Re: MIT Chemistry Course Accepts HP-42s But not HP-32SII Message #3 Posted by Valentin Albillo on 12 Nov 2003, 11:00 a.m., in response to message #2 by Dave
Dave posted:
" I seems so limited in capabilities"
I beg your pardon, but do you actually mean:
"I seem so limited in capabilities"
or else
"It seems so limited in capabilities"
? :-)
Now seriously, the 32SII is a wonderful calculator in many aspects, its only killer drawback being it has an utterly preposterous, ultra-small amount of user's RAM, just 384 bytes ! :-( :-( :-(
As every line in a program takes a minimum of 1.5 bytes,
this means only a theoretical maximum of 256 lines is feasible. But many other features and functions take a lot more. Real numbers other than small integers take 9.5 bytes per number (1234 for instance would require that amount
instead of the typical 4 bytes in most other calculators). "Integrate" requires 140 bytes, plus the bytes taken by your function or equation, plus any necessary setup.
Thus, we sadly find that many other earlier calculators can run rings around the 32SII in terms of feasible programming tasks, such as the HP-15C from HP and most any SHARP programmable handhelds, even the humblest. This unfortunate situation wasn't new: the HP28S was also released with a breathtaking array of advanced, even revolutionary, capabilites, yet only 2 Kb RAM which for that machine amounted to next to nothing.
Best regards from V.
Edited: 12 Nov 2003, 12:27 p.m.
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