HP Forums

Hi. My HP-42S is a sort of dog-dump brown, but in the photo in the museum it looks black. Were there two case colours?

My 42 has the same dog-dump brown color too.

I had two HP42S put side by side. One was manufactured in 1993 if I remember correctly, the other in 1999.
Both had a slightly different colour. One was darker, but I can't remember which one, and I sold the older one. I guess it would depend on who made it.
I know the recent HP42S's were not made by HP but by a NatSteel Electronics for HP.

I'm pretty sure the 48SX and the Pioneer series (22S, 32S, 42S, et al) are the same shade of brown. Assuming that is true, I remember the HP Journal covering the 48SX calling it "mercedes brown", which is pretty meaningless to me.

Your choice of words provides a crystal-clear, or should I say dog-dump brown, image! Thanks for the laugh.

Matt

As far as my eyes can see, the 48 (charlemagne) series is grey ?

The colo(u)r scheme used on the S series was changed when the G series was introduced.

You are correct about the G series being grey (with purple and teal green shift-keys and keyboard legends).

And if you look closely, the body colo(u)r of the S series actually is brown (with blue and gold shift-keys and keyboard legends).

Matt

ps. The common name we all use for the 48 series is "charlemagne", but HP (and this is really, really (trivial) trivia) changed the internal code name between the 48 S and G series. If you type the RULES easter egg (Happy Easter everyone!) on the G series, it contains the name "Alcuin". And according to the 48FAQ document:

"ALCUIN was the HP-internal code name of the HP48 G during development, because Alcuin was Charlemagne's teacher, and Charlemagne, as you remember, was the code name of the HP48 SX."

Matt:
Could you please explain about the RULES Easter egg? Thank you in advance.
Andrés (HP 25/41C/42S/32sii/LX100/LX200 user who just bought an HP 48GX)

Andrés, if you just bought a "GX", you'll find gobs of info about it at the 48FAQ website. Dave has a link to it from here: http://www.hpmuseum.org/links.htm#hp48

Concerning the easter egg, just type RULES on the command line, then press ENTER. You'll see names of the HP design team arranged like a crossword puzzle. Here's more info: http://www.engr.uvic.ca/~aschoorl/faq/48faq-4.html#ss4.2

I'm not aware of any other easter eggs in the G series, but they were nice enough to include the MINEHUNT game (see: http://www.engr.uvic.ca/~aschoorl/faq/48faq-7.html#ss7.8)

Have fun,
Matt

Matt:

Thank you for your comments. I had just found the RULES and I also visited the Minehunt game. The 48 G+ seems to be a not so bad calc (I used to criticize it, because I prefer my 42S), but it is still very hard for me from a programming point of view... I will try harder, and perhaps will adapt to it ...

Andres

Compared to a 42 the 48 is big and bulky, but it does have more, much more. However aside from the units and ability to perform multitudes of conversions, I would still favor the 42. However, if my 42 had those conversions, well....

Andrés:

The 48 programming model is different from that used by, say, the 41 series. However, it is useful to remember a simple rule: one object comes in, one object comes out. So it is a good starting point figuring out what you want from this point of view and then writing code.

Another subtlety has to do with branching and looping. Subroutines must be written as different programs; for loops there's a number of structures depending on what you need. Again, same principle applies: one object enters the loop, one object comes out.

A program with multiple options takes advantage of a CST menu where each option is entered separately and executed independently.

Have a some more tricks if you want. Drop me an e-mail if you are interested.

Juan: Thank you for your advice. I am rather busy right now, so I am not putting much time on the HP 48. I hope that in a few weeks I will be able to do my homework on it.
Part of my troubles may seem to do with the fact that the HP 48 is sold in Argentina with an spanish language manual that I suspect is not as complete as a full US version. There is no complete list of all functions and the programmnig chapter only addresses the looping constructs. Almost no examples are given...

I would like how to make a program that, say, does the following:

Initialization:

Main_Counter=0; reset main counter

D:=0; reset accumulator

Upper_Limit:=10; set loop maximum iterations

Main_loop:

Input A

Input B

Calculate C:=A+B

Accumulate D:=D+C

Output C,D; formatted as "The answers are ";C,D

main_counter:=main_counter+1; increment main_counter

IF main_counter < upper_limit THEN main_loop ELSE stop; test main counter against upper_limit

I apologize for the example roughness, on purpose I have not used Do-While or For-Next just to make it a little more involved... I think such an example may help me to understand the differences betweeen HP 41 and HP 48 programming.

Thank you again

Andrés

Andrés:

For some reason, programming was separated and put into another manual, the HP 48 Series Advanced User's Reference, known as AUR.

I am a little busy too but will spare some time for your program. Hint: FOR...NEXT and START...NEXT use counters, while DO...UNTIL and WHILE...REPEAT use conditionals.

Will write back soon.

Andrés:

Sorry for the delay; I've been busy too. Here is your program:

<< 0 'D' STO 1 10 |Reset counter D and set up the loop
START |Begin the loop
"A, B?" { ":A: (CR) |Prompt for A and B. (CR) stands
|for next line,
:B:" {1 4}} |right shift [.]
INPUT OBJ-> + 'C' |Transfer data to the stack
STO C 'D' STO+ |Calculate A+B, store in C, then
|C+D and add to D
"The answers are" |Set up output message string
C + ", " + D + |Add C and D (plus a space) to
|message
MSGBOX |Show results
NEXT >> |End loop

Note that a next line (carriage return, if you prefer) goes after :A: This is a format procedure to present A and B in two lines and the cursor in A; {1 4} defines the cursor position, right after :A: in the fourth character of the first line.

After each iteration, a message box will show the answers. Press [OK] to accept and continue. The program leaves the sum in D and the sum of the last data pair in C.

Regards,

Juan