Are the members of the HP Prime team doing well?

[Stevetuc]

(01-24-2021 04:05 AM)bbergman Wrote:  

(01-23-2021 08:13 PM)John Keith Wrote:  I hope that if/when HP exits the market they can be persuaded to open-source their code so that small companies like Swiss Micros (or even smaller start-ups) can make compatible calculators without dancing around copyright issues.

Cyrille made it pretty clear that they would otherwise be willing to do this, but there are multiple libraries, algorithms, and other copyrighted materials used in their code that they cannot release to the public. To do so would require an army of lawyers to track down the rights and gain exemptions. He didn't think that would be feasible.

Another way to handle this issue could be to provide an I/O port in the firmware to allow external code to run, like the 3rd party Omega firmware for Numworks does.
Cyrille mentioned this would have security implications because of exam mode, but I would argue that the I/O port could be firmly closed with exam mode activated, preventing any 3rd party code running on the calc.
Of course I'm hoping HP continue to support the Prime into the future and release Python and other goodies but having the I/O port would open the way to adding things like Fourier Transform and other code where the licensing prevents it being integrated into the firmware.