HP35S, 15 years after: which new release for 15th anniversary?

[David Hayden]

(08-03-2021 01:50 PM)Gene Wrote:  I would suggest simply encouraging SM to make something new and exciting. Until then, the DM-42S and DM-41X are the best of this type of machine available, IMO.

They are wonderful machines (I own both) but the cost is high and the keyboard is no match for the 35s. As for functions, I look forward to the DM-43s.

To me, the 35s is frustratingly close to a wonderful machine. I really like the keyboard. The display is okay (for me) and the price is fantastic. The function set is good and strikes a nice balance between number of functions and the complexity of the user interface. It's pretty easy to find everything.

I wish I could transfer programs to/from a PC, or at least print them with an IR printer. I understand the need for non-IO versions, but why not make a 35s that's acceptable for exams and 36s that has I/O?

A non-shifted STO seems required to me, along with P<->R conversions. Those have been on the keyboard since at least the HP-25.

A faster processor would help. It's inexplicably slow and I have to believe that faster processors are available at very low cost and power consumption these days. Just look at the 30b.

Programming it is difficult with just 26 labels. The ability to XEQ or GTO a line number and have those instructions updated as the program is edited is great, but it's very hard to use when you're jumping forward. You have to guess at the line number and then adjust it later. What would work well is to program with labels, and then be able to delete the labels. The XEQ and GTO instructions would be changed to target the appropriate line numbers. As it is, the automatic editing only works within a label.

Oddly enough, I wouldn't complain about these things if only 200-300 steps were available. 26 labels would be plenty in that case. But with 32kb it's a different story. I'd love to store a whole library of programs but that just isn't possible.

I'd like to see my favorite RPN programming feature: local registers. The WP-34s has these and they're a godsend. No more worrying whether program A conflicts with program B. Also, I quickly found that *I* don't need lots of registers, my *programs* do. I can live with a very small SIZE when my programs can allocate their own registers.

Sadly, it's my understanding that the 35s code is so convoluted and poorly documented that changing it is impractical. Creating an updated model would mean starting from another code base, or starting from scratch.

Dave