HP 35s missing keystrokes

[MarkHaysHarris777]

(01-23-2015 04:48 PM)Thomas Radtke Wrote:  You don't hear about it anymore as, after much enthusiasm in 2007, the 35s is mostly forgotten among professionals after all those bugs were discovered.

Actually, most of those 'bugs' aren't bugs; the HP35s still has huge sales, and the unit is 'still' manufactured... mine was manufactured in late November of 2014. I have spent many joyful hours with it over the past couple of weeks and have found that it really isn't that buggy. I need to do a little more research, but I've found that 'most' of the bug-list is either a matter of extremes testing or misunderstanding about either the nature of the 8502 processor and its interrupt mechanism, or the nature of stored program organization in the unit (the rules governing recalculation of entry points and the limits of program execution) or a misunderstanding of the design goals of the 35s. The unit has a couple of minor glitches, one gotcha (related to the 8502 interrupt mechanism) and 1 or two minor annoyances which have been corrected by the WP34s architecture.

I am planning to write a response (for new users to the 35s) to the bug-list on this site; not in an argumentative way of course, nor to generate any flame-bait comments... nor anything like that... just to give a more fair and balanced assessment of the HP35s as a professional tool for working engineers. Also because more students are using the 35s than ever before for the FE exam. They deserve to have a balanced review that explains the minor glitches, warns about the gotcha, and gives the new operators a confidence in the excellence of this commercial product for real work.

I'm really excited about the product, frankly. The more I use it the more I like it; and you know what? I'm not running into any show-stopping bugs in the firmware. The unit works within its design constraints, does well 99.98 percent of what it was designed to accomplish (does it very well even) and is really the best engineered, best assembled, best 'usability' device I have seen in the last 20 years. (I'm not including my TI 89Titanium).

I mean seriously folks, if you read the bug-list from this forum you might come away thinking WTH? (let alone purchasing the unit for real work) I know, I thought that for a while. Then I started talking with folks who are actually using it for real work and discovered that the unit really doesn't have all those bugs, and that the bug-list is really more of an annoyance complaint to HP. When it comes right down to it, the HP35s works very well, is well made, will last for a long time, and will be vindicated in the end. Time will tell.

Cheers