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HP Forum Archive 14

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Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #1 Posted by Erik Ehrling (Sweden) on 8 Aug 2004, 3:58 p.m.


Why a campaign for Emu42?

I have been a great supporter of Emu42 ever since I first heard about Christoph Giesselink's work on a HP-42S emulator in the same vein as Emu48. Not only would this be an essential piece of software for bringing the discontinued HP-42S into the 21st century. Neither could I have dreamed up someone more suitable for this task than Christoph Giesselink himself - for many years the maintainer of the Emu48 project.

Later on I had the opportunity to become a beta tester of Emu42 and to see the emulator grow into the fullblown finished product it is today. Seldom could I contribute much more as a beta tester than just saying "Yes, this is definitely on the right track". My expectations were raised even further when I learned about the Pocket PC 2002 version of Emu42 and that the aim was to also port Emu48 to the Pocket PC. (Previous attempts at porting Emu48 had been marred by a certain sluggishness making it close to unusable).

In a posting at www.hpmuseum.com in December 2003 Christoph Giesselink stated that he would be willing to release the full versions of Emu42 both for Windows (9X/ME/2000/XP) and Pocket PC 2002 (later also the new port of Emu48 for Pocket PC 2002 was added) if he received 700 EUR or more.

The aim of this campaign is therefore very simple - collect as many donations as possible in order to get Emu42 (and Emu48 for Pocket PC) publically released! Every single contribution will be important and could make the difference between a success of failure!

Now - go to the campaign webpage...

Erik Ehrling (Sweden)
www.hp42s.com

      
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #2 Posted by Chris Woodhouse on 8 Aug 2004, 4:07 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Erik Ehrling (Sweden)

I would much rather see it on a Plam OS device.

Chris W

            
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #3 Posted by Andrés C. Rodríguez (Argentina) on 8 Aug 2004, 7:46 p.m.,
in response to message #2 by Chris Woodhouse

PocketPC is fine for me!

            
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #4 Posted by Erik Ehrling (Sweden) on 9 Aug 2004, 12:48 a.m.,
in response to message #2 by Chris Woodhouse

Quote:
I would much rather see it on a Palm OS device.

I have actually heard from some people that are interested in porting it to the Palm as well. As a successful campaign would reveal the source code this would be a reason for supporting the campaign as well...

Best regards,
Erik Ehrling (Sweden)

Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)

            
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #5 Posted by Andre Koppel on 9 Aug 2004, 4:09 a.m.,
in response to message #2 by Chris Woodhouse

Look at http://power48.mobilevoodoo.com/ to see a HP48/49 well done on a Sony Clie Palm

      
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #6 Posted by Juergen (CH) on 8 Aug 2004, 4:30 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Erik Ehrling (Sweden)

Thank you Erik for starting this campaign. I hope it will be successful. Hey folks, this is a great piece of software, make your donation today!!!

      
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #7 Posted by Vincent Weber on 9 Aug 2004, 10:06 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Erik Ehrling (Sweden)

Erik - please let me be a platinum contributer ! :) Cheers, Vincent

            
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #8 Posted by Erik Ehrling (Sweden) on 9 Aug 2004, 12:44 p.m.,
in response to message #7 by Vincent Weber

You're so welcome!

Erik Ehrling (Sweden)
Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)

      
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #9 Posted by Gordon Dyer on 9 Aug 2004, 5:39 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Erik Ehrling (Sweden)

Hi Eric, it's a great idea to get a public release of hp42s, but I have some questions for you before parting with money:

Has Christoph Giesselink confirmed that he will release the code if he receives some money, and how much?
What will happen if not enough money is raised?
Does HP42S include the ROM code?
Will this include all the other emulators shown in the pictures on your campaign page?

Best wishes.

            
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #10 Posted by Gordon Dyer on 9 Aug 2004, 5:41 p.m.,
in response to message #9 by Gordon Dyer

Sorry, in my previous posting replace HP42S with Emu42.

            
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #11 Posted by Raymond Del Tondo on 9 Aug 2004, 6:25 p.m.,
in response to message #9 by Gordon Dyer

Hi Gordon,

as for the 42S ROM, Christoph doesn't need to include the ROM image,
because (nearly) everyone who has a real 42S and an HP-48GX/G+
can make his/her own copy for private use, like in Emu42S;-)
Using Christoph's method, it's a matter of about quarter of an hour, IIRC.

Regards,

Raymond

            
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #12 Posted by Jeff O. on 9 Aug 2004, 10:43 p.m.,
in response to message #9 by Gordon Dyer

Gordon,
Christoph will not include the ROM code with his emulator. It is copyrighted material, and has not been released to the public domain by HP. If you dig around Erik's web site, you will find that he has made some contacts at HP in an effort to secure its release. Given the size of HP, the odds of anyone within the company taking the time to consider this, run it by legal, etc., just to help out people who might otherwise buy a 33S or 48gii/49g+ (in their mind, it is just a calculator, after all) would seem to be slim (in my opinion.)

