The HP-37s scientific calculator?

[Steve Simpkin]

(12-30-2020 06:56 PM)John Keith Wrote:  

(12-30-2020 03:33 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Mass storage access (either or all of Bluetooth, SD card, USB). With today's memory sizes a programmable calculator without a means of permanently storing and sharing data and programs does not make any sense at all. My preference would be plain text storage on an SD card because that would not require any software on the other side and there will still be easy ways to access it ten years from now.

I could never understand why they made the 35s with large enough memory to store many programs but no way to back up or restore them. Even if it were free of bugs the lack of I/O makes it worthless for serious programming IMHO.
I use mine as my workshop calculator because I won't shed a tear if it is damaged.

The addition of I/O would probably have disqualified it from being used on NCEES tests. As to the bugs that were never fixed, HP did not budget for followup bug fixes.
Some insights on the development of the HP35s from Tim Wessman.

"No, that is what the calculator group at the tail end of the "let's outsource all our software and hardware development and make stuff just as good but cheaper and quicker" stage was able to produce under the management and with the budget allocated."

"The goal was to a) make money, b) fix the abomination that was the 33s (hey look! It has a modern shape and shiny colors! Look how cool it is!), and c) to give a nice improvement in capability and functionality while still meeting NCEES requirements."

https://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap...ead=191740