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

[bxparks]

Thank you to everyone for the responses, particularly Eric Rechlin's lengthy post. They really helped put the 50g UI into perspective. For readability, I'll respond to some of the points in this single post, instead of replying multiple times separately to various posts.

A) On the question of:
"1) What Do the Arrow Keys Actually Do?",
thank you @carey for pointing to "the HP50g keyboard shortcuts is Appendix G (page 633) of the Advanced User Reference (AUR)". That seems to be the comprehensive list of all the various shortcuts.

B) On the questions of:
"4) Where is the SHOW function?
5) How do I Invoke the Equation Writer on a Previously Entered Equation?",
several people (@Gil, @Eric, others?) answered "DOWN". @Eric wrote: "press [Down Arrow] when it's on level 1 of the stack." I tried that multiple times. Nothing.

Eventually I realized that the 50g has at least 3 different modes, which affect the behavior of the DOWN button:
a) a command line mode outside the RPL stack which waits for input,
b) an Input/Edit mode after a digit entry, which shows an edit cursor on the bottom line, and
c) the HIST/UP mode where the cursor is inside the RPL stack.
I was hitting UP to get to Level 1 of the RPL stack, then hitting DOWN, which does nothing. I can't be in Input/Edit mode either. I actually have to hit ON/CANCEL to get to the command line mode, then hit DOWN.

C) On the question of:
"3) How to Exit to Parent Folder from Child Folder When Using Soft Menu",
@Eric answered LeftShift&PREV, i.e. pressing LeftShift and PREV at the same time. This does not seem to do what I want. The LeftShift&PREV seems to perform a "Flip Back to Previous Menu", instead of "Go Up to Parent Menu Folder" (which is bound to ON/EXIT on the 42S).

For example, if I click LeftShift+MTH, I get 2 menu rows (pages), which I can navigate with NXT:

Code:


VECTR MATRX LIST HYP REAL BASE
PROB FFT CMPLX CONST SPECI

I can press PROB to get 2 menu rows in the PROB folder:

Code:


COMB PERM ! RAND RDZ
UTPC UTPF UTPN UTPT NDIST MTH

To go back up to the parent MTH folder, the 50g wants me to press NXT, to get to Row 2 of STAT, and press MTH. I just want to hit ON/CANCEL.

If I press LeftShift&PREV (at the same time), it takes me to a menu that was there before I pressed LeftShift+MTH. If I press LeftShift&PREV again, it flips me back to the MTH menu.

The menu navigation of the 50g is so inconsistent, it drives me batty. Here's another example. I press TOOL and get:

Code:


EDIT VIEW STACK RCL PURGE CLEAR
CASCH HELP

I press STACK to get:

Code:


DUP SWAP DROP OVER ROT UNROT
ROLL ROLLD PICK UNPICK PICK3 DEPTH
DUP2 DUPN DROP2 DROPN DUPDU NIP
NDUPN                      PRG

That last soft menu button on Row 4 should go back up to the parent. That should be TOOL, not PRG.

D) On the topic of the Advanced User Reference (693 pages), I scanned through it, and it actually seems far better organized than the User's Guide (887 pages). Of course, the AUR is a reference guide, not a tutorial, so it assumes a basic knowledge of the calculator which a new user cannot have.

E) On the question of:
"7) Two Slightly Different CMPLX Menus, Why?",
it was interesting to read about the history of these 2 menu folders, one being numerical, the other being symbolic. But in terms of actual use, there should be no difference in the functionality of these menu items, right? I mean, 'RightShift+CMPLX CONJ' seems to do exactly the same thing as 'LeftShift+MTH NXT CMPLX NXT CONJ'.

F) Overall thoughts on the 50g.

The amount of engineering that went into the 50g is truly impressive. The Advanced User Guide is proof of that. But I am beginning to think that the 50g must have the worst UI in the history of calculators. The only people who can make sense of this calculator are previous users of the 48 or 49 series calculators. Which seems like a strange product decision, because that automatically limits the market for the 50g to a tiny, rarefied group of people.

I'm going to peck at this calculator a bit more. But I'm not sure that I want to spend too much time learning something that has such user-hostile UI design. There will never be new firmware upgrades, there will never be any fixes. There are too many things that I want to do, besides spending the next 10-20 years learning the idiosyncrasies of this calculator.