Calculators
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Does anybody still use them? I do, I have one of These[^] that I use most days. I am sitting in front of a computer all day, but sometimes just reach for this as it is easier than switching apps, plus I can type faster. Who else? (Btw this calc is 13 years old. Original Battery, Never gone wrong and cost £5)
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] Trolls[^]
I used the TI-83 at school. However after a few years the batteries died. As changing batteries is waaaay to technical for me, I just downloaded the TI-83 app for my android. I love it, and use it quite frequently too. (it's called Andy-83, for those interested. It seems rather complete too. =D)
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The HP-67 got me through college, especially the Linear Control Systems course, where I wrote a program to solve for the roots of a 20th order equation. Our instructor was a sadist who loved root locus plots and zero-pole compensation for test questions. I followed that with a smaller but quite useful unit - the HP-35 IIRC - but by then I was programming HP 9825s in hpl to run real-time tests on missile guidance systems. Now I carry a -12C and a -15C with me wherever I go, and keep my 48G in my desk at work as a backup. I've never really mastered that one, as I have no tme to work through the manual, and little need for graphing. Great machines, though, and nothing will ever convince me to go back to algebraic entry.
Will Rogers never met me.
I used my HP-67 for more mundane tasks. I was working as a Yard Clerk at a railroad. I had to calculate train loads so the engineers knew how much they were pulling. I had the functions keys programmed to be empty boxcars, flatcars, load weight, and then total and clear. I seem to recall I made use of the new flag that let you know if there was keyboard entry to make the keys smart. I was vastly disappointed with the HP-48 family. I'm a big FORTH fan and they screwed up the control structures so you couldn't use existing FORTH programs. Stupid
IF (expression) THEN (do something) ELSE (do something else) ENDIF
compared to
(expression) IF (do something) ELSE (do something else) THEN
FORTH is much more concise, HP just thought nobody could wrap their heads around IF-ELSE-THEN compared to the usual IF-THEN-ELSE-ENDIF structures. They screwed up the loops and blocks as well. Would have been wonderful to have an object oriented FORTH rather than the garbage they made. I program it occasionally, but not to the level I programmed the -65,-67, -16C, and -41C families. The HP-16C had a problem when you switched between floating point and integer (base) modes. I reversed engineered their internal storage and wrote a routine that would convert back and forth correctly. But I used that little beastie to death back in my Apple II days. It was great for doing the address translation between the source code listing address and the RAM load address. Besides doing the base conversions. The HP-41C family I wrote a lot of programs for. Unfortunately I saved them on the digital tape drive. That really wasn't the problem. The problem was when I got hold of a second tape drive and I wanted to make a backup. The HP-IL control loop does not make it easy to discern which of two identical devices was which. So when I gave the command to format the tape... Fortunately, some are stored on magnetic strips. My original card reader I sold to a friend shortly after buying the tape drive. I've purchased a replacement from eBay, but all the tape capstan rollers (all of HP calculators with card readers have this problem), have turned to jelly and so far I haven't found the appropriately sized O-rings to replace them. Some sites have suggested fuel line tubing from R/C airplanes. Seems silly to buy 1 foot of tubing when you need only a few millimeters. But I'm getting to stage when I consider selling my HP-IL collection of peripherals on eBay. But after colle
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Gross Payment 253407.9, Less the retention at 5% on Goods. Less 20% tax on Labour Labour at 47505.9 Add Vat at 20% Apply Net discount of 2.5% early repayment. Go on, do that lot in your head!
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] Trolls[^]
