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I've had my 48G for a few months now, and would really like to learn RPL. Is there a book I need to buy, or on-line resources I might use? What I would really like is a listing of all the commands, their syntax, and what they do. I've done quite a bit of programming with Visual Basic for Applictions (used with Excel)...does RPL have similar structure? Is my approach to simplistic?

Any help appreciated.

Best regards, Hal

The best way to learn, in my opinion, is to start with a few examples and have a copy of the Advanced User's Guide. While you can download the PDF copy from www.hpcalc.org, I recommend having a hardcopy on hand as it is much easier to look things up.

If you type in the command TEACH, it creates a directory with various examples, including programs. This command is documented in one of the three manuals (Quick Start Guide, User's Guide, Advanced User's Guide), but I forget which one. My bet is it's in the AUR.

Programming in RPL is essentially putting a together a long "list"
of commands. Branching and conditionals, etc are done similarly to that in any programming language.

For "on-line" resources, start with the usenet group comp.sys.hp48. In case you don't use a newsreader, you can access it through http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.hp48. From the Google site, you can also browse or search the newsgroup posts all the way back to July, 1991. In general, if you search for an answer before asking a question, you'll seem smarter, especially in the case of frequently asked questions.

They aren't free, but this Museum's DVD/CD-ROM set includes some very helpful information for RPL. I particularly recommend Bill Wickes's Insights books. See http://www.hpmuseum.org/cd/cddesc.htm.

http://www.hpcalc.org/ is the source for programs for and information about the RPL models.

Also visit http://m.webring.com/hub?ring=hp48 for links to several useful sites.

The HP Knowledge Base should be useful, and so should Wolfgang's site.

I dasn't forget the information on HP's own site. Follow the links from this page.

Keep in mind that each new RPL model's language is mostly a superset of the previous RPL model's language. Basically, the progression is 28C, 28S, 48SX/S, 48G/GX/G+, and 49G/49g+/48gII/50g. Don't ignore information about other models; often it will still apply to your model.

Well, I suppose that those will give you enough reading material to last for a while.

Regards,
James

st manual avilable in hard copy was the release 11 manual. there are other eectronic which can be downloaded.

Cost? I had my user guide copied at Staples for about 35$ and the advanced user reference for somewhere in the same ball park. Throw in acouple of binders and for less than $80 you can reproduce the manuals for handy reference. My costs were based on black ink only on 20 pound paper two sided copy a $0.065 per sheet. HP provides and sponsors other help, including a publication on the subject of programming. Depending how deep you get into it, there are routines all the way down to C++ and assembler language which you can tie into the system. I checked with Tech Support about copyrights and they told me I could make a copy of the manuals for my own use.

The forum under the help toolbar is a good place to know about. The best way to appreciate the value is to ask some specific questions and see how helpful it is. You will find that responses can range from very patient to wanting to be helpful to rude and short.

Sum up time: DOWNLOAD USER GUIDE, ADVANCED USER REFERENCE for the 50-G and make copies. Look around quick sheets and e-books, especially libraries in your field, e.g., civil engineering. If you have trouble locating downloads, let me know and I will look up some numbers for you.

Good hunting

Ron

Sorry, Hal, I stopped fo dinner and some of my original copy was cut off. I see that you have aleady heard from James Prange and others. These are all in the good guy camp and deserve your attention on the 48-50 series and RPL, and most of my comments would be redundant.

Regards

Ron