HP-65 trivia

[Don Shepherd]

(02-20-2015 06:52 PM)Thomas Radtke Wrote:  Can it be that simply there wasn't enough space left for an error handling?

That's probably the most likely explanation, Thomas. The 65 has no alpha display capability, so normal error messages are not possible. Instead, the display blinks when an error such as divide by 0 or square root of a negative number occurs. It would have required more microcode to check an "octal" number for erroneous digits 8 or 9, and they probably just didn't have the space.

So they documented it and called it a "feature."