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+-- Forum: HP Calculators (and very old HP Computers) (/forum-3.html)
+--- Forum: HP Prime (/forum-5.html)
+--- Thread: Engineering number format inconsistency (/thread-1302.html)
Engineering number format inconsistency - Bernd Grubert - 05-13-2014 07:38 AM
Hello,
I discovered a inconsistency regarding the implementation of the engineering format between the HP Prime and the older HP-calculators. In the HP Prime, the number of digits for the engineering format refers to number of digits after the decimal point whereas for the old calculators (and for the scientific format) it is the number of significant digits .
Here are some examples with number of digits set to 2:
Code:
Exact | HP 50G | HP Prime
--------+--------+----------
123400 | 123.e3 | 123.40e3
12340 | 12.3e3 | 12.34e3
1234 | 1.23e3 | 1.23e3I find the new behaviour rather inconvenient. In my opinion the engineering format is related to the scientific format and should display number like on the old machines.
Regards
Bernd
RE: Engineering number format inconsistency - Steve Simpkin - 05-13-2014 08:35 AM
This subject (or something very similar to it) was discussed in some detail back in January. See:
http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-425-post-2992.html
RE: Engineering number format inconsistency - Tim Wessman - 05-13-2014 02:25 PM
Indeed. It was discussed.
RE: Engineering number format inconsistency - Bernd Grubert - 05-14-2014 09:46 AM
Hello,
Thanks for the info. I searched for the topic before I started the thread, but I didn't find the old thread. Anyway, is there a chance that this will be corrected in the future?
Regards
Bernd
RE: Engineering number format inconsistency - Craig Thomas - 05-18-2014 06:22 AM
The Prime is not intended as an engineering calculator and it's not their target market.
It's intended for high school and college students.
I doubt they have the mandate to add anything to make engineers happy.
RE: Engineering number format inconsistency - Bernd Grubert - 05-18-2014 07:39 PM
I don't think that the engineering format is only usefull for engineers. In science prefixes like ยต, milli or kilo are common. As I understand one application are scientific experiments with the Stream-Smart. At least for this application a correct working engineering format is useful.
Regards
Bernd
RE: Engineering number format inconsistency - Thomas Klemm - 05-18-2014 08:44 PM
At high school my preferred setting for the HP-41 was:
- flag 40 is set for FIX display format
- flag 41 is set for ENG display format
Both flags together could only be set using synthetic programming but the result was most useful to me: fixed format for ordinary numbers and engineering format for very big or very small numbers.
Cheers
Thomas
RE: Engineering number format inconsistency - Bernd Grubert - 05-28-2014 02:59 PM
With the firmware upade the engineering format is now working as it should.
Thanks to the HP development team!
Regards
Bernd