About the 39GS

[brickviking]

(02-18-2018 05:48 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  What would you use? That horrible write-only language where everything is in
« » ? RPL is good for one-off calculations and I use it for those. I can see the attraction of building functions like layers of an onion. For permanent programs, though, give me a self-documenting language where I can go back and immediately see how I did something in a program written months or even years ago.

For permanent programs, I'd almost be tempted to agree with you, but once you get good at RPL, "reading" it is probably nearly as fast as reading C or Java, and has the benefit of working on far lower spec machines.

(02-18-2018 05:48 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  People may say that RPL is closer to the machine and therefore more efficient. I say that nowadays, the hardware is advanced enough to make that a moot point. My time is most important. I want the machine to do the busy work of parsing, hierarchy, etc..

Yes indeed, your time is important, and you must decide best how you'll use it. My problems with RPL aren't with actually reading it, it's more with holding enough of the program in my head so I can figure out what it does, though I tend to have that with most languages. On the 50G, I find that RPL is a good "compromise" for getting power out of the machine for only the negligible tradeoff of having things on a stack by default and actually learning the language.

I tried things on the 39G. I really did. I got so frustrated with its educational slant and aplet-based interface that I simply gave up in disgust and went back to my 9750. Perhaps I didn't give it a long enough trial.

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