HP-15C CE woes: 1 bug, 2 limitations, 3 questions

[carey]

(08-09-2023 02:19 PM)J-F Garnier Wrote:  For me, the main limitation of the 15c is the fact that program steps are still recorded as keycodes.
This seems to me absolutely archaic in 2023. I really would welcome a 15c with clear instructions à la 41C: LbL, STO, RCL, ...
It would not break any compatibility and would give a tremendous comfort for programming.
The 41C series introduced this innovative feature in 1979, unfortunately the 1981 Voyager series went back to keycodes.
It was a big step backward at the time, and I remember that I initially didn't like this series for this very reason.

There's no disagreement that mnemonic instructions, as in the 41C series, facilitate coding and debugging vs. key location instructions used in the 15c, but there's an interesting point that's easy to overlook about the 15c. The fact that key locations can even be used to program the 15c is remarkable and due to the fact that all its commands and functions are on the keyboard! Hence, it's a moot comparison to the 41C series since key locations wouldn't uniquely map to instructions with so many functions and commands in the catalog and not on the keyboard.

Was the decision to use key location instructions really a step backwards in the 15c? In one sense, yes. But in another sense, if one views the 15c as a personal tool, like a hammer, that becomes an unconscious extension of one's hand, the 15c keyboard is so ingrained in the minds of heavy 15c users that designating instructions by key location provides the brain (which is a master cartographer in forming and using mental maps) with the same information that would, on another calculator, require mnemonic instructions. The continued popularity of the 15c forty years after initial release suggests this mental mapping of key locations to programming instructions becomes second nature (and can be fun!).