I don't understand the HP-50g, what am I missing?

[Steve Simpkin]

(04-08-2024 10:32 PM)bxparks Wrote:  

(04-08-2024 10:23 PM)Steve Simpkin Wrote:  Since you are familiar with the HP-42S, I would recommend looking at the book, "HP 41/HP 48 Transitions" by William C. Wickes.
[...]
https://literature.hpcalc.org/community/...itions.pdf

I have actually skimmed most of that book, and I thought I understood the motivations and the object model of RPL: basically a combination of FORTH and Lisp merged into a calculator form. That part seemed pretty clear.

The problem is that I can't even get to the RPL part. I'm hitting inconsistencies in the 50g UI which don't make sense to me. But I will try to read that book again.

You are not alone. I used HP RPN models for 11 years and then transitioned to the HP-28/HP-48 models and used them for the past 36 years. I fully embraced RPL and really enjoy the features of an unlimited stack and the RPL programming language but I still struggle when it comes to using the HP 49/50g series. I understand that HP did what it had to do when the engineering/scientific/technical marketplace for calculators went away and they were left with only the educational sector. This was already dominated by TI and Casio so HP made their graphing models look and act more like the calculators from those vendors. I suspect the key is just keep asking questions here and keep practicing with the HP 50g.