I was bored and found a HP-27S

[Steve Sabin]

(06-28-2021 11:49 PM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  

(06-28-2021 10:23 AM)Steve Sabin Wrote:  The manuals I wrote are Science Student Applications for the HP-22S and Technical Applications for the 27S and 19B. I have copies of both.

Steve, it is great to finally meet the author of the 27s/19b Technical Applications manual. You did a great job describing the solver features that do indeed make the solver a genuine programming language. I have spent the better part of the last 13 or 14 years writing solver equations that are really programs, including a few games.

You guys really achieved a lot making this solver; it has given me thousands of hours of pleasure.

Don

I recall that these booklets were written before those calculators were officially released. I guess that is so these companion booklets could be available concurrently with the official launch of the 22S, 27S, and whatever other models came out at that time. I recall the project codename of one was "Leonardo" and another was "DaVinci" but I don't remember which codename went with which product. "Leonardo" might have been the 32S. They gave me my choice of what I wanted, and I chose the 28S due to the clamshell design and that it could do symbolic algebra and calculus rather than just numerical.

The textbooks pictured on the cover of the Science Student Applications for the HP-22S are fictional. I think HP did this to avoid copyright permissions issues associated with photos of real textbooks where the title/author was visible. The author names (such as Rey) on the spines reflect some of my co-workers in the technical publication department. I think they were created using rub-on "letraset" vinyl letters. Racquetball was all the rage in those days and the racquet on the cover was thus quite fitting.

They offered me a job at graduation but I had my sights set on something else. Ironically, much of my career has been spent in the technical marketing and product management domains where the ability to write and convey technical topics is extremely important, so what I learned during that summer job turned out to be very useful.