What has the DM41 extra over the HP42s?

[hth]

(10-26-2020 03:20 PM)Peet Wrote:  Using over 30 or 40 years old tech is mostly more retro/hobby than best tool.

True for the most part, however I find the HP-41 to be one piece of old tech that has aged really well.

I do a lot of numeric base work, bit fiddling, really low level debug work and find the abilities to do this on a calculator like the HP-41 or HP-16C to be better than anything else I ever tried.

Also often overlooked with the HP-41 (the 42 should share this too) is the really low barrier of writing a short program to do some specialized task. You start with a simple repetitive calculation and realize that it is better to write a program (macro) to do it once and for all. Then you bind it to a key and have it easy available. It becomes part of your customized tool. Add on top of this that it never misses a key press and it is easy to get things right (once you learned the basics). And yes, instant on, fits into your pocket and runs for weeks on a set of batteries.

There will not be a new model coming next year that replaces it. You can get software updates despite its age. There is no built in life cycle which will make it nearly impossible to use in 5-10 years. My HP-41 calculators have been used for 35-40 years now.