05-24-2006, 01:29 PM
To avoid any confusion or misunderstanding, let me start by emphasizing that everything presented below is purely hypothetical. I don't claim that all of the concepts are my original ideas, just that this particular combination was put down by me at this time. The pictures are not intended to fool anyone. Finally, hp had nothing to do with the preparation or presentation of the information.
For reasons of which I am not quite sure, I decided to create a concept for a modified 33s, which I dubbed the 33sii. The 33s has many well-documented and much-discussed shortcomings. The most serious flaws and my proposed changes to address them are as follows:
- too few program labels - Establish two-character global and local programming labels. Global labels would be two letters. The first letter would go from A to Z, the second from A to P, which would give 416 global program labels. The local program labels would be two characters, a letter and number. The first character would go from A to Z again, while the second would be a number from 0 to 9. This would give 260 local program labels. The local labels could be re-used as desired in separate global label structures.
- too few storage registers - implement single and double character storage registers designations. For quick access, there would be ten registers labelled with single numbers, from 0 to 9. Two-character registers would have the first letter from A to P and the second from A to Z, for another 416 registers.
- no way to back-up programs - give the calculator one-way communications from a PC to the 33sii. The communications path could be via a cable or SD memory card. To fully use this one-way communications path, a simulator program for the PC would be developed and included with each 33sii. Programs could be developed on the simulator and then downloaded to the 33sii. If you were careful to develop your meaningful programs on the PC and then download them, you would not have to worry about losing your programs if you ran out of memory or suffered a power failure or some other glitch that cleared memory. Users could share programs, and third-party software development and marketing would become viable. The purpose of this limited communications/storage system is of course to retain NCEES approval for use on FE/FS and PE/PS licensure examinations.
- While lack of memory is not a current complaint, with the programming label improvements, more storage registers and the ability to download programs, additional memory would be viable to actually use. Expansion to at least 64KB would be appropriate.
- Aesthetics in general - Rather than promulgating a completely new design, I decided to attempt to see if I could modify the 33s to make it tolerable to a larger portion of potential users. Basically all I did was "de-chevronize" the keyboard. My restyling would allow a slightly smaller size (approximately 1 cm shorter), so hp could justify the restyling on that basis rather than admitting that the original design was a mistake.
- ENTER key in the "wrong" place and the “wrong” size - I guess I think it would be too much to expect or even hope that it could be double-wide in the “classic” location. However, I see no reason that the functions of the existing XEQ and ENTER keys could not be reversible in the MODES menu. For the sake of this exercise, I left the keys labelled as they are now in my conceptual image of my the 33sii. To facilitate swapping the functions, durable stick-on labels could be included with the calculator.
Of course, the postulated 33sii would still suffer from limitations imposed by maintaining NCEES compliance, and the functional gap between it and the 48gii/49g+ models is too wide. A high-end RPN model would be a welcome addition. I (and many others) have long lamented the loss of the 42S, so I set out to see if I could develop a new model based on the 42S that would restore a high-end RPN model to the product line. Although it was a wonderful calculator, the 42S did have a few shortcomings, so I would fix those in the new model. I came up with a proposed model that I dubbed the 43s (which is admittedly not very original). This model would have all of the features of the 42S, with the following enhancements:
- Communications – Two-way communication from the PC to the 43s, to enable upload and download of programs and data and back-up of user memory. As above, either cable or SD card would be OK.
- Larger Screen – I don’t want to turn the 43s into a graphing calculator. However, I have always thought that it would be nice to not sacrifice a line in the display to the labels when a menu is active. I’ve also thought that it would be neat to be able to see the entire stack plus the Last x register. So I would increase the screen size to 48 by 131 pixels. Normally, the display would show a row of soft-key labels or directory labels, plus the x, y, z, t and Last x registers. The entire display area could also be used for an expanded version of the bit-mapped graphics capabilities of the 42S.
- The top row of keys would be dedicated to user functions or to select sub-menus, programs, variables, etc., thereby eliminating the need for the TOP.FCN command.
- Expansion of user memory to at least 128KB to take advantage of the ability to upload and download programs and data.
- Memory organized into a directory/sub-directory structure.
- Variable Stack Height – There has been discussion in the past about stack heights other than 4. I do not want an unlimited stack as in the RPL models, but some variation might be useful. I would propose allowing the stack height to be set anywhere from 3 to 10 levels. The top would always be t. So if you set it to 3, you get x, y and t. The naming and labelling of levels beyond 4 would wrap around the alphabet. With 10 levels, you would have x, y, z, a, b, c, d, e, f and t.
- PC simulator program – As with the 33sii, a simulator program for the PC would be included, with the ability to develop programs on the PC and download them to the 43s.
- The equation solver of the 33s seems to be popular, so I would port it to the 43s, while retaining the classic solver of the 42S.
- Complex Number Handling – The complex number handling capabilities of the 42S were very good, but I have long wanted a few enhancements. Based on my own ideas and ideas developed in previous discussions at this forum, I would propose the following. Complex numbers would be entered in a more direct fashion: key in the real part, press a key labelled "i", then enter the imaginary component. For polar-form entry, key in the magnitude, press shift-"i", then key in the angle. Numbers would remain displayed in the form in which they were entered until converted with R->P and P->R functions or operated on. (There would be user-selectable rules for display after operations with two numbers that are in different display formats.) The COMPLEX function would remain, but it would bring up a menu of pertinent functions for working with complex numbers rather than forming a complex number from two reals or breaking a complex number into two reals.
- Direct Alpha Entry – I tried to lay out the keyboard so that alpha characters could be entered directly from the keyboard in alpha mode.
- As far as the location and size of the ENTER key, as above I just don’t see hp going back to the double-wide size. However, in this case I put it in the classic location, with the ability to swap it with the R/S key in the MODES menu. As above, stickers could be included for those inclined to swap the functions to use the arrangement of the 33sii.
- Time Functions – clock and time functions added, with the ability to set alarms, run programs, etc.
- Flash Rom – rom in flash memory so it can be updated, either to fix bugs or add enhancements.
- To fit the current hp philosophy, an algebraic mode like the 33s could be added. No need to ever use it if you don’t want to.
The above would of course not satisfy everyone, but perhaps it could capture a majority of the potential market. Regarding the market, it has been said that the 42S was discontinued to prevent it from stealing sales from the 48 line. Some might make the same argument that the 43s would steal sales from the 48gii and 49g+. Well, with the introduction of the 43s, I would eliminate the 48gii. In my opinion, the 48gii doesn't have much of a market now. Other than being better looking (again, in my opinion) than the 49g+, it has too many limitations that are not justified by the slightly lower price. The 43s, on the other hand, would have a definite market niche – the ultimate RPN calculator ever produced. I think it would sell quite well, probably much better than the 48gii, at a price similar to the 48gii. Those preferring RPL would still have the 49g+.
As I said above, I'm not quite sure why I went through the exercise of creating the above new models. I guess that my purpose was to create fully realized concepts to see just how reasonable or unreasonable they might be. Having done so, I figured I might as well present them to the only audience that would be even remotely interested :)
For easy reference, here are slightly larger pictures of the two new models side by side:
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