HP Forum Archive 21

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Review of the HP-300S+ Message #1 Posted by Mic on 29 Dec 2012, 12:57 p.m. Hello, I present you a review of the new HP-300S+ : http://www.calc-bank.com/index.php?mod=news&ac=commentaires&id=1783 Enjoy !

Re: Review of the HP-300S+ Message #2 Posted by Eddie W. Shore on 29 Dec 2012, 10:09 p.m., in response to message #1 by Mic Thanks. I love the colors (light blue on black).

Re: Review of the HP-300S+ Message #3 Posted by Walter B on 30 Dec 2012, 1:48 a.m., in response to message #1 by Mic Mercí. A step in the right direction. HP once knew, however, to stay away from shiny surfaces. At least on the calculator top, reflections are annoying >:-( Oooh, all that lost knowledge ... :-/ d:-)

Re: Review of the HP-300S+ Message #4 Posted by Jim Johnson on 30 Dec 2012, 8:42 a.m., in response to message #1 by Mic Do you think Mssrs. Hewlett and Packard are turning in their graves with the absence of the large <enter> key on the HP-300S+? Even though I know the world will never adopt RPN, it is a sadly missed element of the modern day calculator.

Re: Review of the HP-300S+ Message #5 Posted by hpnut on 30 Dec 2012, 10:54 a.m., in response to message #4 by Jim Johnson RPN should be HP's Unique Selling Proposition for it's calculators. It ought to be standard feature on all HP calculators, regardless of price. hpnut in Malaysia

The future of RPN (?) Message #6 Posted by Walter B on 30 Dec 2012, 1:43 p.m., in response to message #5 by hpnut As much as I'd appreciate your proposal I think that would be the death sentence to HP's co-called calculator 'division'. The RPN-only folks are a moribund species unless something really significant is going to happen. Of HP's, there's only 1 (one!) RPN scientific left - plus the WP 34S, but I doubt that's a sufficient gene pool to let that species survive. d:-(

Re: The future of RPN (?) Message #7 Posted by Maximilian Hohmann on 30 Dec 2012, 2:02 p.m., in response to message #6 by Walter B Quote: The RPN-only folks are a moribund species ... The math and physics teachers of my son (13 years old) are 10 to 20 years younger than I am. I bet that none of them has ever used (or even seen) an RPN calculator in his life. Out, over, dead and buried...

Re: The future of RPN (?) Message #8 Posted by Thomas Radtke on 31 Dec 2012, 2:17 a.m., in response to message #7 by Maximilian Hohmann Quote: Out, over, dead and buried... And still, the 35s sells since 2007 (with more than just one production run).

Re: The future of RPN (?) Message #9 Posted by Luiz C. Vieira (Brazil) on 30 Dec 2012, 2:14 p.m., in response to message #6 by Walter B Machine code is RPN-like, and it would need the whole microprocessor industry to change itself prior to change this paradigm.

Re: The future of RPN (?) Message #10 Posted by Maximilian Hohmann on 30 Dec 2012, 2:43 p.m., in response to message #9 by Luiz C. Vieira (Brazil) Quote: Machine code is RPN-like, and it would need the whole microprocessor industry to change itself prior to change this paradigm. And how many calculators are sold every year to people who write machine code?

Re: The future of RPN (?) Message #11 Posted by Luiz C. Vieira (Brazil) on 30 Dec 2012, 4:59 p.m., in response to message #10 by Maximilian Hohmann I'd add "How many people program in machine code instead of using builders and compilers?" Or else "How many people know what 'machine code' stands for?" My point being even if RPN ceases to exist in calculators, at least some people will need to know the basic 'operators first, operation last' rule to design and build microprocessors. At least for as long as current architecture prevails. Edited: 30 Dec 2012, 5:01 p.m.

Re: The future of RPN (?) Message #12 Posted by Maximilian Hohmann on 30 Dec 2012, 6:15 p.m., in response to message #11 by Luiz C. Vieira (Brazil) Quote: ... at least some people will need to know the basic 'operators first, operation last' rule ... But that's not rocket science and can be taught to any interested high school student in a few hours (wasn't that the way we learnt it?). No RPN calculator is required for that purpose. Edited: 30 Dec 2012, 6:16 p.m.

Re: The future of RPN (?) Message #13 Posted by Luiz C. Vieira (Brazil) on 30 Dec 2012, 6:25 p.m., in response to message #12 by Maximilian Hohmann Yep, I guess that the main reasoning for performing math operations is essentially the basic inspiration for RPN implementation. Fact is that students must first learn how to reason one way to perform math operations then they would reason another way to use their algebraic-based calculators. I must confess once I understood RPN I thought: 'It will take no time so all calculators should work like this one! RPN actually helps improving math reasoning!' But that was just one thought of mine. And I have no problems seeing people using algebraic calculators, I just wonder why.

