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HP Forum Archive 17

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Mastering the HP48G Book - Thomas Adams - Any Reviews?
Message #1 Posted by bink on 30 Aug 2007, 11:57 p.m.

I have seen this book for sale on eBay. Is it recommended? How much should it go for?

Is there a better introductory book to the HP48?

Thanks,

binky

      
"The HP48G provides the lubrication..."
Message #2 Posted by Allen on 31 Aug 2007, 1:25 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by bink

I believe this is not a good book, and at least two other people agree. (scroll to bottom of linked page for reviews)

The Good...

None. See comments below.

The Bad...

1) "The HP48G provides the lubrication..." That is how Chapter 3 describes the function of the [CAS] in helping the struggling reader solve equations. I think you can safely judge the merits of the rest of the book (and the cheap quality printing) from those 5 words.

2) The 185 page book is obviously fluffed by large font size and obnoxious (too large, poorly placed, and injudicious) figures.. There are probably less than 100 pages of info. This could have been distilled further to a compact and useful reference if they had put useful figures instead of full page flow charts and cut-and-paste tables from some spreadsheet.

3) BAD narratives throughout! On p.51, the author starts a 5-page solver example with an unnamed article "The effect of mound temperature on mating habits of nesting Australian Brush Turkey." (I'm serious!)

...and the Ugly.

1) While they chose to use FIVE different fonts on the cover of the book, the author or publisher saw fit to print everything inside the same Times New Roman font (boring!). This makes finding and reading the sample programs more difficult than if they had formatted HP48 sections with a fixed-width font. (Ironic that the subtitle to the book says it's easy to read! The program examples look like this formatting example):

Example 1: LS,R,O,L,L,ENTER, G,E,T,SPC,S,W,A,P,1,+,4,5,%,<<>>,3,2,G,E,T,ENTER,P,U,T,F,R,O,M,+,A,L,P,H,A, S,U,B,-,O,V,E,R,D,U,P,*,LS,R,O,L,L,ENTER,G,E,T,SPC,S,W,A,P,1,4,5,%,<<>>,3,2,G,E,T,ENTER,P,U,T,F,R,O,M,+,A,L,P,H,A, S,U,B,-,O,V,E,R,D,U,P,LS,*,-,R,O,L,L,+,+,ENTER,1,4,5,%,<<>>,3,2,G,E,T,ENTER,P,U,T,F,R,O,M,+,A,L,P,H,A,S,U,B,-,O,V,E,R,D,U,P,ALPHA,H,A,R,D,T,O,R,E,A,D,T,H,I,S,T,R,A,S,H,STO

Alternative Reading

As far as introduction to the HP 48, I recommend the 48G series Manual first and foremost. Two other excellent alternatives: HP48 Insights by Wickes (ISBN:0962525855) or HP48 Handbook by Donnelly (ISBN:1879828049).

Edited: 31 Aug 2007, 1:43 a.m.


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