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From: zaphod@madnix.UUCP (Ron Bean)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: calculators vs computers
Summary: The best of both worlds?
Message-ID: <1577@madnix.UUCP>
Date: 28 Sep 90 10:30:02 GMT
References: <1049@helens.Stanford.EDU> <1990Sep21.202803.148@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> <141.26fb3af1@stat.appstate.edu>
Organization: MADNIX, operated by: ARP Software  Madison WI
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>> ..... I'm not trying to write papers on my 48sx... I let my desktop machine
>> with LaTeX and GNU Emacs take care of that.  I wouldn't take notes on a
>> laptop;
 
   I'd like to comment on this from the opposite direction: If
the current generation of HP's had come out with QWERTY keyboards
and 40x8 displays, I would have bought one. I often want to jot
down notes which, ideally, would consist of changes or additions
to files which may be a couple of pages long, that is, just big
enough to want a "real" editor. Obviously I'm going to transfer
it to a bigger machine later, but the bigger machine doesn't fit
in my pocket.
 
   The Casio BOSS has the editor (well, almost), but it's not
programmable. The HP's are programmable, but I can't imagine
using one for "real" text. So I bought an Atari Portfolio-- which
isn't much of a calculator, so if I were still crunching a lot of
numbers, I'd have to carry two machines. Perhaps HP could make
the keyboard switchable between "Calculator" and "QWERTY", for
fast entry of either type of data (note this implies more than an
embedded keypad).
 
==================
zaphod@madnix.UUCP (Ron Bean)
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