Slashdot Mirror
HP Calcs Live On Under PalmOS
philipsblows writes "Emulators for HP Calcs have been around for a while, but HP is actually getting behind this one, allowing ROM images to be included to support emulation of 48sx, 48gx and 49g (all separately and at the same time) on your PalmOS device. Unfortunately, it has to be a color device, but this is great news anyone who would otherwise miss out on using an HP calc. Check out Power48 here." And unlike a calculator, the software is free (and Free).
can it do reverse polish notation? Seriously, that would be so sweet.
Anywayz, I hate the Company Hewletcompagergishmess. Their computers are flaming shit piles. But there calcs rival Ti (some argue that they are far bettr) and it is totally cool that they are supporting emulation (unlike the console game industry - as if they are still making money off of the SNES!). But the coolest part is that it's OSS, so I could just program it to do reverse polish notation if i really wanted to.
FP (okay, first relavent post)?
YOU SUCK BALLS!
don't guess you've ever used a hp, huh?
Now if only console manufacturers would get behind emulation development for vintage consoles. Sure, you can still buy games for the SNES on eBay or your local odds and ends store but none of that money will be going back to Nintendo or the developers.
Actually on thinking about it much of the nintendo GBA catalogue...
played Minesweeper was on a 48SX. Now I'm an MCSE.
"And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."
For the price of ONE of those you can have a pocket full of REAL HP's...
But for those that have one already, its damned cool.
Though you cant really replace a *real* keyboard for lots of number crunching..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I've only got an m515, looks like this sucker will only work on a Tungsten or Clie.
Drat.
--Fesh
Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
I never realized that HP calculators died? Have they stopped selling them? Granted I've had my 48gx since 1995 and never looked at another calculator since then. What do people use these days? I've actually seen fewer calculators used as they get replaced with Matlab or Maple or Mathematica being more and more at hand for people, but I still find myself reaching for my 48gx even when I am near a computer just because they're so convenient.
The 48GX and SX roms have been freely available (courtesy HP, of course) from www.hpcalc.org, and probably other enthusiast sites. It is interesting that HP is actually backing an emulator, though. Hey, where's that RPN troll when you need him???
I am a bit disappointed that it does not work on monochrome devices like the good old Palm Vx, which I'm happily using for a long while now. The original HP48 display was monochrome and would perfectly look on my Palm. Now only if those keys weren't color :)
This is cool, but it's not new. There has been a HP 48/49G emulator for Windows CE for some time now. It even runs at an acceptable speed on the newer Pocket PCs. There has also been a Psion version.
t tp://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/pc/emulators/</a>
h
HPQ sells pocket PC devices. This emulator runs on PalmOs.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the relevant bit of the HP marketing dept. Is this the start of something new? Is HP going to start bringing out PalmOs devices or Linux PDAs?
So few questions, so many answers.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
I wonder if they will add support for the old 41CX? God I love that calculator (mine still works). I used it all through college and to this day my fingers have that keyboard memorized.
was a best calc the HP48* ! ;)
:(
get plenty more softwares & games on palm
way to go to get it on palm.
but i'm sad i can't it get work because have no display color. why such a restriction
As far as I know, the unique feature of HP calculators is that they use reverse polish notation by default so I expect that is what this one uses.
RPN is similar to stacking languages where the variables are pushed onto the stack first and then the operators are applied to the appropriate stack entries. So, a + b x c should be entered as b c x a + and (a + b) x c should be entered as a b + c x
Similar to other stacking languages like Postscript and SmallTalk.
Note that this should be the same as the desktop "dc" command on linux except that dc is only good for integers (and you need to enter "=" to see the result). I routinely add a few extra significant digits when using dc so that I can deal with fractional values. Works nicely occasionally when doing command line scripting.
This program emulates the hardware of the HP48SX, HP48GX, and HP49G. In order to legally (morally?) use this software, you need to have the ROMs, or develop your own equivalents. The ROMs are copyrighted by HP.
- AlanH
~~~
but also with the new high definition screens (320x320 or higher) so people who have a IIIc (like myself) are SOL.
