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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).
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.