Re: The future of RPN (?) Message #14 Posted by Raymond Del Tondo on 30 Dec 2012, 4:21 p.m., in response to message #6 by Walter B Quote: The RPN-only folks are a moribund species unless something really significant is going to happen. Of HP's, there's only 1 (one!) RPN scientific left - plus the WP 34S At least Dynatech offers two RPN scientific calcs, the 15C LE and the 35S, and even the non-reflashed 30b offers the basic scientific functions. And there's still the 50g brick. It's not "purists' RPN" , but RPL, which can be seen as a heavily advanced version of RPN. That's 3 (4 with 50g) different RPN-like calcs offering scientific functions. However there are various non-scientific RPN calcs on their web site, different versions of the 12C , the 17bII+ silver, 20b, and 30b. The situation may not be optimal, but it's much better than some years ago, when they only had the 49g+/50g , the awful and ugly 17bII+ "gold-sprayed" full plastic version, and the back then very expensive 19BII. Edit: Forgot to mention the also awful 33s with "Chevron" keyboard (a machine to forget anyway)... Edited: 30 Dec 2012, 7:29 p.m.

Re: The future of RPN (?) Message #15 Posted by aurelio on 31 Dec 2012, 12:09 p.m., in response to message #14 by Raymond Del Tondo Quote: Edit: Forgot to mention the also awful 33s with "Chevron" keyboard (a machine to forget anyway)... Well said, Raymond, well said..........

Re: The future of RPN (?) Message #16 Posted by Luiz C. Vieira (Brazil) on 31 Dec 2012, 12:26 p.m., in response to message #15 by aurelio Ditto...

Re: Review of the HP-300S+ Message #17 Posted by Chris Smith on 31 Dec 2012, 11:20 a.m., in response to message #1 by Mic It's another Casio rebrand with different casing. The OS is probably very close to the hp300s which is functionally the same as an fx85 current line. Fx991es is much better value - does numerical integration and differentiation and has a half decent solver and unit conversions, even if it is mostly purple.

Re: Review of the HP-300S+ Message #18 Posted by Mike Morrow on 31 Dec 2012, 8:21 p.m., in response to message #17 by Chris Smith Quote: Fx991es is much better value - does numerical integration and differentiation and has a half decent solver and unit conversions, even if it is mostly purple. The latest version, the fx-991ES Plus C (a.k.a. fx-115ES Plus), has a few additional functions and other enhancements, but slightly reduced mechanical quality, compared to the earlier fx-991ES (fx-115ES). If this series were capable of some limited programming, and did not perform an AC (all clear) on auto or manual power-down in order that an in-progress problem could be resumed on next power-up, this series would have almost no identifiable shortcomings as a pocket scientific non-graphing calculator. Well...greater numerical dynamic range would be nice too.

Re: Review of the HP-300S+ Message #19 Posted by Walter B on 1 Jan 2013, 1:32 a.m., in response to message #18 by Mike Morrow Quote: If this series were capable of some limited programming, and did not perform an AC (all clear) on auto or manual power-down in order that an in-progress problem could be resumed on next power-up, this series would have almost no identifiable shortcomings as a pocket scientific non-graphing calculator. IIRC, it features a fluffy tactile feedback, too. Another space for improvement ...

Re: Review of the HP-300S+ Message #20 Posted by chris smith on 1 Jan 2013, 4:32 a.m., in response to message #19 by Walter B That's a standard Casio feature! The 300s buttons were even more horrible though. I spent so much time miskeying it got thrown across the room a couple of times. Gave it to the kids to play with in the end.

Re: Review of the HP-300S+ Message #21 Posted by chris smith on 1 Jan 2013, 4:24 a.m., in response to message #18 by Mike Morrow I found one that fits the bill. Its the same OS and feature set of the fx991es+ and is programmable in Casio basic (which is good enough for most math tasks). has persistent memory and data transfer capabilities. FX-5800p - http://edu.casio.com/products/program/fx5800p/ No match for my 50g but not a bad machine by the looks. Can't get them in the UK by the looks without importing though which is annoying but to be expected seeing as everyone here thinks you're insane for using anything that isn't TI.

Re: Review of the HP-300S+ Message #22 Posted by Walter B on 1 Jan 2013, 8:23 a.m., in response to message #21 by chris smith Look, Chris, this is a link: http://edu.casio.com/products/program/fx5800p/ . d:-) Edited: 1 Jan 2013, 8:23 a.m.

Re: Review of the HP-300S+ Message #23 Posted by chris smith on 1 Jan 2013, 6:07 p.m., in response to message #22 by Walter B Thank you for the reminder :)

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