Re: Need HP-19BII emulator
Message #4 Posted by Vincent Weber on 15 Sept 2004, 8:15 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Arts (MEX)
Hi,
According to Christoph (the developper of Emu42), Emu42 -can- emulate the 19BII, but it is impossible to extract the ROM. Hence we have to forget it. The 19BII and 32SII are now the only two post-41 interesting HP machines that cannot be emulated - pity !
One thing you can do is to use CPACK100/CPACK200 (HP-100LX/200LX emulation) under PocketDOS (www.pocketdos.com). These machines feature HPCALC, which has all the functionality of the 19BII + others, which a larger screen interface. It is not easy: you need to replace Datalight DOS with a true copy of MS-DOS, at least for CPACK100; you need to use the PALRUN utility to run this in landscape mode; furthermore, it is very slow, and so far I have failed to have the cursor blink while editing an equation, which makes this almost unsable...Let me know if you want more details.
As already said in that thread, the 17BII emulation works just fine. What you will miss from the 19BII are the following features:
- 3 usable lines vs. 1: This is a pity, but we can still do without it.
- Direct alpha keyboard: This can actually be overcome quite well using a KML script that maps the pocketPC virtual keyboard to simulate 2 keystrokes.
- Trigonometrics and probabilties functions: This can be overcome if you also have a 27S ROM to emulate the 27S within HP42. Since I can't think of an equation which would require -both- trigonometrics and cash flows (specific feature of financial calculators that can be used in equations), you do not loose the integration between the two. You will have one financial calc (17BII) an one financial one (the 27S), and more, on a single device :)
- Access to TVM functions (N,I%,PV, PMT, FV) from the solver. This is more probablematic. I think this really -should- be part of the 17BII... Since the 17BII/19BII/27S do not allow subroutines (this is a pity), rewriting the TVM equation, although simple, is not convenient. You have a partial workaround with the USPV, USFV, SPPV and SPFV functions, but this is a not as rich as the 19BII possibilities.
- Additional statistics list functions, such as COPY, LABEL and SUBTOTAL. To me, this is not a big deal.
- Graphics: To me (but that's me !) the 19BII graphics functions are pretty useless. I have been doing extensive financial calculations in MBA, and never did a need to plot an histogram, a NPV vs. I% graph, or a curve fitting graph, moreover on a tiny screen !! If I need some sophistaced stuff like this (which is unlikely), I would bother to boot my notebook and use Excel.
- Text editing: If you emulate your calc on a PocketPC, you don't need that, you are better off with the PocketPC native programs !
- Demo: who cares ? :)
All this to say, overall, the 17BII/27S combination is a pretty good substitute for a 19BII. With proper text insertion as a bonus (I can never understand why this was not part of the 19BII !), and direct keyboard access to trigonometrics...
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Vincent
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