x48ng -- HP 48 emulator

This is my fork of x48-0.6.4 where I deviate from the original code and do my own thing. (See ./README_0.6.4 for the original README)

x48ng is part of my little collection of HP calculators' emulators' that I took over maintenance :

• x48ng ← You are here
• x50ng
• saturnng
• hpemung

[ The reference public source repository is https://codeberg.org/gwh/x48ng ]

Usage

x48ng-launcher --help

Screenshots

--tui-small version (ncurses, 4 pixels per character)

screenshot of x48ng --tui-small running in a terminal

--tui-tiny --mono version (ncurses, 8 pixels per character)

screenshot of x48ng --tui-tiny --mono running in a terminal

--tui version (ncurses)

screenshot of x48ng --tui running in a terminal

--sdl version

screenshot of x48ng --sdl

manual setup

1. Create $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/x48ng (usually ~/.config/x48ng/)
2. Copy /usr/share/x48ng/ROMs/gxrom-r (or any other rom) to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/x48ng/rom
3. Run x48ng --print-config > $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/x48ng/config.lua
4. Run x48ng

Ncurses UI (--tui)

I had to be a bit 'creative' mapping keys there:

┌─[ Help ]─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Special keys: │
│ F1: Help, F7: Quit │
│Calculator keys: │
│ all alpha-numerical keys │
│ F2: Left-Shift, F3: Right-Shift, F4: Alpha, F5: On, F6: Enter │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

There's also additional hidden shortcuts that might work and/or come handy:

• Left-Shift: [ or PgUp
• Right-Shift: ] or PgDn
• Alpha: ; or Ins
• On: Esc or Home
• Enter: ,
• quit: | or Shift + End or F10

What have I done:

0. renamed it to x48ng to avoid confusion
1. merged in a SDL1 version I found @ https://code.google.com/archive/p/x48-sdl/source/default/source
2. removed the code supporting Solaris, HP-UX, etc.
3. removed the autotools-based build system and wrote a simple Makefile instead
4. added a x48ng.desktop file and an icon
5. refactoring as a way to explore/understand the codebase
6. drop Xresources
7. link to lua to use it as a config file reader
8. ported the SDL1 GUI to SDL2 to SDL3

Bugs to fix

See and report at https://codeberg.org/gwh/x48ng/issues or https://github.com/gwenhael-le-moine/x48ng/issues

What more I would like to do:

long(er) term

• GUI in gtk(4)?

Compilation

The Makefile will try to autodetect if necessary dependencies for x11 and sdl front-ends are met and enable/disable x11 and sdl front-ends accordingly.

You can force disable sdl front-end by compiling with make WITH_SDL=no.

Ncurses front-end is always built-in.

Dependencies (see .github/workflows/c-cpp.yml for debian packages names)

• Lua
• readline

for Ncurses:

• ncursesw

for SDL version:

• SDL3
• SDL3_gfx

Installation

First clone the source code, ensuring you get all submodules: git clone --recursive https://codeberg.org/gwh/x48ng.git

0. Run make get-roms unless you have a good reason not to. (ROMs licenses are unclear so they're not bundled by default.)
1. Run sudo make install PREFIX=/usr (see the Makefile to see what variables your can override.)
2. Run x48ng-launcher. On first launch or if no ~/.config/x48ng/ exists it will be created and populated. By default it sets up a HP 48GX with ROM R with a 128KB card in port 1 and a 4MB card in port 2. You can change the ROM by setting the ROM environment variable (ROM=sxrom-j x48ng-launcher for example.)

Development

• make FULL_WARNINGS=yes to compile with all warnings
• make clean and make mrproper to clean between compilation runs
• make pretty-code to format the code using clang-format and the provided .clang-format

Friends and inspiration

• https://github.com/gwenhael-le-moine/x48 (original x48 slightly touched but not too much)
• https://github.com/shagr4th/droid48 (x48 ported to Android)
• https://hp.giesselink.com/emu48.htm (The Emu48)
• https://github.com/dgis/emu48android (Emu48 ported to Android)
• https://github.com/gwenhael-le-moine/jsEmu48 (another HP 48 emulator)
• x50ng
• saturnng
• hpemung