UserRPL HP 50G

[Joe Horn]

(07-03-2014 06:29 AM)HP67 Wrote:  The 50g uses RPL, not RPN. RPN is the system on HP's calculators that use a 4 level stack.

If the 50g is not RPN, then why does it have an "RPN" setting (the very top setting in the MODE screen)? Answer: the 50g DOES have RPN, which stands for Reverse Polish Notation, which the 50g obviously supports. Does "1 ENTER 2 +" yield 3? Yes. Therefore, it's an RPN calculator, no matter what you need to press to separate the 1 and 2 (e.g. you can use the space key on the 50g instead of ENTER), and no matter how many stack levels your machine has, and no matter whether typing 3 ENTER gives you one or two 3's, and so on.

RPL is a Language (hence the "L"): the language used for programming the 28/48/49/50, and for typing commands on the command line. RPN is a Notation (hence the "N") in which there are no prefixes like SIN(pi), or infixes like 1+2, but only postfixes like pi SIN, and 1 2 +. The 50g has both RPL and RPN; saying that it has RPL instead of RPN is to misunderstand what both are.