HP 42S / DM42 vs HP 48-series question

[rprosperi]

(02-16-2018 02:21 AM)polbit Wrote:  Hope this isn't a religious topic As someone with no experience using one, I'm just interested in reasons and methods behind the 42 and its derivatives being so popular these days.

Sorry, but it is. Which isn't a bad thing, it simply is a matter of which you believe is better, most often based on which you learned first, but also strongly influenced by what you want to do. Very few number theory fans will prefer RPN, because RPL is just better suited for that. Similarly, for plain old cranking numbers, RPN offers ease of learning and use and clarity (it's a read/write language, RPL is more write-only, but you know that).

So, these debates go on and on, with nary a person ever being convinced to change preferences, but by closely reading the debates, you can learn a lot about both.

The 42 was the pinnacle of the classic RPN machines and inherited much adoration from that alone, but also it's close compatibility with the 41 made it an easy step-up for many 41 users that needed just a but more speed, or memory size, or a solver, or matrix support, or complex numbers, etc.

As an RPL user, it will initially feel limited (ignoring things like symbolics and lists, which it doesn't support at all) but you will be amazed what serious RPN programmers can do with it. I've used one for > 20years and I am still amazed to see some of the things I'm seeing folks do with the new DM42.

Check out the SwissMicros Forums and take a look at some of the programs submitted in the last week alone, and you'll see what I mean.