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From: peter@taronga.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: news.groups,comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Split of comp.sys.handhelds: a straw poll
Message-ID: <3JH4TLL@taronga.hackercorp.com>
Date: 24 May 91 11:38:25 GMT
References: <1991May24.005544.13129@qualcomm.com>
Followup-To: comp.sys.handhelds
Organization: A corner of our bedroom
Lines: 26

rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) writes:
> RPN.  Unless other companies decide to totally scrap their years of
> development on infix calculators and go with RPN, I can't see HP users
> switching.

I can. I would. If Casio or TI or anyone had had a decent programmers
calculator back in '84 when I bought my HP I'd have jumped at the chance
to avoid HP's dinky little stack language.

> After you've done postfix for a while, it's damned hard, 
> sometimes even almost impossible, for an RPN user to go back to something
> less efficient such as infix.

After you've done Forth for a while it's damned hard, sometimes even almost
impossible, to program on a machine where things you put on the stack
disappear.

> This virtually guarantees HP a lock on users that use HPs.

Not this user. If I can't get a real stack machine I'd much rather use
something that approximates the way the rest of the machines in my life
operates. Even HP realises this: they've started coming out with machines
with = keys.
-- 
Peter da Silva.  `-_-'  Taronga Park BBS  +1 713 568 0480 2400/n/8/1
 Taronga Park.    'U`       "Have you hugged your wolf, today?"