Is the Prime suitable, for me

[Joe Horn]

(03-25-2014 12:56 PM)1HPGuy Wrote:  RPN [on the HP Prime] can only readily be used for number crunching and using commands that appear on the calculator keys and face, like x^2, Log, Tan, and so forth.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's true. As far as I know, whatever you can do in Home in either Textbook entry mode or in Algebraic entry mode, you can also do in RPN entry mode. Yes, there were bugs in the original release that caused RPN to choke on some things, especially the Spreadsheet app... but those bugs are gone now. If you know of any specific operations that can be done in Home's other entry modes, which cannot be done in RPN entry mode, please post them.

It has been objected that performing symbolic math (e.g. algebraic manipulations, solving equations, etc) is more complicated in RPN mode than in the Textbook or Algebraic modes. Well, there's an obvious reason for that: Algebraic mode is optimized for algebraic work. If you want to do algebraic work, use the optimal tool for the job. On the other hand, when crunching numbers is what you need to do, I agree that RPN is the best tool for the job. Prime's RPN does that job just fine.

Of course, if your objection is that it takes extra keystrokes to perform functions that are not directly on the keyboard... well, that's true of every calculator, no?