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

[David Hayden]

I feel your pain. I too moved directly from an RPN calculator (41CV) to the 50g and found the manual and user guide impenetrable. If I weren't an HP fan, I would have thrown the whole thing away, or against a brick wall in frustration. "Horrible" doesn't even begin to describe it. Eventually I realized that the 184 page "manual" is really a Quick Reference Guide, designed for people who already know how to use it.

To comment on some of your specific questions (which were wonderfully well asked, but the way).

Menus are not hierarchical. There is no "parent menu," only the previous menu that you were using. Unfortunately, I don't think the 50g remembers more than one previous menu.

You've mentioned parent and child "folders" a few times. In RPL, there are directories and there are menus. A directory stores a bunch of variables and can contain subdirectories. A menu is a reassignment of the top row of keys. That can be confusing because when you enter a directory, the menu changes to a list of the variables within that menu.

I mention all of this because you can move to the parent folder with the [Left shift] [UPDIR] (on the [VAR] key).

To enter complex numbers like 1+2i: [Left Shift] [(] 1 [Right Shift] [,] 2 [ENTER].

Although the keys have moved around, you may find one of the 48-series manuals easier to use. They describe the functionality in RPN mode with soft menus and without so many assumptions as the 50g manual. It's much easier to get through.

Others have noted that you can type "MENU" to execute the MENU command. This highlights a big difference between the RPN and RPL models: the command line. On RPL models, when you type something, you're actually typing in a program. When you then press [ENTER], the calculator compiles and executes the program. Most programs like this are very simple, like "enter this single number" or "execute the MENU command." For example, entering "1 [SPC] 2 [SPC] 3 [ENTER]" will push 1, 2, and 3 on the stack. The [ENTER] key just tells the calculator to compile and execute what you've written. Other keys like [+] and [SIN] append their function to the program and then automatically execute the whole thing.