-- the cake is a lie
The 48g was a godsend for me in university. This was before the masses knew anything about being able to store and retrieve any decent amount of text from a calculator. All my biochem formulas got neatly stored in a little app called YONPY or something like that (I think it stood for Ye old notepad). People supervising the exams had no clue -- prolly just thought I was a big geek with a calculator at least twice the size of others. I dont think you can get away with this now though.
Dear A.C. If you are going to post this off topic ba$tardization of my beloved South Park at least get the words right. "He's a super King Kamehameha beeatch" refers to a Hawaiian King. It may even be in this case an indicator of great size since this king was very tall and strong. The boys at South Park would not be amused.
malia, reppin' the 808Harpo Tunnel Syndrome--my wrist feels funny.
Wow, if it's only good for integers, I wonder why they allow you to set the precision with "k", and why I routinely use it for decimals. As for displaying, I use "p". You should really take a look at the manpage sometime, or next you're gonna be saying it's only good for base10.
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
They're still owned by HP and thus not Free. HP could pull their support at any time.
Judging by the excitement, I think it's no coincidence that "under palm os" can be rearranged to spell "unload sperm."
Is it possible to use this on the Sharp Zaurus? Is it worth trying?
There is no patch for stupidity
Visit my blog
It's not an HP calculator if it doesn't have a keypad; it just ain't the same thing. Plus, I can't exactly take a palm pilot into my exams now can I? It's the read thing for me.
I heard HP is supposed to be thinkinga bout releasing another calculator.... it's probably just stupid rumors however.
"Entropy is the bad-guy, and he is everywhere"
PC HP calc emus:
http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/pc/emulators/
Or check out all the other emu goodies at that site:
http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/
Or just search http://www.handango.com for "HP 48" for more emus for all portable computing platforms.
Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams
If you buy an SJ22 Sony Clie from Staples and use one of the $30 off $150 coupons that are floating around. $170 + tax isn't too bad for sweet little PDA.
HP emulators are available for almost every platform you can imagine.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
There were times when I really liked my HP28S. It was cool and made my life in the university much easier.
However, anyway you look at it, any PDA being sold today is *much* more capable (except perhaps for the lack of a decent keyboard).
I mean, if you want to do numeric calculations just run a scaled-down version fo MATLAB (or Octave for those who prefer Free software).
If you need symbolic calculations run Derive, MuPad, Yacas or whatever...
All of these programs are much more capable than the HP calculators. It is also much easier to program them. The HP programming language (Forth-like) is really annoying.
So aside from the historical value and perhaps running some existing applications this not progress - quite the contrary.
I tried installing it on my colour palm, and it requires a High-res Palm device. This is pretty much a Clié-only application. Pity it doesn't work on my i300, since most palm-based calculator apps out there are fscking worthless.
Before HP retired their calculator division they were working on a brand new calculator that seemed pretty slick. They appeared to have some working prototypes of it out. It would be great if they released the ROM for that.
That being said, it's pretty sad that HP closed down the ACO. Their RPN calculators were top notch.
While recently looking at HP's online store, I noticed the HP-48GX was listed as a "closeout" item. It appears that once the existing inventory of HP calculators are sold, HP will be out of the calculator business. Carly sucks.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
In all, I'm highly impressed with this, though it will take a few weeks to see if I treat it like a toy or a real calc.
Cat, the other, tastier white meat.
I'm working on a Java RPN calculator, here. I regularly use the console version on my Zaurus.
The upcoming version has loop structures and code objects to allow for more advanced scripting. Symbolic manipulation is planned for the future. I could use some help with this if anyone has Java or RPL math code they'd like to contribute.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Since reading the article isn't hard at all, you may notice that the article says;
The HP48/49 ROM images distributed with this emulator are the property of and copyrighted by Hewlett-Packard. Their inclusion in this package is for the convenience of the end-user only. If you (the end-user) are not legally permitted to use a particular ROM image you must not install that ROM image to the VFS storage mechanism.
What part of that did you fail to understand?
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
Sega bought the rights to an emulator called KGen98 and released it as the "Sega Smash Pack". It's pretty cheap to buy too, $10 new, but only works with the handful of encrypted roms that sega packaged with it.
is much faster to evaluate, especially on the 49g's 4mhz processor when doing symbolic shit.
