Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!hsdndev!cmcl2!phri!roy From: roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds Subject: Re: RPN intuitive? Message-ID: <1991Mar13.165115.8223@phri.nyu.edu> Date: 13 Mar 91 16:51:15 GMT References: <7645@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <1991Mar12.172157.401@ukpoit.co.uk> Sender: news@phri.nyu.edu (News System) Organization: Public Health Research Institute, New York City Lines: 14 Good old accountants' adding machines (the mechanical types, anyway) are RPN (or at least a subset thereof). To add 45, 12, and 109, you do: 45, enter, 12 plus, 109 plus. There is an equal key (usually labeled "total"), but it doesn't actually perform any operation, it just shows you the last result, which is typically stored away in some internal register (gear bank?) and not printed on the paper tape by default. OK, the "enter" after the first number is actually a "+"; so think of the total key (from the last operation) as "display x, 0, enter". -- Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy "Arcane? Did you say arcane? It wouldn't be Unix if it wasn't arcane!"