Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!ogicse!decwrl!ucbvax!EE.ECN.PURDUE.EDU!steele From: steele@EE.ECN.PURDUE.EDU (Richard A. Steele) Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds Subject: HP48SX impressions Keywords: HP48SX, HP, suggestions Message-ID: <9003110211.AA03686@en.ecn.purdue.edu> Date: 11 Mar 90 02:11:45 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: steele@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Richard A. Steele) Distribution: usa Organization: Purdue University Lines: 92 Several people have already posted the specs and such for the 48sx -- I thought I'd share some impressions I've formed while using it the last week or so: 1. I love UNITS objects. This is a _big_ improvement over the 28C/S unit conversion. In all honesty, this is perhaps the single biggest (software) improvment for my needs over the 28C/S -- very handy. 2. Improved complex numbers representation -- polar representation has been added, which helps us EEs immeasurably. The real and imaginary parts can also be symbolic, though there's a bug when you try to do this in polar form (Euler is turning in his grave). 3. The plotting functions have been well integrated with the ALGEBRA and CALCULUS functions. It's much easier to find solutions to problems rather than trying to figure out how to use the calculator. After a year of use, I _still_ can never figure out the numeric integration on the 28C/S without looking it up. With the 48SX, just mark the box and press AREA; the integration is done "behind the scenes." 4. Subdirectories are easier to use, thanks to UP and HOME functions on the keyboard. A list can also specify the desired directory: { HOME LANGUAGE ADA } EVAL will move to ADA within the LANGUAGE subdirectory. (I bet most of you missed Part 6: "Programming the HP 48SX in ADA. :-) ) 5. The fully customizable keyboard really opens up the system; there are even little slots around the edges of the keyboard for an overlay. A nice little inventory system or such could be made with this bugger (can _you_ say "light pen?"). 6. The custom menus have been improved. Especially with the custom keyboard, I can forsee some very interesting stuff coming. One that comes to mind is changing the built-in menus. Don't like the order the sofkeys are listed? Change them. How about add your own functions to the built-in menus; no problem. Neat. 7. It appears that HP listens to this group (that you, Bill?); many of the wishes and discoveries I've seen in this group are now built in: OFF, TIME functions, a checksum routine (BYTES), much improved graphics routines (PIXON, PIXOFF), etc. Unfortunatley, things are not all perfect: I'm extremely dissapointed with the binary number operations. Still no signed (1's and 2's complement) binary arithmetic, and entering the buggers is a pain (the binary objects are exactly like the 28C/S). If nothing else, couldn't a separate environment me provided so that we don't have to enter the numbers as objects? Same dissapointment about the manual (I know others have posted similar feelings). The paper feels rough and flimsy, there are many typos, and the information is not well placed. Users of the HP28C/S might not have difficulties, but others definately will. A calculator with this power deserves better. Links to objects would be nice, so that a single object could be shown in more than one menu at a time. This would come in especially handy for program objects, since a change in any reference would change all of them. It's terrible to need, say, three copies of BESSEL in separate directories when only one is really needed. Currently, objects are found by searching the currect directory, then searching it's parent, etc. on up until the object is found. The obvious extension would be to provide a search path so that objects can be placed wherever you want. I havn't been able to find the equivalent of the HP28C/S CATALOG command, and I think I'm going to miss it. There is a REVIEW (i.e. press REVIEW and it tell you what the objects listed in the softkeys are; for variables, it lists their contents.) This is especially a problem with the 48SX, since I _know_ I'll have trouble with some of these triple-shifted keys (let's see -- the Ohmega is left-shift, alpha, E. No, no. It's....). How about a HELP key that lists the purpose of a key (and its shifted cousins). I hope I havn't sounded too negative; that's not my intention. The HP48SX is an _excellent_ calculator and I'd love to see it get better. Many of the ideas I've listed above can be remedied (at least partially) using the plug-in ROMs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Richard A. Steele | Standards are wonderful...there are so many Purdue University | to choose from. -Andy Tanenbaum steele@en.ecn.purdue.edu | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: I'm just an undergrad, so I really don't know what I'm talking about...