Re: HP-15C Message #5 Posted by Karl Schneider on 8 Oct 2003, 11:51 p.m., in response to message #1 by Eric Lundgren
Eric --
$249 seems a bit high to me for a HP-15C, unless it is functionally perfect and comsetically immaculate.
However, the 15C is definitely worth having (I bought mine in Nov 1983). At work, I also use a 32Sii, but would take the 15C if forced to choose between one or the other, because of the matrix and complex-number functionality.
As Marx Pio points out below, other units also have matrix functions. However, ease of use and clarity of display are also important; the 15C and 42S are better in those respects for matrices than the RPL-based units (28, 48, 49).
Overall, the 42S matrix functions are slicker and faster than the 15C functions. However, the 15C does a few things better: Matrix annunciators include the label (e.g., "C 4 2" in the displayed X-register, while the 42S will show only "[ 4x2 Matrix ]". If you have matrix descriptors in both the X and Y registers of the 42S for an operation, you'd better remember which matrix is which, because only matrix addition is, in general, commutative.
Edited: 8 Oct 2003, 11:53 p.m.
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