and now for something completely different...

[BarryMead]

(03-18-2015 09:02 PM)MarkHaysHarris777 Wrote:  I think we need to keep in mind what is really happening here. At the whim of HP, I mean this respectfully, the 20b (also 30b), hardware is going to be "no more" and the 'hard work' of the community is going to be for naught "unless" we can come up with different hardware.

I agree that we need NEW HARDWARE to move forward with "open source calculator" development. But this too can be a PROGRESSIVE rather than REGRESSIVE process. Take a look at what has already been done to develop the WP-43S. A software and library compatible low power Arm processor has been chosen, and several prototypes have already been built. They are already running the existing WP-34S and HP-41C software on these new platforms. I just think that ADDING-ON to this SIGNIFICANT WORK rather than starting over from scratch, is a more productive use of community brain power than having everyone build their own custom hardware and head off in totally new direction. I propose that SOONER rather than LATER the WP-43S team put out PRICE QUOTES so that members of the community can BUY their own WP-43S development prototype to help pull the community into a more coherent direction going forward. If you could buy a WP-43S development prototype for $500.00 now would you still be experimenting with Arduino implementations that will never meet the power or packaging size requirements of a calculator? Perhaps the WP-43S team could be a bit more open with the hardware design publishing the schematics, parts lists, and PCB gerber files. If they did this many more people could build their own prototypes.