Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!watdragon!violet!pacolley
From: pacolley@violet.uwaterloo.ca (Paul Colley)
Subject: Re: Equation Writer
Message-ID: <1990Jun1.144852.6929@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Owner of Many System Processes)
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <4ahdinw01@ULKYVX.bitnet> <30397@cup.portal.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 90 14:48:52 GMT
Lines: 30

In article <30397@cup.portal.com> Stephen_J_Thomas@cup.portal.com writes:
>I think the EquationWriter, while clever in theory, was added to sell
>HP48's to people who may not yet be addicted to HP handhelds, as many of
>us are!!

I was already adicted to HP handhelds, but I think the EquationWriter is
great!

I normally write, read, and think about equations in text book form,
not as some mess of brackets on a single line.  The translation between
text book form (in my head) and calculator form (and back) is
error-prone and time consuming.  The equation writer makes it automatic
and painless.

I can live with the slow speed, since it is much faster than me doing
it for a complicated equation. but the editing gets on my nerves.
Basically, I don't _want_ to go to the line editor to make changes, so
it is even worse when the round trip to the line editor takes so long.

Maybe a more accurate statement would be that the EquationWriter was
added to sell HP48's to people who don't like to squeeze complicated
expressions into a single line.

- Paul Colley
  Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo
  Waterloo, Canada
  pacolley@violet.waterloo.edu or .ca