Old habits
Message #1 Posted by Ed Look on 20 Sept 2011, 11:51 p.m.
My first HP calc was the 34C, you know, with the three (3- count 'em) shift keys, gold f, blue g, and black h. I used it exclusively, and at times heavily, for over twenty years. (And then it got sick, and then slowly died.)
Many of the shifted functions that were on the h group in the 34C are, in the 15C(LE), a two shift key calculator, are redistributed between the f and g keys.
So, when I start using the 15C LE, I find myself either silently mouthing or thinking specifically things like "h PSE" (f, for 15C), "h SST" (unshifted), "h 1/x" (unshifted) "h LBL A" (f)... and continues even with other functions like SIN, COS, and TAN, which were f-shifted in the 34C. I actually did and still do this with other HP calculators, too that may have similar commands or functions, like ISG or DSE, but when I came to the RPL machines, since the keyboards and program paradigms were so different, that didn't happen! But when the 33s and 35s came out, even though their shift keys were not named by letters, it began to bubble back out from the depths of my memory... those calculators are similar enough to the old Spice machines, I guess... )
I hope this does not cause a confusion that will in turn cause dementia or insanity!
I guess riding a HP calculator is like riding a bicycle- you don't forget! But they might change the position of the shift levers, or reduce the three shift levers of your old bike to two! (Yes, yes, I know, no real bicycle has had three shift levers!)
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