Those who don't have a compatible palmtop can use FlameCalc if their pda supports Java. The development(next) release has enough features to do nearly all of my AP Physics stuff on my Zaurus, but loops/constructs are too unstable for a public release at the moment.
What I'd really love is Linux PDA in a graphing calculator case. I honestly don't care that it would be larger, a usable numeric keyboard would make up for that. It better have CF/SD and all the other goodies of course.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
I sent an email to HP customer service, asking what they had for RPN calcs since I wanted a scientific RPN calc, but was too cheap to pay $150 or whatever.
In addition to pointing me to low-cost retailers, the reply hinted that there were going to be new models coming.
I hope that the calculator business doesn't die. I only like RPN calculators. I have a mangled 17BII on my desk and a 12C in the drawer. I want one to replace my 12C so that if the new one grows legs, I won't care as much.
That brings another reason I like RPN, no one can use it so no one is tempted to walk off with it.
HP just introduced two low end calculator models.
0 12 3b.html
s s/2002/02103 1a.html
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2003/03
I have read in a few places that they have a high end one coming out closer to the end of the year.
New calculator division distributor expansion:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/pre
Is it open source?
Damn, does your neck hurt from that giant tinfoil hat or what?
I don't really mind double posts on
I don't know _what_ I'll do when my venerable HP11c finally bites the dust. I'm not a huge fan of the 12c.
I don't even like to _think_ about losing my 11c. *cringe*
Time to read a different Slashdot thread...
I had many HP calculators. Lved them all. Loved RPN.
Power48 is an impressive emulator... BUT:
1.- Start time is too long. Screen is too crowded and plain complicated for a PDA LCD.
2.- If you need a very good calculator use EasyCalc and you'll be happier at any resolution. http://easycalc.sourceforge.net/. Fast startup and
decent interface. Clearly not as programable nor a large library of tools, still very usable.
Now, here is the irony: HP should have been a king of the PDA arena using their experience in the calculator group... but somehow they become WinCE clone makers. Very sad. What happened?
I don't think you've been properly introduced to the better of the TI calcs... I've got 'em both:
;P
A TI-83 which is overclocked... (!) Still works like a charm after having its guts ripped out repeatedly. Now, I didn't drop it in a lake, but it's been in the shower... so... hehe
And then, the workhorse, my beloved TI-89. Let me just say to all the HP holier-than-thou people out there: AOS ownz.
So it doesn't have RPN (but I remember seeing a few packages on ticalc.org)... but it does everything else. I mean jesus, it's a frickin' 68010.
I get real work done with it too... my main folder has about a hundred functions and programs sittin around; i forget what half of them do.
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
Bah. HP's obviously allowing them to be included, and obviously doesn't give a good god damn. Good for them. And if they should become unenlightened and later change their minds, it's too late. There are lots more important things to worry about then whether using a small ROM image is legal.
Got the HP48 emulator. Now all I need to do is get PalmOS 5 emulated :).
If all you want is a good scientific/graphing calculator for your Palm, get EasyCalc. :) )
(It appears to be in English now, too.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
for you,
</i>
First of all, anyone running a science class who thinks that forcing a bunch of rote formula memorization is "learning" isn't doing very much teaching.
Second of all, everybody that actually makes a living with math and science cheats every day, by referring to reference books, studies, conferring with others, and so on.
We should be teaching people how to *learn* by using reference materials, not waste storage neurons on things that are already written down.
FWIW, when I was in college (circa 1985), the physics teacher allowed us to bring in a 3x5 card with anything we want written on it. We got the guy with the best penmanship in our study group to write ALL the formulas we could think of, complete with notes, examples and so on on a 8x11 sheet of paper which we then reduced on a photocopier to 3x5.
Again, you could call this cheating, or you could give us credit for innovation.
What's the difference between free and Free?
?
Yes, and Linus Torvalds still owns the trademark "Linux". If he feels like it, he could make it illegal for me to boot up my computer at any time. So what's your point?
And what about batteries? I haven't used a calculator too much since I got out of college, but while I was using it regularly, I changed the 3 AAA batteries probably twice a year under heavy use, including games when I'd get bored in class. I don't imagine Palms are anywhere near as power efficient. The custom Saturn processor used for the HP calculators might not have been very fast, but it was certainly power efficient.
