Your Favourite Third Party book?

[John W Kercheval]

Yes that is it the Insights pair. Those are the most useful. thanks.

The HP48 is a tough machine to get going on. Very powerful but lacks the intuitiveness of the 41/71s. Programming it- which I do not do, is a killer.

And the instruction manual is terrible. Really more of a reference guide.

The insights books are very helpful.

[Alberto Candel]

I am particularly fond of this one: Elementary Mathematics from an Algorithmic Standpoint by Engel.

Not an HP book; all programs are in BASIC, with a few GOTO's, but are easy and fun to write into the HP-50 or the HP Prime.

The topics and their exposition are excellent.

A.

[Monte Dalrymple]

"Inside the HP-41" by Jean-Daniel Dodin, because I couldn't have done the 41CL without it.

[cutterjohn]

(05-04-2014 01:57 PM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  Yes that is it the Insights pair. Those are the most useful. thanks.

The HP48 is a tough machine to get going on. Very powerful but lacks the intuitiveness of the 41/71s. Programming it- which I do not do, is a killer.

And the instruction manual is terrible. Really more of a reference guide.

The insights books are very helpful.

hmmm I never found programming the 28S/48SX/49G/50G to be "difficult", and found the manuals that came with the 48S/GXs to be very useful and the LAST ones to actually come with any meaningful printed documentation.

Even though I'm lacking my 48sx, I still have the manuals around here(somewhere) that I reference from time-to-time for basic function information and especially RPL.

That said I did pick up The Definitive User's Guide to the 48/49/50g
http://www.amazon.com/The-Definitive-Use...rds=hp+50g

Being the only in print reference that I could find for the 49/50g. (Just found unavailable entries for printed user manuals on amazon, and missed the ones that hpcalc.org used to have IIRC...)

[EDIT]
I suppose that I should mention that the 49g came with a GREATLY cutdown printed user's manual and the prime & 50g came with essentially useless little pamphlets...

I really do NOT like reading PDF manuals(or books or magazines) on a computer(or notebook) at all.

Fiction, history texts, etc. i.e. things without a great deal of complex formatting OTOH I DO like on eink ereaders. (As an aside I've NEVER found a PDF converter that does an even halfway decent job of converting PDFs to ANY other format UNLESS the PDF is extremely simplistic/single "column"...)
[/EDIT]

[EDIT2]
...almost forgot also had this pretty cool book w a great deal of information on the Saturn CPU and assembly programming that I purchased when I had the 28S. Can't find the book ATM so I've no idea what the title was(definitely small run feel type of book about trade pb size) author's name looked to be Polish as well IIRC.

Realistically though I learnt most useful information by experimenting and comp.sys.hp48
[/EDIT2]

[Steve Simpkin]

(05-07-2014 01:43 PM)cutterjohn Wrote:  [EDIT2]
...almost forgot also had this pretty cool book w a great deal of information on the Saturn CPU and assembly programming that I purchased when I had the 28S. Can't find the book ATM so I've no idea what the title was(definitely small run feel type of book about trade pb size) author's name looked to be Polish as well IIRC.

That would probably be Customize Your Hp-28 by W. A. Mier-Jedrzejowicz. An excellent book that gave me my first glimpse into Saturn assembly language. W. A. Mier-Jedrzejowicz is another of my favorite authors when it comes to calculator books.
http://www.amazon.com/Customize-Your-Hp-...culator%29

Another notable book by the same author is, Extend Your HP-41. This 682 page phone book size spiral bound book is invaluable for exploring the internals of the HP-41 series.
http://www.amazon.com/Extend-Your-Hp-41-...409&sr=1-2

[Brad Barton]

(05-07-2014 01:43 PM)cutterjohn Wrote:  Being the only in print reference that I could find for the 49/50g. (Just found unavailable entries for printed user manuals on amazon, and missed the ones that hpcalc.org used to have IIRC...)

I have a two volume set on the 49 by Gilberto Urroz titled "Science and Engineering Mathematics with the HP49G" volumes 1 (415 pages) and 2 (349 pages). They are quite in-depth including chapters on graphics, programming, matrices, calculus, differential equations, statistics, etc.

I went through them thoroughly when I got them, but have since forgotten most of it. Wish I had time to use the 50g enough to keep it fresh in my mind.

Here's a link to volume I
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Engineerin...53VMH3SJ9X

And Volume II
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Engineerin...H1SH6D35GB

Wow, I didn't realize they were so pricey, totaling nearly $200 USD if you're getting both of them. I don't think I paid nearly that much for them.

[Les Bell]

I've been mulling this question over for the last couple of days, and finding it hard to pick a favourite.

I don't think any third-party book could match the sense of pleasure I got from the original manuals, each time I bought a new HP calculator. Sitting down and working through the examples with the machine was an absolute joy, and the pinnacle was probably the HP-65.

But I distinctly remember getting Jon Smith's book "Scientific Analysis on the Pocket Calculator" in 1974, not long after I'd got my HP-45. It's one of the few textbooks I've devoured, cover-to-cover, and I still have it on my bookshelf.

After that, as others have remarked, it would be "Extending Your HP-41". I never warmed to RPL, and if I ever get time to give them proper attention, I have high hopes for the "HP48 Insights" books.

[cutterjohn]

(05-07-2014 03:20 PM)Steve Simpkin Wrote:  That would probably be Customize Your Hp-28 by W. A. Mier-Jedrzejowicz. An excellent book that gave me my first glimpse into Saturn assembly language. W. A. Mier-Jedrzejowicz is another of my favorite authors when it comes to calculator books.
http://www.amazon.com/Customize-Your-Hp-...culator%29

We have a winner. I remember that cover to this day(IIRC I found it in the clearance pile of one of the univ bookstores while we were probably looking for C/C++ reference texts), although mine's kind of dog-eared. I think that I ended up using it more when I had the 48SX since it was possible to load/offload to a desktop. The lack of connectivity for the 28S pretty much killed most of my interest in programming it.. memory lost... oh joy.

