For many years I've promised myself that one day I'd buy a top-of-the-range
Hewlett Packard calculator but the cost has put me off. I've got Mathcad so I
don't need a graphing one, so I've just progressed from my trusty TI-66
(nothing wrong with it after 16 years) and have met that goal with a shiny new
32SII.
This is a wonderful device and I'm very pleased with it. It does everything I
need & want and more. The TI can retire gracefully.
I have two negative comments to make:
1/ The photos on the box & in the manual and the text in the manual all
indicate that the shift keys and legends are orange & blue and they appear to
be easy to read. Mine has dull green & white ones and are hard to read. The
legend backgrounds indicating those for a menu are almost impossible to see.
2/ There are four units conversions provided (and their inverses). However
there is no warning that for 95.5% of us one of them is "wrong". Only in the
USA (4.5% of the world's population) is the definition of the gallon 231 cubic
inches exactly. The rest of the world, including here in the UK, uses the
International definition which is 4.54609 l exactly. This is just over 20%
different. The only small clue is in the manual where litres is spelt "liters"
- this spelling is only used in the USA. Over five billion potential customers
could use this conversion without being aware that their answer is "wrong".
Out of all the possible units conversions they could have chosen for the four,
why did HP choose one which is unique to the USA? If they had to use that one,
why no warning in the manual?
Does HP, or anyone else, maintain a web site with useful programs for the
32SII? There must be thousands that people would be willing to share.
Edwin Russell.