Is the Prime suitable, for me

[jebem]

(03-24-2014 07:01 PM)Mike Gale Wrote:  I heard about the Prime last night and got up before 4:00 this morning to research further.

I've been using PC's and Servers for years, but miss the clarity and ease of use of my old HP41 CX (with PPC ROM).

My research this morning suggested that maybe the Prime can't be programmed using a stack based language.

If anybody has the time I'd appreciate comments on the suitability of Prime, or something else for my situation:

1. I'd like to transcribe some existing HP41 code and use it again.
2. I'd like to inter-operate with a PC (USB is OK, though a bidirectional WiFi link would be appreciated). I'd like the opportunity to code on a PC, potentially generate code from programs...
3. I find RPN style equation representation, APL / J matrix style and functional, are more productive and satisfying than the bracketed, arbitrary precedence... ways of writing equations.
4. **
   

My research this morning suggests that I may be out of luck with a way to program in a stack oriented way (RPN). I may also have to accept USB and drop the WiFi idea. BUT, I hope, I'm missing something

Thanks.

For sure I'm not the most qualified to address your question, as others here will enlighten you way better than me. That said, here is what an old RPN guy like me can tell you:

1. Many of us are old enough to remember when computers took a full room of flip-flop transistors placed on nice small pcb's side by side in large cabinets. In those days, learning machine code/assembly language was the norm. I did that route myself.
Then HP came out with these RPN calculators in the 70's, for many of us that was the "cool" and efficient way of doing calculus - RPN is very close to what we do at machine level coding after all.
I work with computers since the 70's, and when I look back, this RPN entry mode is now a kind of nostalgic window to the past.
I still have a few of these HP calculators from that era in my collection, but for real day to day usage, I use algebraic/textbook calculators.
RPN with 4 registers is something that my brain can cope with, but after so many years playing with computer software, algebraic notation makes more sense to me now, allowing for so more complex calculus, equation systems, graphs, big displays for easy reading, specially if one enjoy a little bit of symbolic algebra.

2. As far as I was told, the HP-42S was the successor to the HP-41, but it seems the prices are very high as the 42S is out of production long years ago, and is more like an collector item these days. Also it doesn't interface with a PC, so it seems very limited in I/O capabilities.
So, the current HP-50G seems to be the best answer to your requirements.

3. Or, if you accept to not use RPN, you can use your HP-41 algorithms and rewrite the code in HP-PPL for real fun!
And of course the HP-Prime will fill many of your requirements as well, and a few more if you start exploring the so many new features available in it.

Let's see what others can tell here.