Re: HP-42X: HP-42S MicroCode Emulator for HP-48GX (Preliminary Info) Message #26 Posted by Christoph Giesselink on 19 Aug 2002, 3:05 p.m., in response to message #19 by warren
I saw here many requests for a HP42S emulator running on a HP48 or HP49. But for what?
IMHO the HP48 is a great machine, mostly everything (except executing HP42S code) I could do with a HP42S I also could do with a HP48, mostly even better. I personally have a HP42S and the best thing on this machine is it has a very small size for the amount of functions and is mostly a little bit faster than the HP48 at normal calculation.
But the main topic for me is the calculator size and weight. A HP48 is IMHO too big and too "heavy" to carry it in a jacket pocket, so this could be no reason for the HP42S emulation.
One point could be the software compatibility with HP42 (for HP41 exist emulators) programs. But which important programs exist only for the HP42S and not for the HP48? There was a reason for a HP41 emulator in the early 90'ties, because the wasn't many applications and more important no specific software for the HP48, but today?
So is there really a need for a HP42S emulator on a HP48/49 or is it just "nice to have". But who is willing to spend a lot of bucks for a "nice to have product"? Perhaps the same people who spend over US $200 for a real HP42S?
And finally, what a shame, I have a HP42S and don't use it. In office or at home I use my HP48 (SX) or more times Emu48 on the PC. And in my jacket pocket I have a HP32SII (the cheapest RPN calculator today) for the easy calculations at the places where I don't have a HP48 handy. :) The only reason, why I bought the HP42S was, I needed a legal way to get a ROM image, a HP42S faceplate, and a real machine to discover some secrets of the Lewis chip and some other internals (display, keyboard, MMU, ...). And that only just for fun.
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