Electri-Calc LT

[bill platt]

Being HP programming fanatics, we'd get more satisfaction out of programming out hp-15c or 67 to do electrical load calcs, but for the rest of the species, the following looks quite attractive:

http://dmx2go.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=7&zenid=04be5d0db2994d932601abbb05bcd421

Which brings up that interesting question about price, versatility, and market-specific applicability.

A $50 item that is specific is more salable within a specific market, than a $50 item that can do more but requires user customization.

Food for thought...

[Martin Pinckney]

I've pondered this same question. Calculated Industries, the maker of the calc you referenced, makes a whole line of calculators geared to specific industries/trades. They are fairly sophisticated in their native algorithms, but rather un-sophisticated in such things as math precedence and storage registers.

So as you pointed out, there apparently is a viable market for calculators targeting the trades, but not so much the scientific/engineering professions. At least judging by the paltry number of offering from HP compared to the "golden era" of Voyagers and Pioneers.

I once emailed HP suggesting that they bring out a calc oriented toward units conversion and native feet-inch calculations, but with parentheses and proper math precedence. Would seem to have a ready market with architects and those engineers who work with them.

[Paul Dale]

Definitely a good idea. I've got an InchMate in my wood workshop and it is invaluable for conversions of lengths. If only there was a cheap RPN equivalent :-)

- Pauli

[Alain Mellan]

How about, oh, well, using the decimal system?

:-)

[Paul Dale]

I do use the decimal system for the most part and it is certainly the one I'm most familiar with. Australia made the switch in the 1970s and I did learn both systems in school. Although, the coverage of "weird" imperial units was fairly shallow.

The problems I encounter arise when I'm dealing with fractional inches and attempting to convert them to mm in my head hurts too much. For some reason lots of tools are available in metric and imperial and I'd rather not spend twice the money on things I'm not going to use a lot especially when they are essentially compatible.

My children are only using the metric system at school so one generation seems sufficient to make the change (dare I say for the better?).

- Pauli

[Martin Pinckney]

In the States, nearly all drawings related to building construction are in feet-inches-fractions, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. While one could use one of the Calculated Industries calculators for this work, it sure would be nice to do it with an HP. There is a feet-inch program in the public domain for the 41 series, and presumably it could be ported to the 42s without too much difficulty.

But I would really like one written for the 32sii, which would make use of its native fraction support. Started to work on such a program once, but did not get very far with it.

[bill platt]

LBL A  `Turn Feet-Inches-Eighths into Decimal Feet

8      `enter Feet in Z, Inches in Y, Eighths in X

/

+

12

/

+

RTN

LBL B  Convert decimal feet into F-I-E format

STO A  `store full decimal precision

FRAC   'strip off the feet to left of point

12

X      'convert to inches   

STO B  'store inches and decimal inches

FRAC

8

X    `eighths of inch and decimal 8ths remainder

STO C

RCL A

INTEGER

RCL B

INTEGER

RCL C

RTN   ` Stack reads, from Z, Y, X in Feet, inches, eighths of inches

Edited: 4 Dec 2008, 11:28 p.m.