Prime second attempt

[mgmander]

I have not used the Prime all that much, but am going to have another go at it.

I too am a huge fan of RPL and still have a 28C, 48SX, 49G, 49G+ and a 50G that I've bought over the years. I have done a huge amount of programming for the 49G+ and 50G, and actually developed an entire source code control environment for it which mimicked the calculators directory structure using a database and stored raw, commented source text files on the SD card of the 50G, allowing for "compilation" to the calculator itself. This allowed me to keep large, commented and legibly formatted source code files on the calculator (but on the SD card) and work on it in the field. One of the big limitations of the 50G, I felt, was the fact that all source got "compiled" on the calculator; comments got stripped, and personal formatting to make the source more readable, was also stripped. Yes, the calculator would "pretty-print" the source when editing, but it wasn't formatted in as readable a fashion as my original code was. Understandably, this was done to save space and to speed up execution of course, but my solution to store my raw code on the SD card worked rather well, although implementing that source control system was quite a major effort in itself!

When I got the Prime, I was dismayed that RPN seemed an afterthought and wasn't integrated with the programming environment. If only I could read and write values from/to the stack, I'd probably be relatively happy (and indeed, I think there are now ways to do that in a limited fashion?) but still, I loved the fluid and seamlessly extensible programming environment of RPL.

RPN limitations aside, it does seem as though the Prime's programming environment is, from a general usability standpoint, vastly superior to the 50G, which is why I'm going to once again make an effort to learn the system. But...

If only HP would create an RPL successor to the 50G with the Prime's hardware, the fast CPU, the excellent colour screen, the fantastic keyboard, much more storage to allow for commented and formatted RPL source code to be edited and saved on the device, now that would be amazing. Still, the Prime itself seems a very powerful device and it may indeed suit my needs in the end, once I figure out how to work around (or ignore) its limitations and build on its strengths...