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My first handheld was an HP 28S. I had seen the HP 41C and the TI 59 and was impressed by their capabillties and also liked the Casio FX 720, but never had the chance, the money rather, to own any of them.
So, after saving, I bought the HP 28S and everybody in my class, incuding myself, could not believe it was capable to solve a system of linear equations with complex numbers with just a key (division). Other machines had to program all that and it was a nightmare.
Then there were graphic diplay of functions, an excellent solver, the best programming capabilities, etc. It was light years ahead of any other calc in the market and the envy of my schoolmates. After some weeks, 90 % bought the machine and many upgraded to the next level (HP 48SX and GX) when they were for sale.
The current HP 50G is the HP 28S with all the improvements you could dream of at that time and, from my point of view, is the best calc around. Anyone in need for a calc nowadays should by this machine.

Casio FX 3600 P, a programmable calculator with LCD display and continuous memory. I used it with great pleasure as it could calculate formulae for math and physics as well a very crude version of the moon lander in its 38 steps of program memory...

HP35 in 1972. I was working as a Scientific Programmer at Lincoln Laboratory and didn't see the need for a calculator -- I had unlimited access to an IBM 360/67. But my boss offered to buy one for me, and the rest is history.

I just bought another HP35 and am delighted with it.

My first handheld was CASIO PV-S660 in dec.2001. I mean that "handheld" is a pocket computer. Power spreadsheet, really accessible 4 Mb flash-RAM and quite good chess.
Frankly speaking, I expected much more progress in RAM-memory from calculators in the present days. And the best - HP-50G. I can email the program to the friend on the smartphone, and he will easily load it by means of the SD card.

After completing school I managed to find a job with a large Telecommunications Company. They dutifully sent me off to further my education. What a disaster!

Although calculators were available, though very expensive, the course still used slide rules. I had neither the manual dexterity nor the patience to master this device. My grades were miserable. I scraped passed my first year, just.

Fortunately for me the in the following year calculators were allowed, both in the class room and for use in exams. I finished the remaining three years of that course without further torture thanks to my HP-45.

If you were to ask about HP, I'd have to say an oldschool HP-34C. As for calculator, I'd have to say the Sharp PC-1247 was the first I can actually remember owning, more of a nanocomputer than a calculator. 3,328 bytes of RAM, POKE/PEEK and BASIC. Funnily enough, I could poke/peek directly into the program space, allowing me to do really weird things with my program. It even had the ability to store programs to cassette tape, I found out the pinouts and cobbled together an output to my microcassette.

The HP-34C was also the first time I stumbled across the fact that HP calculators could calculate factorials for non-integers, effectively gamma(x-1). I only wish it had held on for longer, I eventually had to toss it. My blog entry describes my experiences with it and other calculators I still own today.

Now of course, I have a HP-50G, and contrary to this post in the archives, I consider it the best calculator I own. Sure, it might not be very pocketable, but it'll handle most things I throw at it, I just lack the expertise to utilise it to its fullest extent. My Casio fx9750GII might be easier to program, but it doesn't do as much as the HP-50G.

I miss the click of those HP-34C keys though...

(05-07-2014 08:04 PM)walter b Wrote: [ -> ]My story is printed on p. 242 in the WP 34S Owner's Manual so there's no need to repeat it here.

Say what? Version 3.1 of the manual only has 211 pages... and version 3.0 only has 118 pages. I can't find a "page 242".

(Post 1)

Regards, BrickViking

(08-26-2015 03:27 AM)brickviking Wrote: [ -> ]Say what? Version 3.1 of the manual only has 211 pages... and version 3.0 only has 118 pages. I can't find a "page 242".

The current WP-34S Manual (V3.3) is available for purchase only, in either hard copy or PDF versions. Search these archives, you will easily find it. You will also find comments from every user that got one that it is easily well worth the cost. Recommended in every way.

(08-26-2015 01:23 PM)rprosperi Wrote: [ -> ]The current WP-34S Manual (V3.3) is available for purchase only, in either hard copy or PDF versions. Search these archives, you will easily find it. You will also find comments from every user that got one that it is easily well worth the cost. Recommended in every way.

Given I have a HP-50G, a Casio fx-9750GII (reflashed to be a fx-9860GII), a fx-9750G+, a fx-82MS, fx-82TL, and a Canon 804p, I doubt I'll ever need the WP34S. I snagged a copy of the emulator for reference though.

(Post 5)

Regards, BrickViking

(08-26-2015 09:29 PM)brickviking Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-26-2015 01:23 PM)rprosperi Wrote: [ -> ]The current WP-34S Manual (V3.3) is available for purchase only, in either hard copy or PDF versions. Search these archives, you will easily find it. You will also find comments from every user that got one that it is easily well worth the cost. Recommended in every way.

