RPN programmability moved backwards?

[Jeff O.]

(10-04-2019 03:55 PM)David Hayden Wrote:  ...Does anyone know why HP took this course of reduced programmability? ...

My two cents, which may or may not be worth even that much.

I don't think that the programmability of the 35s is best viewed as a reduction. I would view it more like 35s and 42s being descended from a common ancestor, but living on different branches of the RPN programmability tree. The 35s was more or less a successor to the 32s series, which had relatively limited programmability. The 42s and 32s were introduced at essentially the same time, with the 42s continuing and expanding on the advanced programmability of the 41C, while the 32s advanced the original "classic" RPN programmability of the 11C (and previous models like the 65, 67, 25, 29, 33C). The evolution of advanced RPN programmability stopped with the 42s, while the 32s “evolved” into the 32sii, 33s and finally the 35s. Or something like that.