Re: Indonesian HP's (+ random musings on high-end calcs)
Message #7 Posted by Albert Graef on 5 Dec 2001, 3:45 a.m.,
in response to message #6 by David H Thompson
Personally I think that the keyboard of the 49G is not that bad, at least when compared to the competition. The keys, while rubber, are of good quality. Some ppl have reported problems with the keys being too hard to press, or with the labels peeling off, but I never experienced this. I do prefer the "feel" of the old style keys as well, but the keyboard *layout* of the 49G is actually more effective than that of the 48 series. (With the exception of the position and size of the ENTER key, I think that most die-hard HP fans will complain about this.)
Concerning the 32sii: I don't have one, but I've been using a 32s for some ten years now, it's a nice little machine and everything that's needed for basic number crunching. In fact, it *was* everything I needed in a calculator for quite some time.
However, the 48/49 calcs are an entirely different class, they're really little computers with the convenience of a calculator interface. It's hard to come up with a mathematical problem which can't be tackled with these machines. Except for the problem scale, of course -- after all they are still calculators, not workstations. ;-)
Another big plus is that the serial interface makes it easy to manage a big program library on your PC. There also is a large and avid user community out there, and you can take advantage of the huge collection of excellent free software on http://www.hpcalc.org. Programming these calcs in RPL (a kind of functional programming language, but with HP's RPN logic) is *lots* of fun. I didn't have so much fun in programming for quite some time.
Obviously, I also regret that HP has stopped calc development. :( But let's face it: many young ppl today grow up with PCs instead of calcs, and calcs simply do not play the same role in computing any more as some 20-30 years ago, when they were the *only* affordable personal computing device. In my youth, I was an avid fan of these handheld devices, and in fact the early programmables are one major reason that I got into math and computer science. I must admit that I'm also guilty of only recently rediscovering calcs as an alternative which prevents me from having to stare at PC screens all day. I just hope that HP will eventually release the 49G ROM to the public, so that someone can pick up where they left off, and create the next RPN super calc. And that my HP calcs last at least until the day this dream comes true. :)
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