Gilberto Urroz titled "Science and Engineering Mathematics with the HP49G" volumes 1 & 2 closer to $300USD w/shipping, and while they'd probably be nice to have they're not $300 nice to my mind. Maybe they'll do another print run some day.

[Brad Barton]

(05-09-2014 04:46 PM)cutterjohn Wrote:  Gilberto Urroz titled "Science and Engineering Mathematics with the HP49G" volumes 1 & 2 closer to $300USD w/shipping, and while they'd probably be nice to have they're not $300 nice to my mind. Maybe they'll do another print run some day.

I'd have to agree with that assessment. They are nice but not $300 nice. Thankfully I didn't pay nearly as much for them as they are now asking. They do have some good introductory programming examples on basic input methods, etc.

I think I've found the Insights volumes the most useful, but I've only got the .pdf version. I'd like to have the hard copies.

[rprosperi]

Both of the Urroz series (2 volumes for the 48GX/G/G+ series; Numerical Methods and Prob/Stats, and the 2 larger volumes for the 49 series described above) are great references for learning how to do these types of math problems on those machines; very clear and to the point, so very useful and insightful, but not very readable, imho. More of reference style than learning style, but loaded with lots of code, examples, etc.

Wickes' Insights series (28C, 28S, 48SX V1 & V2, and 48GX V1) are all captivating, insightful, clever, humerous and also loaded with useful and complex examples, so the techniques he is treaching are expressed in useful real applications of those techniques, rather than obvious sample code type versions as is more typically included.

You can find the Insights books on TAS from time to time at wildy varying prices, so if you're patient you can get them at nearly reasonable prices, but I've also got at least 1 of them throught ABEBOOKS.com. If you buy books, and you don't know ABE, you will thank me for this tip. Like TAS, you can see some wacky prices here, but since there are so many sellers, there is almost always a reasonable price (e.g. I just checked - Bill's 41 Synthetic Programming book is available for $55.00)

[Brad Barton]

(05-09-2014 11:49 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  If you buy books, and you don't know ABE, you will thank me for this tip.

I just checked out the site. You're right: Thanks!

[Peter Murphy]

For used books in the USA at least, I go to [url:http://www.used.addall.com], which comprises ABE among many others. Some listing are duplicates, but it is worth noting that a search on author William Wickes yields 75 hits, of which only 16 are ABE.

[Dave Britten]

(05-07-2014 01:43 PM)cutterjohn Wrote:  hmmm I never found programming the 28S/48SX/49G/50G to be "difficult", and found the manuals that came with the 48S/GXs to be very useful and the LAST ones to actually come with any meaningful printed documentation.

The nice thing about the 48 is that the very high-level ROM routines let you build genuinely useful programs in just a few dozen/hundred bytes, which fit very well into the stack-based workflow. That's fortunate, because reading/debugging large RPL programs isn't pleasant. Keep your routines small, and use lots of encapsulation.

As discussed briefly in some other threads, my PCA pump monitoring program weighs in as follows (filenames included in sizes reported by BYTES):
PCA - Main logging program - 363 bytes
READY - Called via alarm to play a tune and show a "push the button" message - 67.5 bytes
SEND123 - Pipe SigmaDAT to my 200LX via Kermit SEND - 80.5 bytes
F, D - Note frequency and duration lists - 73.5 bytes each

Reusable helper routines in HOME:
PLAYSOUND - Pump a list of frequency/duration values through BEEP, and preserve flag -56 - 188.5 bytes
EXCELDATE-> - Utility to convert date/time to Excel/Lotus-readable value - 61.5 bytes
ARRY->CSV - Convert a numeric matrix to a basic CSV string representation - 143.5 bytes

The secret with 48 programming is enhancing the workflow via small metaprogramming excursions. Trying to build a text editor in UserRPL would be a nightmare. Think in bits and pieces.

(05-07-2014 01:43 PM)cutterjohn Wrote:  I really do NOT like reading PDF manuals(or books or magazines) on a computer(or notebook) at all.

Fiction, history texts, etc. i.e. things without a great deal of complex formatting OTOH I DO like on eink ereaders. (As an aside I've NEVER found a PDF converter that does an even halfway decent job of converting PDFs to ANY other format UNLESS the PDF is extremely simplistic/single "column"...)

I've warmed up to having an iPad stuffed with technical books, mostly because I can't carry 200-400 lbs of books around with me at all times. Text searching and bookmarking are lovely to have. But I still enjoy an afternoon in the hammock with a nice, real Lotus 1-2-3 or C book, though. (And modern tech stuff too; I'm nostalgic and pragmatic, but not a luddite.)

[rprosperi]

(05-10-2014 02:01 AM)Peter Murphy Wrote:  ...it is worth noting that a search on author William Wickes yields 75 hits, of which only 16 are ABE.

Peter,

Yes, but only 37 of them are William C. Wickes, the author in question.

I'm kidding, this is awesome; I've used ABE and Alibris for so long, I've never found this site. Thanks very much for the tip!

This could be an expensive discovery...

[Simone Cerica]

Marathon books by Nick Karagiaouroglou http://www.hpcalc.org/authors/1567, specially Complex Numbers Marathon http://www.hpcalc.org/details/5114, are a mine of information...

[JDW]

While I agree that nothing compares to a well-printed book, the fact remains that you can save a bundle and get a bundle of books too with the Museum Document Sets USB Flash for $38 (CDs are $10 each). For example, it includes Bill Wickes' "HP-48 Insights Part I (48G/GX Edition)."