Enter vs. =

[rprosperi]

(09-20-2018 09:31 AM)toml_12953 Wrote:  It also means that Sony wanted to charge a license fee to Beta machine and tape makers while VHS was free to use! Beta was actually better quality than VHS.

Sure, which meant that Beta machines cost more, though better usually does cost more. HP machines typically cost more too, but if I'm buying a tool I plan to use, I am happy to pay more for a better one.

Sadly, this is not generally the case (not true in most of this community), most folks are quick to buy the cheaper tool, even if it is less effective. Worst of all, most often, the comparison of how effective the tools are comes down to a price tag comparison...

[Maximilian Hohmann]

(09-20-2018 03:27 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  ... most folks are quick to buy the cheaper tool, even if it is less effective. Worst of all, most often, the comparison of how effective the tools are comes down to a price tag comparison...

But that rarely is a case of choice. If you simply can't afford the expensive tool there is no way you can have it. As simple as that. Especially when students are concerned who often live on a very tight budget.

[Jim Horn]

When the cost difference is large, it becomes a critical point. How many folks buy Rolex watches? In college (1971 - 1975), I saw the HP-35/45/55/65 all bought by others but they were greatly outsold by TI as the difference could be a week's pay. When solving particularly difficult homework (5+ complex equations in as many unknowns, etc.), I'd borrow a friend's TI. To my dismay, after pressing the hundreds of keys to get the answer, I did it again and got a different one as somewhere I had erred. And kept doing it again until I got the same answer twice.

That's when I decided to wait for an affordable programmable calculator - the HP-25 in July 1975, two months after graduating as the only IIT EE in the class still using a slide rule. That Post 1461 Versalog mini really pulled its weight...

[Valentin Albillo]

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Hi, Maximilian:

(09-20-2018 05:24 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  But that rarely is a case of choice. If you simply can't afford the expensive tool there is no way you can have it. As simple as that. Especially when students are concerned who often live on a very tight budget.

Absolutely. When I was in my 18-22's I had to work all kinds of jobs just to be able to acquire my very first HP, the wonderful HP-25 (no "C" yet), which was extremely expensive for me and required a lot of personal sacrifices to gather the money.

Afterwards I set my goals on acquiring the newly released HP-67 (still no "C" but with mag cards) and it was so expensive that I was forced to sell my beloved HP-25 secondhand to be able to raise the money for the HP-67, which took me almost a year of painfully saving every cent, every cent.

Then the HP-41C (at last a "C" !) hit the market and, again, I was forced to sell my wonderful HP-67 (which I sorely regret to this day) in order to acquire the barebones HP-41C. It was wonderful but very limited in RAM (many of my best HP-67 programs wouldn't fit/work), thus back to the sacrifices to get the money to acquire a RAM module and the, again, tremendously expensive but utterly essential card reader. The printer or the tape drive or other accessories were completely out of the question no matter what.

So you're right, HP was extremely expensive to the point were most students couldn't afford any of it and/or had to sacrifice most everything to be able to buy something HP. For me, it was the only option as I couldn't stand TI AOS at all, let alone the much inferior TI hardware. It was "HP or bust !" and it came uncomfortably close to the latter.

Those were the days, and they were excruciatingly hard.

Regards.
V.
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