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From: everett@hpcvra.cv.hp.com. (Everett Kaser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: HP 95LX - somethings are missing.
Message-ID: <25590151@hpcvra.cv.hp.com.>
Date: 29 Apr 91 17:56:09 GMT
References: <9104271550.AA09947@amuz2.amuz2.z.amu.se>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Corvallis, OR, USA
Lines: 52

Lars Magnusson writes...
> HP 95LX.... 
> Corvallis blundered on the display.
>A 40x16 display is nearly as bad as the 32 char displays on
>the 70-series computers. Poquet has already shown that 80x24
>is possible.

The 40x16 display was chosen for readability, price, and what will fit into
the 95 package.  Yes, Poquet has the 80x24 display, but if you put the pack-
ages side by side, you will quickly notice that the Poquet machine is MUCH
larger (you'd have to have a pretty large hand to consider it a "handheld").
Additionally, all of the built in software is designed to work well with
the 40x16 display, with the user rarely even seeing the DOS prompt.  Size of
the package and readability of the display were considered more important.
(Remember, this is a technical forum, where most of the user's who are
familiar with DOS or (gasp) Unix aren't particularly worried by the naked
prompt.  This isn't necessarily true of the general market for this type of
machine.)

>Another thing that a lot of 41/70-series users are missing from
>HP today are the nice HPIL-interfaces. HP, if you had continued

I was not involved with calculators at the time that the decision was made
to go away from HPIL, towards serial and I/R interfaces, but it's clear that
the decision has been made and is not likely to change.  Serial provides a
much more common interface (particularly here, since this is a "PC type"
product), and in a package this size, there isn't room for both serial and
HPIL (the HPIL connectors take up a lot of real estate, not to mention the
electronics).
 
> increase 
>the size of it so we scandinavians (and others) can get our aa, 
>ae and oe chars keys. At the 70-series Corvallis blundered to 100 % 
>since the aa (a with a ring above) didn't even exist as a blue
>key char. The world does not end at Maine coast line, you know.
>Lars Magnusson			! (EU)Net : lmag@z.amu.se
>Dept. of Computing		!  Kom    : s1039 (s1039@heron.QZ.se)
>AMU Jamtland			!  Teleph.: int. +46 63 14 56 00

The 95LX has a CHAR key, which gives you two-keystroke access to all of these
"accented/double" characters.  First the CHAR key is pressed, then an alpha
key.   The "international" versions of the 95LX have these characters
printed on the overlay, to make it easy to find them.

Everett
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The above opinions and information are mine and do not reflect any stance
(official or otherwise) of Hewlett-Packard Company.

Everett Kaser                   Hewlett-Packard Company
...hplabs!hp-pcd!everett        work: (503) 750-3569   Corvallis, Oregon
everett%hpcvra@hplabs.hp.com    home: (503) 928-5259   Albany, Oregon