Re: "RPN LIVES ON"? I don't think so... Message #2 Posted by Ed Look on 20 Oct 2003, 2:33 p.m., in response to message #1 by W. Bruce Maguire II
I agree in essence, but have to differ on a few points. I don't think they can sell enough to make profit of the original style RPN scientifics we grew up with. Valentin Albillo believes that teaching RPN to today's students is not profitable, neither for them or manufacturers of calculators. He has a point. RPN's efficiency, born of the old expense of RAM, is initially counterintuitive (like riding a two wheeled machine or getting into a large body of water, though once you learn it... ) and kids today... well, they're fed color graphics, flashy cases, beeping noises (my 48G's still scare me when they go "beep" when I screw up), and mostly, they suck at math (and science, and language, and history, but two of the latter may not matter with regard to HP calcs).
I'm not sure it really matters substantially if HP no longer has in house calculator manufacturing. I'm not sure the American labor and management is capable of or willing to achieve what it used to, in terms of quality. Of if so, any of us could really afford to buy the product.
I forgot who, but another poster here said that even if these new calculators are nothing compared to the old RPN babies we nursed (rather, nursed us through school), if it helps to get HP back on track, then it's a welcome step in the right direction.
Mine is still in the mail, but from what I've seen of its specs, the 49G+'s design was well thought out, unlike the affordable, but apparently rush-designed algebraic models they released in recent years, after the original 49G.
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