Calculator fetish

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user 37518

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I must admit that about 20 years ago when I was in High School I recieved my first HP 48GX calculator, nothing was ever the same. I become hooked to RPN, something that continued through my college years during my EE degree, and continues up to today, whenever someone hands me a "standard" calculator AKA "algebraic" I feel like a 4 year old learning to add, whenever I had to take a test and the professor decided that my HP calculator was too advanced, I had to take out a Casio scientific calculator and it was just sheer pain.

I own only HP calculators,  between the geeks there is an HP vs Texas Instruments rivalry, I own the 11C, 15C, 48G+, 50G, 35s, the new Prime and a DIY HP based calculator the WP 34s. There is a forum for us geeks addicted to HP calcs https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/

Is there anyone here who shares the same interest?
 
I  borrowed a co-worker's new HP-35 to calculate standard deviations for a college paper I was writing in 1973 - what a time saver. And it sure beat the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics tables for trig and log functions. But no way could I afford $395 - about 20 years ago I found one at a yard sale for $1.

I liked RPN, but the only thing I use a calculator for these days is to figure my taxes, so it doesn't matter any more.
 
Nothing wrong with RPN. If you want to learn a programming language I suggest you use Forth. It uses RPN everywhere.

Cheers

Ian
 
I wouldn't call it a fetish but I still use a HP32S for simple calculations. I just checked and the batteries are dead in my HP11C (i need to remove the dead batteries JIC.)

I recall building a kit hand held calculator back in the 70s, but HP was the real deal (TI was a serious competitor but RPN was a winning feature for HP). I owned at least one of the HP programmable handhelds. Always some drama if the battery dies in the middle of a serious calculation since their memory would go away too.

I lost track of my original old HP35 but it was tired. Not cheap when new. I recall in the 70s when my employer provided me with a plastic slide rule...  When using a "slip stick" you pretty much had to do the calculations in your head to figure out where to put the decimal point, kids today have it soooo easy.  8)

JR

[update].. the batteries inside the 11C are ok there was just a dirty contact between two of them.  Looks like the 11c is programmable. /update]
 
JohnRoberts said:
I wouldn't call it a fetish but I still use a HP32S for simple calculations. I just checked and the batteries are dead in my HP11C (i need to remove the dead batteries JIC.)

I recall building a kit hand held calculator back in the 70s, but HP was the real deal (TI was a serious competitor but RPN was a winning feature for HP). I owned at least one of the HP programmable handhelds. Always some drama if the battery dies in the middle of a serious calculation since their memory would go away too.

I lost track of my original old HP35 but it was tired. Not cheap when new. I recall in the 70s when my employer provided me with a plastic slide rule...  When using a "slip stick" you pretty much had to do the calculations in your head to figure out where to put the decimal point, kids today have it soooo easy.  8)

JR

[update].. the batteries inside the 11C are ok there was just a dirty contact between two of them.  Looks like the 11c is programmable. /update]
Click to expand...

The 11C is a great calculator, I use it all the time, the 11C and 15C are very similar but one of the differences between the 11C and 15C  is that the 15C can handle complex numbers, don't know what the other differences are. Some years ago HP released a limited reissue of the 15C with a new microprocessor, the thing looked the same but it was considerably faster, nowadays those reissues sell for a fortune on eBay https://www.ebay.com/itm/Scientific-Calcolatrice-Rpn-Hewlett-Packard-HP-15c-Ristampa-Edizione-Limitata/224046356018?hash=item342a341632:g:ZeUAAOSwj3pdguDV

A company called Swiss Micro manufactures 11C and 15C calculator lookalikes, they are very similar but the keys are worthless

https://www.amazon.com/-/es/SwissMicros-DM-15/dp/B014FPNDEU/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=swiss+dm15&qid=1599083930&sr=8-1
 
john12ax7 said:
A lot of the classic calculators are available as phone apps,  so that's one way to go about it.

Never cared for rpn though.
Click to expand...

I have two of those apps in my phone, one is called Droid48 which is an emulation of the 48G, and the other is called Emu48 which emulates the 48G, 50G and many others. They are useful when I have to make calculations such as splitting the check at a restaurant and so on, but still, when I need to do some serious number crunching there is no substitute for having real keys.

Regarding RPN, its not for everyone, those who have mastered it love it to death, I am one of them, for the first timer it is just weird, when I was 16 and got my first RPN HP calculator I remember that I didn't like it initially, over time that changed.
 
user 37518 said:
Regarding RPN, its not for everyone, those who have mastered it love it to death, I am one of them, for the first timer it is just weird, when I was 16 and got my first RPN HP calculator I remember that I didn't like it initially, over time that changed.
Click to expand...
RPN was clearly invented by a programmer, because it elegantly eliminates unnecessary  keystrokes.

I have to think about how to operate non RPN calculators to get accurate results, while RPN seems more natural (after decades).

JR
 
JohnRoberts said:
I have to think about how to operate non RPN calculators to get accurate results, while RPN seems more natural (after decades).

JR
Click to expand...

Same thing here, I will accidentaly input numbers in non RPN calculator in a RPN fashion, with the obvious error afterwise.
 

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