Asking HP to open source HP calculator software and patents

[cyrille de brébisson]

Hello

> Could you confirm that the ACO never used the original development tools
~Correct, We used the so called "HP Tools" (the RPN + ASM compilers + library tool + linker). At the very begining, we used the unix versions on a hpux computer, but it was very slow and we very quickly switched to PC versions based on the same source code.
I then added the MASD asm syntax to that tool set (as the 49 included a lot of source code from the Meta Kernel which used that syntax).
I then codded a first "debuger" tool (in C), and very quickly a second (debug2, in Pascal) which became the integrated development environment that we used for everything from compiling to debuging, using the emulator or the real calculator (through a special version of the software with RPL hooks)...
We never used the Corvalis "debuger boxes"which were a HW debug sollution.

> And what about the so-called ERS (External Reference Specification) for the HP-28/HP-48?
Nope, never used it. We had our own documentation (mostly comming out of the French hacker scene), and our own knowledge + access to the source code of course...


>Is there any chance that the source code of the HP-71B Math ROM might have survived?
Yes and no....
The 48 math libraries are the childs of the 71 math libraries with dates in the comments starting in early 85. So in lots of ways the work that was done to convert these libs from saturn ASM to C for the Euro series (20/30/40b) did the work that you are looking for.

Cyrille