Re: HP-15C - useless today? Message #25 Posted by Mike Morrow on 6 Dec 2011, 7:04 p.m., in response to message #23 by Dave
Quote:
The 42S did not replace the 15C. It replaced the 41. The 32S replaced the 15C, and it was less functional, as was the 32Sii, 33S and 35S.
One should not just "make up" the history and the development of HP calculators. Those familiar with HP calculators can cite real facts to show that the above statements are baseless in every particular.
In absolutely NO informed appraisal can the HP 42S be considered a replacement for the HP 41C series. It was designed to be program semi-compatible, but that is all and that does not the 42S a "replacement" for the 41C make.
Many might consider it a somewhat important detail to recall that the HP-41C is, er, expandable, while the 42S is, er, NOT expandable. It is nonsense to claim the keyboard/LCD/printer-only I/O 42S is "the replacement" for a device that can control multiple diverse devices on an HPIL loop, use input from a bar code reader, use a magnetic card reader, employ various other I/O and time modules, and utilize RAM and ROM memory of very many sorts. Exactly how does that "replacement" HP 42S "replace" any of such capabilities, or is that just some small and negligible and inconvenient detail?
Additionally, the 42S itself has many advantages never found in any configuration of the 41C. Its Saturn processor is faster and produces results that have several orders of magnitude better accuracy and precision. The scope of the 42S mathematical function set is far greater than that of the 41C, including exhaustive complex domain support, matrix manipulation, a numerical solver, and a numerical integrator. The 42S is smaller and lighter than the 41C, and operates almost forever on its three 357 cells.
Compare the 41C to the 15C. The scope of the 15C mathematical function set is far greater than that of the 41C, including exhaustive complex domain support, matrix manipulation, a numerical solver, and a numerical integrator. The 15C is smaller and lighter than the 41C, and operates almost forever on its three 357 cells.
Hmmm...one might just conclude that the 42S was the replacement for the 15C, and not the replacement for the 41C. Or someone like me who has been buying HP calculators for 35 years could tell you that no one, neither HP nor customer, ever considered the HP 42S as the replacement for the HP 41C.
With respect to the 32S and the 15C, the 32S/SII isn't close to being a functional replacement for the 15C. Like all Pioneers, there are several improvements over earlier models, such as (1) limited alpha display, (2) greater speed, (3) better accuracy/precision, and (4) portrait rather than landscape keyboard. But anyone who replaced his 15C with the 32S/SII was likely very disappointed after finding that his new calc lacked many of the features and functions of the 15C, not the least being competently-executed complex domain support. I bought a 32SII to replace a 15C in 1997, when the 42S was no longer available from HP. I immediately retired that new but painfully inadequate grade-schooler's calc to storage. Happily, I was shortly thereafter able to obtain three HP 42S units. All of them together are physically incapable of replacing my one 1984 HP-41CX. But I didn't buy the 42S as a replacement for the 41CX. Nobody did.
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