In short, it sounds like something fun to play with for a bit, but if you actually want to use a HP calculator for what its meant for (games and entertainment of course...err...I mean, programming and calculating and graphing), I can't imagine a Palm running this actually being useful.
I have been a HP calculator fan for many years. I've had HP33E through the HP48GX, the latter being my latest. I've always beleived if you want a "real" calculator you have to go with HP.
hpmuseum
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
HP was working on making a new calculator based on a PDA, but there were concerns about the durability and usability of a stylus in an acedemic setting. They were going to call it the math xpander. You can get the software for palm here http://www.saltire.com/xpander.html.
Looking at their site, it looks like the SJ20 is their only current high-res monochrome option, but they've had a few in the past, including the SL10 that they currently have available as a $99 refurb.
fencepost
just a little off
RCL 20: People, Dreams and HP Calculators.
Sad, but oddly cheering at the same time.
As it does not run on any palm except the 320x320 Sony clones, the topic is misleading. I've got a m505 for years, and it is not use. Luckily, I just bothered digging out my HP48gx from its box in the attic after the post.
Still, why call it palm when it won't run on a palm. It rather is a sony, then.
First run 'which dc' to make sure you are useing the GNU dc and not some other command.
/
The following is from running dc. Output is in bold, $ is the bash prompt.
$ dc
10 3
p
3
3 k
10 3 / p
3.333
$ dc -e '10 3 / p 3 k 10 3 / p'
3
3.333
$ echo '10 3 / p 3 k 10 3 / p' | dc
3
3.333
$ dc -V
dc (GNU bc 1.06) 1.3
Copyright 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE,
to the extent permitted by law.
and now for some line noise:
$ dc -e '0psc5ss[lc1+psclcls>f]sflfx'
0
1
2
3
4
5
In college studying engineering, the 48 was such a powerful tool, I'm glad it still living via emulation, even though I have a for real 48.
Where do you want to be, What are you doing to get there.
My employer back in 1993 gave me an HP19C. It's still running, has had the same batteries for, jeesh, at least 5 years now, and has a wonderful solid feel to it. Can't folks find them used? I like Palms, but an emulator just doesn't compare to a Real HP Calculator.
...Nothing interesting here. Just move along...
It is official; HP confirms: Algerbraic is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Algerbraic community when HP confirmed that Algerbraic calculator usage has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all professionals. Coming on the heels of a recent hpcalc.org survey which plainly states that algerbraic notation has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Algerbraic is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last [hpcalc.org] in the recent HPcalc.org speed trials.
You don't need to be a Kreskin [amdest.com]to predict alberbraic's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Algerbraic faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for algerbraic because it is dying. Things are looking very bad for algerbraic. As many of us are already aware, it continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
TI's algerbraic calculator development team is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core engineers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time algerbraic's developers Casio and Sharp only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Algerbraic is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
RPN supporter Jean-Yves Avenard states that there are 70000 propfessional users of calculators. How many users of algerbraic are there? Let's see. The number of RPN versus algerbraic posts on comp.sys.hp48 is roughly in ratio of 500 to 1. Therefore there are about 70000/500 = 14 algerbraic users. Sharp DAL (Direct Algerbraic logic) posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of plain algerbraic posts. Therefore there are about 7 users of DAL. A recent article put DAL at about 50 percent of the algerbraic market. This is consistent with the number of DAL Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of mismatched brackers, excessive keystrokes and so on, algerbraic went out of favor with TI and was taken over by Casio who sell another troubled calculator. Now Casio is also dead, its corpse turned over to cheap chinese calculator manufactures.
All major surveys show that alg has steadily declined in market share. Algerbraic is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Algerbraic is to survive at all it will be among vintage calcululator collectors. Algerbraic continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Algerbraic is dead.
Fact: Algerbraic is dying
I already know algerbraic. Why should I bother learning a new system?
Because RPN has many advantages. It's quicker, requires less keystrokes and you no longer have to match brackets
But RPN is a pain in the neck!
No. Most RPN users agree that RPN is easier then algerbraic. For instance:
2* (4 + 7) =
is:
4 Enter 7 + 2 *
What's going on here? you are using a stack. Typing 4 then enter puts 4 on the stack. typing 7 + adds 7 to the stack. 2 * multiplies the result by 2. Not only is it easy, but you have saved 2 keystrokes already. now, let's take the square root of the answer:
ALG: sqr ans = 3 keystrokes
RPN: sqr 1 keystroke
Easy!
