f PAUSE HP25/HP29C

[PANAMATIK]

As anybody knows f PAUSE shows the X register for about a second while a program is running.

If you own both of the above calculators you might already have noticed since the beginning, that displaying the X register with f PAUSE within a program is handled slightly different. I never found a discussion about the difference in behaviour and I want to know what could be the reason.

The PAUSE instruction in the earlier model HP-25, which I was accustomed to first, can be interrupted by a short key-press with any key while the X register is displayed. The later model HP-29C does not respond to a short key-press, the program will not be interrupted, instead it needs a long key-hold-down until the pause ends to stop program execution.

I prefer the way the HP-25 reacts, I don't like the lazy response of the HP-29C but i'm not sure whether I'm prejudiced against it. Often I wanted to stop a HP-29C program by a short key-press and was annoyed when the program ignored my key and continued as if nothing had happened.

Does anybody know why HP made this change? Did they want to prevent unintended interruption? But a short key-press is never unintended. Is there any documentation? What is your preference? What is the behaviour of other calculators? Is it a bug?

Bernhard