Anybody read a good manual lately?

[Dale Reed]

Steve,

The 35S originally came out with a printed manual and a zippered clamshell case. When I bought mine, they had reduced the package to the quick start guide, the disc with the PDF, and the slip case. But mine had a note in the quick start (or somewhere) with information to contact HP and they would send a printed manual free. I did and they did. Shortly after that, they stopped the practice.

Since then, I bought a manual and a clamshell case on eBuy. So I have a couple copies.

But, I wholeheartedly agree: the manuals just aren't the same as the excellent full-color manual that came with the HP-25 that I got for my 18th birthday. Plus the application programs manual that didn't just give the keystroke listings, but EXPLAINED what the programs did and how. Plus forms to copy for your own programs. The HP-25 manual was an easy read, especially sitting with the calculator and following along with the examples. The stack lift/drop images are fried into my synapses forever. Especially cool how they showed the display with a bright red font that looked exactly like the LED display.

I try to write good manuals for the software I write at work -- or at least provide quality text for the tech writers to start from, good screenshots, etc. It is quite difficult to do a really good, easy-to-follow manual. I have the utmost respect for the folks who did the ones for the early HP calcs.

If you use RPN, get a copy of the "Solving Problems with Your HP Calculator" book that came with the 31E ... 38C (spice) series. Small and applicable to all RPN scientific calculators. I'm working on my own RPN calculator project (off and on, mostly off --- think WP31S with a four-line text LCD in a landscape package with QWERTY keyboard capability and separate arrow keys -- maybe a 10C+?), and this book is my bible and test spec for my early runs of firmware.

Dale