So, RPN is faster? Why?
Well, 2 reasons. Firstly it takes less keystrokes. Secondly, you no longer have to match brackets. This saves a lot of time
hang on, if I make a typo I lose my work!
No. You have an 'undo' key
But I can't see my working!
yes you can. The HP4x series of calculators show full symbolic working
4 Resistors in parallel; 3,4,5,6 ohms.
Alg:
1 / ( 1 / 3 + 1 / 4 + 1 / 5 + 1 / 6 ) =
20 keystrokes
RPN (Using # as a 1/x key):
3 # 4 # 5 # 6 # + + + #
12 keystrokes
RPN 0wnz j00!
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2003/03012 3b.html
and
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2002/02103 1a.html
----
HP is slowly rotting. We'll clearly see huge layoffs soon. Examples:
In a major bid for PCs recently (1000+ systems) they were 150+% of the lowest bid. So much for what one sales executive said in the press, "we will loose no bids because of price."
Shipping of I2 products started amazingly late.
The ever-diminishing quality of Scanjets. "Oh you mean that you used it a couple of hours a day? They aren't designed for that!", said the help desk. Funny, the old ones were. I'd like those designs updated and then leave the hell alone. And yes, sell parts for the damn things so when the bulb dies we just replace the bulb, not the whole scanner.
Even their own folks admit that the Laserjet 9000 mechanics are awful.
It all adds up to HP management not sticking to their core business, but instead messing around with mergers and other things they don't understand.
I have been hopeing that someone would purchase the corpse of HP calculators and return to the innovation that made them great. They'll have to restart the IR printers and the IO cards. They'll also have to reassemble the team that made the designs things one took months to grow into. Making HP calculators a success would be a delightful proof of concept that Carlie is a by the numbers, not by the ideas manager. HP was made by ideas, not numbers.
Soon Dell+Lexmark will have gotten the costs down, the quality up and the delivered cost per page halved. Then HP will not be able to live off the cash cow that printing and imaging currently is. Then there will be trouble in the core of the business that no amount of MBA money manipulation will be able to fix. Ideas still count in high tech, a thought lost on the HP front office.
Finally, I was very bumbed that Agilent didn't get to keep the HP name. The HP way is still alive over there. HP should have lost the right to have the name of two wonderful engineers in their name when they spun Agilent off. Talk about dumping the date that brought you to the dance!
HP will survive; they have too many bright people and a good portfolio of Intellectual Property. The path to survival is going to get really really ugly and there is little now that can be done to prevent that.
-- Multics
I'm still using my HP 28S, bought in 1988 for 300$. It still kicks ass, does anything math related I oculd ask it to, and is built like a tank. Unlike current PDAs...
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
~~~
I've got a Clie and an HP48 and would love to
try this, but the website's 509/Bandwidth Limit
Exceeded.
It would be really nice if the HP48 emulator ran on the Linux PDAs, e.g., the Sharp Zaurus 5500. Anyone know if there's a plan to do that? I've used one that runs on MacOS X for two years now and it is really sweet (especially compared to that one-lung four function guy that you got under OS 9).
I wrote a gtk-- based Reverse Polish Notation calculator for my Linux based computers. It only has basic and some intermediate functionality, but it does what I need.
I love RPN and my HP 48GX.
ghsiloP RPN calculator.
ghsiloP == g + reverse("Polish")
It's not a recursive name, but I like it.
I've been happily using a freeware Palm RPN calculator for several years now on my Palm IIIxe (160x160 greyscale, OS 3.51) It's called "Kalk" and is available from a number of sites providing Palm goodies. I think that I got the current version, 3.04, from versiontracker.com.
I've also seen free- and shareware emulators for the 12C, 16C and 41CX HPs available fot the Palm, but I haven't tried them.
Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn...
Check out the HP 41 emulator
There is a lot of software available here as well.
There are more HP calculator emulators for different platforms here.
Humorous signatures are over-rated.