So Christoph’s product will require you to provide your own Rom. How you come by the Rom is your business. I think he (and Hrastprogrammer, for his 42X emulator) works under the assumption that if you have a 42S, you can extract and use the Rom. From a legal perspective, I think there is some question regarding whether you are actually allowed to use the Rom any other way than how you bought it, i.e. inside a 42S. I am certainly no lawyer, so this may not be true. Either way, from Christoph's perspective, that is your problem, not his.

Regarding inclusion of all of the calculators, I believe the emulator will “become” any of the supported calculators for which you have the required Rom. So for each of the emulated calculators, you will need a separate Rom image. I’m not sure of the details, but I believe to get a particular calculator, you need to place its Rom image in the proper folder, then start the emulator. It then uses the image it finds in the place it automatically looks. So if you can get Rom images for all of the calculators, the emulator will emulate them all.

The above information represents my interpretation of the information I have gathered on this issue. I have no special connection or association with Christoph or Erik, and apologize to both if I misstated anything. I may have one or more major or minor details wrong, and invite Erik to correct as needed.

Edited: 10 Aug 2004, 7:02 a.m.

            
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #13 Posted by Erik Ehrling (Sweden) on 10 Aug 2004, 1:09 a.m.,
in response to message #9 by Gordon Dyer

> Has Christoph Giesselink confirmed that he will release the code if he receives some money, and how much?

In answer to an explicit question on the same matter just one month ago Christoph answered that it would not be his style to not stand by his earlier word - so, yes he has confirmed that he will release the code if we manage to collect 700 EUR.

> What will happen if not enough money is raised?

In this event, which I personally of course hope will not happen (we are already up to > 200 EUR), what donations that have come in will go to Christoph anyway.

> Does HP42S include the ROM code?

No. You will need a HP-42S + HP-48GX to dump the ROM yourself.

> Will this include all the other emulators shown in the pictures on your campaign page?

Yes. Emu42 is a multipurpose emulator. You will however need to dump your own ROM image from the other calculators in order to make it work in the other modes. Emu42 also supports the HP-19BII but as I do not own one I have unfortunately not been able to create any images of it...

Best regards,
Erik Ehrling (Sweden)

                  
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #14 Posted by Gordon Dyer on 10 Aug 2004, 7:36 a.m.,
in response to message #13 by Erik Ehrling (Sweden)

Thanks for all of your responses.
I will have to buy a 48GX just to get my 42S ROM code!

                        
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #15 Posted by Juergen (CH) on 10 Aug 2004, 8:29 a.m.,
in response to message #14 by Gordon Dyer

Gordon,

you do not need to buy one, just borrow one for half an hour to dump the 42S ROM. Please do not hesitate to support Erik's campaign, EMU42 is really worth some bucks!

Regards, Juergen

                              
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #16 Posted by Dave on 10 Aug 2004, 3:02 p.m.,
in response to message #15 by Juergen (CH)

My only hesitation is the results I have experienced with Emu48 for the PocketPC. It is not very usable and would tend to stick with the HP-41 emulations already available. What benefit is there from an HP42S emulator?

                                    
Re: Campaign for Emu42! (& Emu48 for Pocket PC)
Message #17 Posted by Erik Ehrling (Sweden) on 10 Aug 2004, 4:17 p.m.,
in response to message #16 by Dave

Quote:
What benefit is there from an HP42S emulator?

For a longer version please see my article on the subject (a link to it is found on the "What is Emu42?" page of the campaign site) but shortly I think that an emulated HP-42S improves on the real HP-42S because it provides the LOAD/SAVE functionality. Also, while the HP-48GX is slightly too large to fit comfortably on a Pocket PC the HP-42S fits perfectly; my personal favourite is the KML with landscape orientation that borrows its keyboard layout from the HP-15C.

You get the backwards compatibility with the HP-41CV (four level stack, RPN programming etc.) but also the benefits from the HP-42S like a two line LCD, native support for complex numbers, matrix operations etc.

Best regards, Erik Ehrling (Sweden) www.hp42s.com

Link to the Campaign webpage

      
Half time!
Message #18 Posted by Juergen (CH) on 12 Aug 2004, 2:28 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Erik Ehrling (Sweden)

Erik,

when looking at your campaign web page, I noticed that you already collected around EUR 350.-! Wow, it's half time, congratulations!

I'm sure there are more HP-42S enthusiats out there willing to support the final release of EMU42. It's my standard calculator on my PC desktop, and I look forward having it on my PocketPC device!

Hey folks, what are you waiting for? It's time for the final spurt! Open your eBay cash box, I'm sure there are some bucks left for this great project. It's a good investment, you will not regret it.

Best Regards, Juergen

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