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Revisit of "Can't we give HP some credit" - Printable Version

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Revisit of "Can't we give HP some credit" - ECL - 11-30-2005

To HP calc team: I am an engineering student. The 33s is much appreciated!

New display is sharp and easy to read. TI machines will eventually see stiff competition from PDA's as they try to market themselves as the "EVERY COURSE" machine - check their website.(HP makes PDAs...)

Some comments for future 32/33/42 series machines:

1. When time comes for redesign, consider a traditional case/keyboard layout. However, the ENTER key is not a deal-breaker anymore ;)

2. Some "style" can be tolerated, as not every customer is the late 70s purist-engineer (although I am).

3. Basic soft-menu system, short, but multi-char variables, and minimum of 10x10 matrix support.

4. ...Any hope for a 42s anniversary-esque machine?

If these were implemented, the machine would be a show-stopper! Laptops do my heavy work, but you still need to carry something small and light in the field.

After browsing that earlier thread, I'd like to make these comments:

The 33s, to me, is a very reliable and useful tool. If RPN is a condition, the $50 33s really is very reasonable. I was one of the people in 2002 that LAMENTED not having scooped up some extra 32sii copies.

I have essentially been on a 42s/32sii quest since then. I am limited by student finances, and thus am so happy to walk into my university store and see a WALL of 33s' on display. Otherwise, I'd be using a Ti one-liner, as not *every* couse permits graphing machines.

I cleaned house on a recent exam in my numerical methods course, using my 33s. I walked out with over 95% of the people scrambling to perform matrix row manipulations by hand. My 33s zipped me through by virtue of two simple programs. Another example is having to compute % approx error 10 times on an exam. A program scoops the two values from the stack, and returns the error. How many keystrokes are saved...

Its a combination of these 'on the fly' time savings, and the ability to develop a few more involved algorithms that make the 1-2 liner RPN/keystroke prog machines such a pleasure to use.

ECL


Re: Revisit of "Can't we give HP some credit" - Brian Healy - 11-30-2005

ECL, I agree with you 100%

To the HP calc team: I am a practicing consulting engineer, and the 33s is also greatly appreciated by me. I echo many of the comments by ECL. For future machines, please make sure they get a full QC so that issues with invisible decimal points and poor keyboards are not repeated. Never abandon RPN. RPN results in a calculator for an engineer that is a tool, not a toy, as I consider machines that are purely algebraic. Also, I don't believe that laptops and PDA's will eliminate the need for a good basic RPN calculator. Each have their places.


Re: Revisit of "Can't we give HP some credit" - Arnaud Amiel - 11-30-2005

The main advantage of a calculator over a PDA is the dedicated tactile keyboard. I have an Xpander and even that is far from perfect as accessing any function requires the stylus so I don't really use the Xpander.

The main differentiator being the keyboard, I believe that if hp or anyone else want to continue making high-end calculator, they have to focus on the keyboard which does not seem to have been the case at the release of the 49g+ (although mine is perfect)

Arnaud