Does the HP-35S need a 'guide for dummies' how-to guide?

[Tugdual]

(03-09-2015 05:08 PM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  Thanks Mark. You have posed some interesting questions.

First, let me say upfront that I am not an engineer. I am a retired computer programmer who became a middle school math volunteer-teacher. So I am not at all qualified to discuss the calculating needs of engineers. But I think we are in the midst of another technological revolution that will have major impacts on calculators.

It seems to me that a newly-minted engineer coming out of college today is part of the i-generation. He or she undoubtedly has a smart phone with all kinds of apps on it, some of which are not games, hopefully. At some point--and I'm not saying we have reached that point yet--this engineer will probably have to decide which engineering app do I want for my tablet or smart phone or application for my PC, rather than which scientific calculator do I want to buy and use. Nobody used slide rules after the HP-35 came out. Nobody used typewriters after PC's and word processing came out (yes, I am aware that you can still find a few, mostly in old attorney's offices). I really think the calculator is a dinosaur just waiting to become extinct.

I doubt that many engineering students today even know what RPN stands for, and even if they did I doubt that they would view it as something they should learn and know, something that would help them in their career. It is a relic of the past, practiced today only among senior citizens like us on this forum and a few youngsters who have discovered it and like it. But for the mainstream, I think it is dead. Same with RPL.

Of course, I may be wrong!

My son is currently in an engineer school and I gave him my prime. He really enjoys it but doesn't use RPN at all. The second thing he uses is a PC but there's nothing like phone or tablet.
He confirmed that he is the only one with a HP but he also said that as soon as he was seen with a finger on the touch screen, all other students were fascinated. So the prime is fascinating but not very strong on the market, may be a matter of advertisement?
I enjoy RPN but the day you start coding a macro language, you find yourself converting algebraic expressions into RPN because that is the way a microprocessor executes calculations. So I have always wondered if RPN was not actually less powerful and closer to cpu. Nobody goes naturally to RPN.
Having discovered recently RPL, I think it is definitely the ultimate state of rpn applied to coding. But lets face the reality: this is really a fascinating abomination. Still rpl is suited for handled machines, possibly better than keystrokes languages. For the same reason I don't like the prime because basic is not adapted to handled machine and I believe the expectation is that code is entered on a companion PC.
One essential aspect of a calculator is the keyboard and I don't think tablets and phones are going to replace that. RPN is possibly a relic of the past but I prefer to consider it as a valid alternative to algebraic entry.