HP Forum Archive 18

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Need a new calculator / will there be a successor of HP50g soon? Message #1 Posted by Michael on 28 Sept 2008, 9:22 a.m. Hello, I am a student(civil engineering/Germany/Karlsruhe) and need a new calculator. Up to now I had the TI89 (old version) and was contently , unfortunately i lost him :-(. My father uses HP's since his study so I watched out the HP 50g. Now i got a few questions: Is the HP comparable with the TI89? When will the successor of the 50g appear? Is he “untidily” like all claim(Menu, Keys, Funktion)? How are the keys, i ask this because those of my TI where kind of crap at the end... I also regared HP, cause the TI often seems to me like a toy. Often the algebraic solver supplied unreasonable results. Thanks a lot (I know - my english is a bit rusty...) Michael PS: I know UPN(RPN)

Re: Need a new calculator / will there be a successor of HP50g soon? Message #2 Posted by Hal Bitton in Boise on 28 Sept 2008, 11:10 a.m., in response to message #1 by Michael hello Michael, Quote: Is the HP comparable with the TI89? Yes, and then some Quote: When will the successor of the 50g appear? Certainly not in the near future, as the 50G has only been out for a couple of years. Quote: Is he “untidily” like all claim(Menu, Keys, Funktion)? I would not agree with the "untidy" characterization. Considering that the HP50g has over 2200 built in functions, I think that it does an admirable job of organizing them into functional groups. As one would expect when such capability is involved, there is a learning curve to be negotiated while settling in with the HP50g. As for the keys, they are quite nice, with crisp detents. The TI89 does have some useful functionality from what I've seen (while playing around with the emulator). However, it seems to be rather compartmentalized in it's overall operation. Consider the following example: Say I wanted to compute a vector representing the difference between two points graphically obtained from a plot. With the 50G, simply put the cursor on each point and press enter, to put the numerical values for the points on the stack. Then return to the stack and press "-" to obtain the answer. Since the answer is on the stack, it is available for follow on calculations, etc. On the TI89, there is a "distance" function within the plot application, but it will yeild only the absolute value (magnitude) of the difference vector, without the angle. Furthermore, I could see no easy way of exporting the solution (such as it is) from the plot application, to be used for any subsequent operations. In virtually every environment on the 50G, interum data can easily be put onto the stack with one keystroke, and operational results are automatically exported to the stack. In my limited experience, I can see no equivelancy to this in the ti89. I'm sure someone will correct me if they feel I'm speaking out of turn concerning this (which I would welcome). Best regards, Hal

Re: Need a new calculator / will there be a successor of HP50g soon? Message #3 Posted by Nigel J Dowrick on 28 Sept 2008, 3:39 p.m., in response to message #2 by Hal Bitton in Boise To copy results (coordinates etc.) from the graph screen to the Home screen of the TI-89, press "green diamond" followed by (-) (the change sign key). This is described as a "shortcut" in the manual, but I don't know any other way of doing it! Re: TI-89 vs HP-50g (I have both) - it depends what you will be using the calculator for. If you mostly do calculations, go for the HP. It's got trig functions, 1/x, square root as primary key functions; the TI-89 hasn't. Also, you can redefine the HP's keyboard as much as you like. (The TI's custom menus aren't as useful.) Finally, RPN is great, especially with an unlimited stack depth. If you want to do simple algebra, choose the TI. Its keyboard is optimized for this with X, Y, Z, T, and the "substitute" | key as primary keys, and derivatives and integrals easy to reach. The HP's basic algebra functions are (in my opinion) hard to find and remarkably non-memorable. (The indefinite integral menu item is called RISCH, after the algorithm used, and it is deeply buried!) The TI's excellent editor is better than anything on the HP, too. Indeed, the importance of being able to access previous results when doing algebra normally forces me to use the HP-50g in algebraic mode, so that I can scroll back through my history, but it still isn't as nice as the TI editor. But if you need a calculator that knows about Hermite polynomials or can solve non-linear differential equations analytically (sometimes) you have to have the HP, because the TI is way behind in the truly advanced areas. The only problem is that you will have to resign yourself to printing out the full manual and carrying it around with you; the HP is neither intuitive nor memorable. The HP looks really cool, though!

Re: Need a new calculator / will there be a successor of HP50g soon? Message #4 Posted by Maximilian Hohmann on 28 Sept 2008, 5:13 p.m., in response to message #3 by Nigel J Dowrick Hello! Quote: If you want to do simple algebra, choose the TI. And if you want/need to do some programming, choose the TI. Otherwise you will spend the remaining part of your time at the university trying to figure out how to program in "RPL" or whatever they call their weird "programming language", instead of learning how to make bridges that don't collapse within a year ;-) Greetings, Max

Re: Need a new calculator / will there be a successor of HP50g soon? Message #5 Posted by V-PN on 28 Sept 2008, 7:49 p.m., in response to message #4 by Maximilian Hohmann The FORTH -style programming is much easier Every program becomes a new command in the calculator You can extend the language/commands at will easily adapting to the problem at hand

Re: Need a new calculator / will there be a successor of HP50g soon? Message #6 Posted by Walter B on 28 Sept 2008, 11:14 a.m., in response to message #1 by Michael Hallo Michael, m.E. müsstest du mit einem HP50G den Bauingenieur locker schaffen, er ist derzeit sicher einer der mächtigsten technisch-wissenschaftlichen Taschenrechner, den du kriegen kannst. Die Tastatur ist soweit i.O. -- die Probleme, die's vorher mit den Tasten des 49g+ gab, sind gelöst. Dass sich ENTER immer noch klein rechts unten befindet, stört hauptsächlich nur uns Ästheten und Traditionalisten ;) Mit einem 50G-Nachfolger rechne ich nicht so bald, denn er ist noch recht neu. N.B.: Ich hab noch einen originalverpackten 50G, bei Interesse bitte mailen. ((IMHO a 50G is an excellent choice for your studies. Keyboard is fine. I don't expect a successor appearing soon.))

Re: Need a new calculator / will there be a successor of HP50g soon? Message #7 Posted by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) on 28 Sept 2008, 1:24 p.m., in response to message #1 by Michael Hi Michael, get debug4x here for free and test the 50G emulator. Treat yourself to the 50G manual here. Have a look at the resources here. You might even read the Advanced User's Reference Manual here. Oh, well and scew Walter out of his spare 50G ;-). Edited: 28 Sept 2008, 1:32 p.m.

HP 50G Graphing Calculator Message #8 Posted by Chotkeh Software Corporation on 30 Sept 2008, 1:10 p.m., in response to message #1 by Michael Well the buttons are better than the HP 49G+. I have both. My company has civil engineering software for the device. So this might be advantageous to your studies. Each program runs around $12.99 / subject you can add as you take classes mathematics engineering economics and concrete may be a good start in your studies. Check our site and see if this post helped you out. Simply take the full name and search in google. Look for our home page. Another good thing is that you can download both the software and the user's manual. You can actually see the manual before the purchase to see what is covered and whether its to your needs. No shipping needed. But the calculator you may want to purchase from Amazon or other sites in Germany its probably cheaper there, because of international shipping and customs.

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