on the RPN mentioning sharp pc-1211, v.albillo, el-506w and recurring topics

[Gene]

(12-04-2017 10:13 PM)David Hayden Wrote:  I read somewhere (probably here) an interesting thread where some people did real-world races between AOS and RPN calculators keying in various formulas presented in textbook format. Then RPN calculators won, but not because RPN required significantly fewer keystrokes. The biggest factor was the RPN user was able to start keying in the solution almost immediately. The AOS user had to pause for a moment to figure out how to enter the expression.

Gene: The interesting test would be a situation where the RPN user makes mistakes in a complex problem and has to backtrack or correct with LastX, etc. vs. a formula algebraic machine with a mistake where the formula was simply edited and corrected.

I do know that college studies were made in the late 1970s that indicated for AOS style machines (non-formula approach), RPN was about 10-15% fewer keystrokes per problem. That saves time only if there is not a lot of thinking about how to approach steps in a problem, of course.