HP Prime or HP 50g

[cyrille de brébisson]

Hello,

I am liking this thread more and more, so much to talk about here!!!!

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"Why divide Home and CAS into separate modes when other CAS calculators do not separate them?"
"Was that done merely to make CAS easier to disable for TEST Mode?"

Multiple reasons here...
In the first SW versions of the first incarnation of Prime (the 39GII+), both Home and CAS were powered by the CAS...
But it lead to a lot of issues in home where CAS like stuff was creeping back up to the user generating unexpected results...
But this does not explain, per-say why the separation...

Early on, we though that we would need to create CAS and non CAS versions of the calculator (because CAS was banned in some locals).
Separating the 2 would have helped (notice that we never did producte 2 models)...

But, and by a lot, the biggest reason is that I do not like CAS calculators...

Like a lot of you here, I am a number cruncher. When I take my calculator to do 27/6 (for example), I mean to get 4.5 because, most likely, I want to cut a 27cm board in 6 chunks. And an answer of 9/2 is useless to me.
I argued at the time that Calcualtors do have multiple useages, and during the course of a day one might need to switch from one to the other (in math class, 9/2 is expected, in pysics: 4.5 is expected). And that going to meddle with a flag was a poor solution to the problem.
Thus the home/cas divide was trully born at this time.


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"Nice round up, but definitely NOT convincing for me. Maybe the Prime will be somewhat decent in 30+ years."
Ha, well, see, I was trying to explain, not to convince :-) so no problems there...
I sinserly hope that Prime will still be there in 30 years! well, 20 years would even be enough for me as it would get me through retirement!




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"If this generation doesn’t know what a manual is, it’s probably because companies like HP and others don’t take the time to write them like they used to."
"Who’s to blame? HP was once the leading companie. It has lost it’s soul and fallen. A shame."

Having spend a conciderable amount of time writing "learning product" (this is the technical term for all the textual info in the user manual, quick start guide and build in help of the calculator). I do admin that I was sadden by this remark. Granted, we do not have the AUR anymore, however, the user manual is over 700 pages long, the Quick Start Guide is quite well done. Not talking about the on calc help (which contains a lot of what used to be in the AUR) which is around 1MB of text...
I have not looked at TI, Casio or Numworks. But I venture to say that HP is doing prety good here in comparison (actually, I just checked NUMWORKS and they have a 47 page manual!).
Anyhow, If you could try to give me some example of what you liked better in the previous manuals vs the current ones, we might be able to use that feedback to improve future changes to the user manual.

Going back to an interesting point in your comment: "If this generation doesn’t know what a manual is"...
The "If" here is a given. This is actually a test that I often conduct when I go to user facing events (conferences and the like). I ask the people in front of me: Have you read your calculator manual? Are you reading user manual of products that you are purchasing... And the overwhelming majority of times, the answer is "No", or "No, why?"
I think that a lot of company have gone away from the user manual (Where is your windows, OSx, Ipad, phone user manual?) They are relying on much simpler/easier/common UI that what existed in the past (try doing a matrix addition in a 32s without a user manual? try doing it on Prime?). They are relying on users teaching each others how to use the devices...
What is certain is that users are reading said user manuals less and less. That a 700 page user manual is concidered absolutely "bonkers" by today's standards (We often get told by internal people: "Look at this laptop's 1 page "user manual", with only pictograms! isn't it MUCH better than a user manual? And so much easier to translate!"



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"PS: “Le nivellement par le bas.” Rings a bell?? "

Unfortuntaley, yes :-(
But I venture to gess that HP is probably doing better at fighting to stick up than most of the competition.



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"Complex Numbers do not work in the Solver App as they do in the 49&50g."

I think that the "as they do" is the key word there.
complex solving does work in Prime, and is much better than on the 49/50... Moslty due to the CAS.
But it does not work "in the same way". cSolve is your friend there BTW.
Prime is different and a break from the 28 originated series.
It is different because it evolves in different domains and has to respond to different demands...
But it is still very capable :-)

Cyrille