Re: Texas HP Module $$$$ Message #14 Posted by Valentin Albillo on 2 Oct 2009, 5:26 a.m., in response to message #5 by Juergen Keller
Juergen wrote:
I didn't know (and still wouldn't believe it if I didn't saw the pictures in Joerg's auction) that TI produced an RPN simulator module. Doing that, TI acknowledged that RPN is superior to AOS, otherwise there would not be any need of such a module.
Wrong in both counts.
First, this wasn't an "RPN simulator" in the sense I think you're assuming it to be, i.e., a module which would allow you to perform RPN operations from the keyboard and such, as if you were using an HP-25 or HP-67, say, to perform some casual calculations.
Nothing of the sort. What this TI module did was accept an RPN program written for the HP-67/97, which you would enter as the corresponding numeric keycodes (say 31 25 00 for "LABEL 0" or 35 64 for "ABS"), and it would then convert said RPN program to the equivalent TI-58/TI-59 program, which would then be output to the mandatory printer for you to key it in.
Thus, it never simulated or made available RPN keyboard operations, it just accepted an RPN program for the HP-67/97 and converted it to the equivalent algebraic program for the TI-58/59, for you to enter it and then run it in the TI machine.
The point was clear: using this module, a TI user would have access to the vast library of excellent RPN programs made available for the HP-67/97, thus greatly expanding the library software for their machines by also taking advantage of those quality programs written for the other side.
I don't see this as proof that "TI acknowledged that RPN is superior to AOS", far from it. It actually was a very clever move by TI, even if the final results didn't meet the expectations.
Regards from V.
Edited: 2 Oct 2009, 5:29 a.m.
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