Posts: 1,193
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Joined: Jul 2005
Steve: You are right, I was answering "on the fly", and I didn't remember the exact layout of the HP41 keyboard (shame!). Oh, yes, I may have checked the picture available on the museum... I just did it AFTER answering. I wonder why, after a MEMORY LOST situation, the machine reverted to a comma radix. I think the default radix mark is a dot.
Posts: 1,193
Threads: 43
Joined: Jul 2005
I remember that, in my -41C years (about 1980-1989), I sometimes used the (XEQ)(ALPHA) --- (ALPHA) sequence, even for functions that are available on the keyboard; nonsense as it could be. I could not offer any reason for this. But what I can say is that it was MUCH more easier than the ALPHA menu of my HP42S (1989-), or it's function catalog! Rest assured I didn't typed XEQ E N T E R ^ each time I needed to sum or multiply; but typing XEQ OFF may have been an acceptable way to save wear and tear on the very critical "on" key :-)
...Or, better yet, just let the calculator timeout and power off by itself.
Since part of my present work has something to do with Alpha processors and Compaq Alphaservers; someone may think it was sort of a promotional plot :-)