DM42 News

[Luigi Vampa]

(02-02-2017 10:46 AM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  

(02-02-2017 10:08 AM)Luigi Vampa Wrote:  1 +
HP42s ALPHA menu helps keeping its keyboard layout so clean/readable/uncluttered. IMHO, this forms a key part of this model's beauty.

Indeed. The HP-41, by contrast, had such a keyboard clutter problem that they ended up with the non-obvious shifted ALPHA key assignments shown on the back of the machine. Adding lowercase f through z to the set of typeable characters makes things even more problematic on the HP-42S.

... good point!! I don't know if the "letter-challenged" HP41 was the cause of such clean layout design in the HP42s. Although the DM41L was a brave departure from the original portrait design, I see DM42-P as a new HW platform for future product developments, rather than a close replica of the HP42s. I wish someday there could be a close replica of the original HP42s design, since I am a SOLVER user + roadwarrior. I do appreciate compactness over libraries or big screens. When I need graphics, not so often, I use SW tools in my PC.
A scientific (not graphing) calculator is meant to do fast STEM calculations. HP42s added limited graphics, crippled you might say, when compared to its descendents, but its compact and clean design was the key of its success. Now I feel I was wrong when I jumped from my HP28s, over the HP42s, to the HP48sx, plenty of bells&whistles... almost never used.
We certainly can add some makeup on La Gioconda to give her a more modern taste, nevertheless, the result would undoubtedly depart from the original masterpiece.
"There are as many likings, as colours in the rainbow"... a bad translation of an old Spanish saying.