HP Forum Archive 06

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The Comma in the Display Message #1 Posted by R. Tumaghap on 22 July 2001, 11:25 p.m. I own an HP-33E and one of the features that I like about this calculator is the comma indicating numbers in the thousands, millions, etc. in the display. As far as I know, there hasn't been any other handheld electronic calculator, big or small, old or new, having this feature that I think is unique to the HP-33E/C. The other features among the many that are desirable with this machine are its FIX and H.MS converter.

Re: The Comma in the Display Message #2 Posted by Ernie Malaga on 23 July 2001, 12:47 a.m., in response to message #1 by R. Tumaghap The HP-41 has the same feature. If I remember well, the HP-10 series also has it. In the HP-41, the commas and periods can be inverted for the convenience of those who use a comma to separate decimals and periods for thousands (as in Europe). -EM

Re: The Comma in the Display Message #3 Posted by Tony Duell on 23 July 2001, 2:19 p.m., in response to message #2 by Ernie Malaga You can reverse the dot and comma useage on the HP41 with a user flag (28). You can also swap them over on the HP3xE/C series, but it's a soldered jumper on the PSU board inside. If the jumper is in, then the radix is the '.' and the separator the ',' (USA, UK). If the jumper is cut, then the radix is ',' and the separator '.' (Europe). AFAIK, all machines were assembled with the jumper soldered in place, and it was cut on those machines for continental Europe. The jumper is fairly obviosu on the PSU board, but above the flexiprint cable.

Re: The Comma in the Display Message #4 Posted by Victor on 23 July 2001, 12:48 a.m., in response to message #1 by R. Tumaghap There have been other HP calculators with the comma in the display. Ones that I know about are the HP-31E, HP-34C, HP-38C, HP-41C, HP-11C, and HP-21S. I like this feature as well.

Re: The Comma in the Display Message #5 Posted by Tom (UK) on 23 July 2001, 7:40 a.m., in response to message #4 by Victor The HP32Sii has comma's, I don't know about the HP32S. The 'SHOW' button deletes the comma's on the HP32Sii! It also only diplays the decimal point if the number is < 1e12. I think from memory that the HP42 leaves a small gap for the seperators. Is it only HP calcs that put comma's or gaps in? Of all the HP's which one was the first?

Re: The Comma in the Display Message #6 Posted by Miguel(Denver) on 23 July 2001, 12:54 p.m., in response to message #5 by Tom (UK) The 11c has the commas or dots depending on how you set the radix. To change to the european version on the 11c turn the calc off, hold down the decimal point and turn it back on. I can't remember how to change the 41 off hand. Als I can't remember if radix refers to the mark dividing the fractional part or the mark dividing every three orders of magnitude.

Re: The Comma in the Display Message #7 Posted by Andrés C. Rodríguez (Argentina) on 23 July 2001, 2:08 p.m., in response to message #6 by Miguel(Denver) In the HP41 the display format is controlled by the Flags # 28 and 29. One of them selects between comma or dot as the radix mark (separates the integer and fractional part), the other enables/disables the thousands indicators (if the radix is dot, the thousands are commas, and viceversa) The HP 42 is the same. Personally, I never liked the thousands thing, and in PC apps, I use a blank space as thousands separator when I must choose some.

Re: The Comma in the Display Message #8 Posted by Tony Duell on 23 July 2001, 2:15 p.m., in response to message #6 by Miguel(Denver) The radix mark is the separator between the integer part and the fractional part of the number. That's what I've always used, and that's what the HP41C manual says. On the HP41, set flag 28 to have the '.' as the radix mark and the ',' as the separator (US, UK, and it's the default after MEMORY LOST). Clear flag 28 to have the ',' as the radix and '.' as the digit group separator (Europe). Flag 29 determines whether the digit separator appears (set : It does, which is the default).

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