lo ... Jer·case letters handy.
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