HP's best scientific calcs were the the 11c,15C and 41cx. I think with the 28c and 48, the went a little too far. They just got too large and cumbersome. You should be able to put a calculator in your pocket.
And the 49? Neat concept, but too damn big and cheaply constructed.
And as for calculator emulation, those who have tried it know that it is no substitute for the real thing.
I really regret the day I sold my 15c....
My old HP28S has long gone, and after some HP48 I have found heaven on LyME
It implements about 320 native commands, functions and operators, mostly compatible with Matlab.
And yes, free as beer!
Anyone know of an emulator that is close to a TI-35?
http://seul.org/~bergo/palm/rpn/
It is for PalmOS, require MathLib, but it is free/open! Fairly nice.
I am working on a freeware one that will have a 64 element wraparound stack(that works now...), multiple bases( almost working, that's how I wasted away my day...), and MathLib. Maybe graphing support down the road. I plan to call it Postfix or something like that... any better ideas?
as shown by this email. I submitted a request that they not stop making RPN models and got the following:
Dear Valued Customer
We received your mail over the past few days. First of all , let me
extend a warm "thank you" for your very loyal and unwavering support for
HP calculators and in particular, our RPN technology.
Secondly, it is very important that we reassure you that HP will continue
to offer a full line of both RPN and Algebraic calculators. We have
currently, under development, an enhanced, new range of financial,
scientific and graphing calculators to replace the following: HP17BII,
HP32SII, HP19BII, HP38G, HP39G, HP40G, HP48G, HP48GX and the HP49G. Many
of you have expressed a strong preference for some of the above products
and it is important that you receive this reassurance. Please note,
however, that some of these products have been discontinued but will be
replaced over the next 6 -12 months, a few as soon as this summer and
fall. You should be also made aware that you might encounter difficulty
with buying products being replaced, depending on your geographic region.
Our best selling financial calculators HP12C and HP10BII will continue as
important parts of our product offering, together with our HP30S
scientific model. More recently, we introduced two entry level algebraic
products --the 9s scientific and 9g graphing calculators.
We are putting your names and e-mail addresses on file and will keep you
on our customer mailing lists. As and and when we make announcements
regarding our new product launches and retail availability, we will keep
you informed. In the meantime, I welcome you to write to me directly if
you have any questions at all.
Thank you.
Kind Regards
>
Lee-Khuan Goh
Worldwide Marketing Manager (Calculators)
Personal Systems Group
Hewlett Packard Company
Tel: 858 655 3903
External E-mail: lee-khuan_goh@hp.com
I've been using Nth Lab's RPN for as long as I've owned a Palm (first on a hand-me-down IIIx and now on an m500). It's shareware, but it's worth it. It's capable and convenient to use. I checked out fancier-looking calculators when I upgraded to the m500, but they didn't seem as usable.
By the way, for simple calculations, I find using a calculator program on a Palm, where you can tap numbers and functions with the stylus, much more convenient than than using a gui calculator on a computer. Of course, using my actual HP48SX is even more convenient, but I don't usually have it around, and none of those replace Mathematica or Octave for complicated calculations.
There's an HP48 emulator under development specficially for the Zaurus.
f =1&t=364&hl=calculator&s=4c6299ed04882e2042fe717bd 714b527
Read this thread:
http://www.zaurus.com/dev/board/index.php?act=ST&
It may have been discussed in other places on that board as well.
Life is too short to proofread.
hp allowed distribution of ROMs, every revision, some time ago. go read before you post, please.
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
is the fact that the Enter key is in the wrong place. (And not big enough.) If the 49 had the same keyboard as the 48, I would probably never have bought a TI-89.
Amen brother... The real HP is over at Agilent. Unfortunately, the H-P name became associated with computers and printers by consumers and IT folks... So the brand's marketing value became more important than what it stood for. After all Agilent sells stuff in niche markets that relatively few people buy (compared to computers at least...) And with their reputation in their markets, Agilent didn't need to keep the H-P name to keep some semblance of credibility...
IMHO, the calculator division should have gone to Agilent... After all, a much larger percetage of their products are sold the engineers, scientists, technicians, etc. than the "new" H-P. It seems that a large part of the target market for H-P calculators is Agilent's customer base.
--zawada
(BTW I still use the H-P 11C I bought in high school nearly 20 years ago)
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