I guess the tragic death of Michael Jackson put the internet on hold or something, as the amount of news we can find has come to a grinding halt. I did find something interesting, though: HP has made several of its classic calculator models available as iPhone applications or as Windows applications. I'm personally not particularly versed in the world of mathematics (other than statistics), but I do know the love many geeks have for their calculators.
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Member since:
2006-08-12
No touchscreen device will replace my HP48GX, Nothing compares to the sound and feel of the keys :-). For a PC based calculator Qalculate!!!. but it will be nice to have and HP48GX on a mobile phone, just in case you need to save the planet with some complex calculation on the go
Member since:2006-01-06
Member since:2006-02-27
Member since:
2007-01-24
I use x48 for years and it is free
http://x48.berlios.de/
Member since:2006-08-12
Member since:2005-09-21
News on the street is the HP allowed certain 48 series ROMs to be downloaded for non-commercial use.
Many more emulators are available from http://www.hpcalc.org/hp49/pc/emulators/
I have been using the Palm emulator for the 48GX since my real one died. I also have one for OS X which is what I use when I need a calculator on OS X.
Member since:2006-03-13
Wrong. Unlike TI, HP has given permission for the ROM images of their 8-bit calculators and is rumored to have even contributed code to Emu48, the main emulator. The newer 32-bit calculators are still off limits (legally speaking) but the 38,39,48sx,48gx and 49g are all OK. This has been their for almost nine whole years now: http://hp.giesselink.com/emu48faq.htm (See the first question under the "ROM Image" section for details and download links.
Edited 2009-06-27 00:48 UTC
Member since:
2005-07-06
The HP-15C was a marvel of the day in terms of the balance of functionality and usability. It managed to combine its high end capabilities like matrix math and integration with a simple, single key access idiom.
Combining this utility with the particularly excellent ergonomics of the size, shape, and layout, and key quality is what makes the 15C a treasured tool even today. It is pocket handy, light, thing, and yet used easily with two hands.
This capability departs in the later, more powerful HP calculators where most of the functions were buried beneath large menu trees, or needing to be keyed in via the alpha keyboard, and the devices themselves revert back to the conventional, vertical layout the dominates calculator design.
If you go to an office store today, modern calculators are a marvel. They have immense capability, packing large functionality in to small spaces, that are dirt cheap (< $15). But what's most curious is that save for the higher end, expensive, "graphing" models, almost no modern calculators support programming.
The HP-15C was "keyboard programmable", which basically means that programming was a matter of capturing keystrokes. They were effectively elaborate macro systems. Most modern programmable calculators are programmed much like the old BASIC hand held computers in the past, using some higher level language. The keyboard can be used to some extent, in a sort of "watch me" mode, but most of the programming is done simply with the alpha numeric keyboard option, typing in control flow commands, etc.
This actually hinders use especially for casual users, as they must switch to a different "mode" of using the device when they program it compared to a more keyboard programmable macro capture mode.
So, what makes the HP-15C so endearing to old school users is the balance it provided in terms of functionality and utility.
The iPhone already has "perfect" HP-15C, among others, clones running. These versions are literally HP emulators running 15C ROMs. They look perfect, and are also bit perfect in their answers compared to the original (they're running the same code after all).
Personally, I run a http://free42.sourceforge.net/ iPhone version which you can buy from the app store or build yourself if you have the dev key. The 42 is pretty much the pinnacle of calculator progress, IMHO, still staying on this side of being a calculator and not a generic, handheld computer like many modern high end calcs (the latest HP-50 is an ARM computer emulating and HP-49, effectively). The Free42 version on the iPhone is simply excellent.
The keyboard has the right look, they "hide" the extra row of keys the original had with clever UI design, and you can upload and download 42s programs (as text) from the device, if you're interests take you that way.
The 42 is not as elegant as the 15C, since the 42 relies on the alpha keyboard to "punt" on hard compromises that were necessary for something like the 15C. But it's still an excellent tool, worth the $5 on the app store.
On that note, I still have my original HP-15C, purchased in 1982.
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2009-06-26
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I think haven't used a RPN calculator, right?, personally I am used to it, and I only tolerate the usage of a standard one, and this behavior is common on people that grown up on studying with them. I think even the RPN notation influenced in my love in the Smalltalk programming language (not RPN really but has that feel)
Member since:
2008-02-05
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Member since:2005-06-29
It's simple.
c64 emulator dev: $
HP: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
The world isn't complicated.
Member since:2005-07-17
because while it's emulated the iPhone app is just running the one rom. Normal users see it as just one a and don't know any better. The C64 app is made to write and run C64 programs inside of iPhone and we can't have writing and running user apps ON the phone, can we.
Member since:2005-08-08
Member since:
2005-06-29
Different brand, but I used to program my TI-83 with the answers to tests and all that during high school and university statistics classes. Very helpful.
We also had various games on it. I've spent a lot of classes paying Bomberman on the TI-83 versus one of my best friends with the connector data cable.
Frakking awesome.
Member since:2006-03-13
I did all of that too. I actually went even farther wrote some games in TI-BASIC that managed to spread around the school. They were inspired a combination of old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, fantasy novels and pro wrestling and as I recall, made heavy use of the Menu() function as well as the pseudo-random number generator and LOTS of labels. Truly spaghetti code at its finest...
Member since:2006-01-27
Those TI machines are fantastic and amazingly capable. I've got a few here including an 83+, 84+ Silver, and a 92+. Thousands of available software titles (including games), computer connectivity, and a good number of add-ons and accessories.
There was a TI emulator that I followed for some time and still use occasionally, Virtual TI, but it hasn't been updated in almost ten years.
Member since:2005-07-17
Member since:2005-07-06
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2007-01-13
Member since:2006-07-14
My Physics adviser in College was sort of a prankster. He'd remind his new students that they needed a calculator for their exams, but if they forgot one, he had 10 they could borrow. Of course, they were all RPN a fact which he never mentioned. Those that forgot their calculators once, never did again.
Member since:2008-11-27
I am one of those that actually dislike the use of calculators in school.
During highschool we had to use calculators because the answers could not be described as a fraction 3/7 or an angle of 2*PI etc.
As soon as I enrolled at the university there was not even one subject that required a calculator. All the problems had a solution that could solved by hand even if the actual problem was way more complicated than anything we had ever done in highschool.
When looking back I came to the solution that the required use of calculators in highschool only added to the confusion when trying to understand math. I can not understand why the hell we had to use them because it is so much easier to understand math if not having to rely on the calculator to solve your problem.
Member since:2007-01-13
Member since:2008-11-27
Of course if you apply the theory into practice you probably need a calculator. But that was not what I was saying. I just ment that from a teaching standpoint the teacher should not give students basic math problems that requires a calculator to solve.
If you ask a student to solve the square root of a number it is better to give them the number 16 than say give them a calculator and the number 15. It will teach the student not to depend on the calculator to solve the problem but instead use his/her own insight.
Member since:
2007-04-18