It was 20 years ago today...

[Patrick]

With all due respect to Sargeant Pepper...

In May of 1983, HP published articles introducing and describing the HP-15C and HP-16C, two of my current favourites.

Despite HP's current inert state with respect to quality RPN engineering calculators, I'd still like to say Thank-You, HP, for the wonderful legacy you have created. These old but still functional machines have provided this engineer with a lot of joy over the years.

[Valentin Albillo]

If you like the HP-15C as much as I do, I suggest you don't miss my commemorative 6-page article "Long Live the HP-15C !", to be published in the next issue of HPCC Datafile (V22N3).

You'll love it ! :-)

[Jordi Hidalgo]

Valentin Albillo wrote:

> You'll love it ! :-)

I look forward to reading it - I certainly enjoyed your
articles on the HP-11C and 12C in V20N5&6 and V21N1&2 ...
and also your "article" on the 10C in V20N6... ;-)

Regards,

Jordi Hidalgo

HPCC #1046

[Valentin Albillo]

Bona tarda, Jordi:

Thanks for your kind comments, I must say that I've also enjoyed a lot all of your very interesting articles and contributions to Datafile, and I'm eager to get every issue to read more of them.

I sincerely hope you'll like the HP-15C article, and
would recommend you get one to try the accompanying program, it's quite satisfaying to see it in action, specially in
such tiny machine as the HP-15C. :-)

Best regards and adeu.

[J.Manrique]

Hi!

Sure, 6 pages article, I'll love it!

Time for hp15c platinum? Or perhaps, full Voyager Platinum line :-)

As far as I remember, on 19th May 1999 (or was it the 21st May?), hp49 was presented .. Looks like May is a good month for new devices...

Best regards,

J.Manrique.
1077 HPCC Member

[Valentin Albillo]

"Time for hp15c platinum? Or perhaps, full Voyager Platinum line :-)"

I think that would be a really good idea *if and only if* the keyboard would be as reliable as in the original Voyagers. Else, with the extremely many keycodes and key combinations available in the HP-15C (more than 400), it would be a nightmare to try and discover just what key didn't register properly at what step. Just think of RCL A, RCL+A, RCL DIM A, RCL MATRIX A, RCL (i), RCL + (i), RCL DIM (i), RCL 9, RCL .9, etc. to see what I mean ... :-)

Thanks for your interest and best regards.

[Patrick]

I am an ex-PPC member (#4820) but don't know much about HPCC. I'd love to read the articles you mention but I suspect this requires membership/annual dues?

[Valentin Albillo]

Patrick wrote: "I'd love to read the articles you mention but I suspect this requires membership/annual dues?"

I'm afraid you're right. HPCC is an HP-fan club, more or
less in the same spirit as old PPC and CHHU, trying to
survive in the not-so-favorable-for-HP-calcs present,
though somewhat scaled down, of course. If you want
additional info, please visit

http://www.hpcc.org

My only relation to HPCC is trying to help it survive: I contribute funds by being a member, and I contribute materials by writing articles/programs for publication, but I have no
responsibilities or 'charge', nor do I have a say as to
publication or pricing policies. Ideally, I would prefer
that HPCC would not charge anything for membership, but
I understand this is simply unrealistic, if only to
help compensate the cost of publishing Datafile six times
a year.

Anyway, I intend to make available online in a near future
all of my articles so that anyone interested will be able
to download them for free. I'll post a message to the list
announcing it when ready.

Thanks for your interest and best regards.

[Frank Wales]

Valentin is correct about needing membership of HPCC to get current Datafile issues.

If you want to read articles from 1982-2002, Jake Schwartz has scanned the first 20 years of Datafile onto CD-ROM.

http://www.waterw.com/~jakes/ppccdrom.htm

A full table of contents for all issues is on the HPCC web site:

http://hpcc.org/datafile.html

[Trent Moseley]

I am confused about the intro of the 15-C in May of 1983. I bought mine in December of 1982; serial no. 2242A...

tm

[Patrick]

Yes, you are right that the HP-15C came out in 1982. I was referring only to the articles in the HP Journal which delved into the innards of the machine: "Scientific Calculator Extends Range of Built-In Functions".

This, and many other wonderful memories, are available on the museum's DVD/CD set.