Given I have a HP-50G, a Casio fx-9750GII (reflashed to be a fx-9860GII), a fx-9750G+, a fx-82MS, fx-82TL, and a Canon 804p, I doubt I'll ever need the WP34S. I snagged a copy of the emulator for reference though.

(Post 5)

Regards, BrickViking

The manual won't work for the emulator too?!? ;)

(08-26-2015 09:32 PM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-26-2015 09:29 PM)brickviking Wrote: [ -> ]Given I have a HP-50G, a Casio fx-9750GII (reflashed to be a fx-9860GII), a fx-9750G+, a fx-82MS, fx-82TL, and a Canon 804p, I doubt I'll ever need the WP34S. I snagged a copy of the emulator for reference though.

(Post 5)

Regards, BrickViking

The manual won't work for the emulator too?!?

Dude. If I can't work out how to use the calculator from the 3.1 manual, then I should just jack it all in and run back to my FX-82MS. When I first got my HP34C, I really really wished for a calculator like it. Then of course, twenty years later, I bought myself a HP-50G. Search over.

Now I'm fighting to cram very simple concepts into my brain in a RPN fashion. I was rather hoping to cobble together a grocery program a la my blog post... but it looks like I've got a long way to go before I can put it together on the HP. Casio? A doddle, it's just glue BASIC together until it works. HP? Ha. I'm barely getting the idea of how to even write a program in a stack-based language.

(Post 7)

Regards, BrickViking

There are virtually no differences between the 3.1 and 3.3 firmware revisions for the 34S. Either manual will get you using the calculator just fine.


- Pauli

(08-27-2015 08:32 AM)brickviking Wrote: [ -> ]Dude. If I can't work out how to use the calculator from the 3.1 manual, then I should just jack it all in and run back to my FX-82MS.

Oh boy. It was you that was looking for page 242...

(08-27-2015 08:32 AM)brickviking Wrote: [ -> ](Post 7)

You could have noticed that total posts are reported on the left column, under your ID.

(08-27-2015 12:11 PM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote: [ -> ]You could have noticed that total posts are reported on the left column, under your ID.

What left column? I don't have one. Posts take up the entire width of my browser. And yes, I had noticed I had a postcounter on the top right, the (Post nn) is more for myself to let me know in what order I made certain posts. It's worked well for me in other places.

(Post 8)

Regards, BrickViking

The TI58C of course!
After I had fun with a Casio FX-702P and then later with a Palm...
But I always returned to my first love: my TI58C !

(05-07-2014 06:34 PM)John W Kercheval Wrote: [ -> ]What was it? Mine was a TI-59.

Others? Anyone use a Timex? Altair?

In high school I'm certain that I had some other TI before the SR-52, but not for long (it may have been an SR-51A or SR-51-II).

The SR-52 cost me $225 (that was discounted) and it served me well into college. Keystroke-programmable and truly huge, it offered lots of selection from the TI PPX (Professional Program eXchange), so I had stocked up on a few games and the electrical engineering library.

When the SR-52's battery life got too short to be useful and the magnetic card reader became unreliable, I replaced it with a Sharp EL-512.

I really like the EL-512 and still have it. I have probably only changed its batteries twice since 1982.

(08-27-2015 10:31 AM)Paul Dale Wrote: [ -> ]There are virtually no differences between the 3.1 and 3.3 firmware revisions for the 34S.

I just learned what "virtually no difference" means. Let me see: 3.1 featured 211 pages, 3.3 sports 344 pages so far. Just for the record.

d:-)

A Ti30, that I bought in a joint promotion with a Texas instruments led watch....I loved that watch...it was always off and you had to push a button to see the time...because of the high battery consumption. The Ti30 made a courious led blinking when trigonometric functions were required.
Reagards

Ignacio

A TI-30, reeeed leeeed, when I was 15. Later at university a Casio FX-750P, couldn't afford a HP-41.

We had one of these bad boys before the TI.

It could be carried around, but it wasn't really 'hand held'. My sis and I were fascinated with the thing.

Might be in my basement somewhere. No batteries or cords, seems like there was a ribbon in it.

(11-20-2015 06:15 PM)TASP Wrote: [ -> ]We had one of these bad boys before the TI.

It could be carried around, but it wasn't really 'hand held'. My sis and I were fascinated with the thing.

Might be in my basement somewhere. No batteries or cords, seems like there was a ribbon in it.

Gods teeth. I used to play with one of these in the office on my dad's ship, back in 1967. Either the same or a very similar model -- the circular operator control stick thing at the top right was especially fun. Kept me occupied for hours. Endless yards of printout.

My first encounter with proper hand-helds was a HP-21 (?) in the 70s. Got my dad's hand-me-down 5 function PYE-640 in 1975, a Nat-Semi 4525 RPN Programmer in 76 and a HP-41C in 80/1, then a HP-16C in 83. Still got 'em all. Did buy a Prime a couple of years ago, bu that's hardly in the same pedigree as the older HPs.