Re: Woodstocks - the new gold standard? Message #15 Posted by Mike Morrow on 13 Feb 2010, 12:31 p.m., in response to message #6 by Michael de Estrada
I also like the Woodstock form factor. It's far better than, say, the terribly awkward landscape format of the Voyagers.
My idea of the closest thing to perfection in a LED calculator would be an HP-34C in Woodstock format, which would not have been too difficult to package. Both the HP-29C and the HP-34C have the same number of keys, switches, and display digits. I consider the Woodstock's combined battery/compartment door design to be the best that HP ever used. In this "ideal" machine, the designers used a little basic common sense to implement a decent charging system that won't destroy the machine, along with a competently designed battery compartment that can't admit chemical contamination from the battery into the calculator insides.
That would be perfection in an LED calculator!!
I consider the HP-34C, as a calculator, to be a great step forward from the HP-29C. I like the HP-34C even better than the HP-67 that I've had for 33 years. But its very flimsy mechanical design, including the battery compartment, was a great step backward from the Woodstocks.
HP has a long tradition of unsatisfactory design practices, unfortunately.
|