Why do calculator manufactures like to reinvent the wheel?

[HP67]

(03-10-2014 01:25 AM)Stefan Wrote:  Why not use something more established and still comparably easy like Python, Pascal, Ruby etc?

I'm sure this doesn't answer your question but I don't think HP's traditional calculator customer (which the Prime was anyway not targeted at) wants any of those scripting languages anywhere near his calculator. I know I don't.

There are already small tablets and even handheld computers to run that stuff on. What the traditional HP calculator buyer wants is a high performance programmable numerical platform based on RPN/RPL. RPL, which is very close to Forth, is about the best possible OS and language combination for an embedded device like a calculator. To paraphrase, RPN and RPL are what make time travel possible.

Do you really want to key in significant Python, Pascal, or Ruby programs with a non-QWERTY keyboard? RPL works so well because the same operations that are assigned to keys can be pasted into RPL code in PGM mode. That will never be true of any of those scripting languages.

A calculator is not a general purpose computing platform. HP has been selling handhelds and small tablets. To differentiate things enough that a calculator retains any meaning at all, means it has to be a calculator, above all else. Otherwise, what's the point? Just buy a cellphone app.

God forbid that calculators degenerate into nothing more than tiny Linux boxes!