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Beware not to buy HP Prime, if you are engineer!
05-05-2018, 01:38 PM
Post: #15
RE: Beware not to buy HP Prime, if you are engineer!
Yes but no one stops you to create an equation library for the prime (and share it).

It seems to me that your point is "I want something ready made, for this the 50g with built in or community programs covers more needs than the prime, without me defining this or that equation".

But that's a lazy argument in my view. If I need something, I check if it is already done, otherwise I do it. Maybe long algorithms can be an obstacle, but equations are easy.

Pick this for example: https://www.easycalculation.com/formulas/index.php
There may be hundreds of equations there. But it is unlikely that one needs all of them at once. One may need, say, 10 of them. Then it is not that difficult to type them and organize them as you need it.

It is good to (a) have your setup, (b) ensure that it is what you need and (c) be more familiar with the system.
The more areas you are going to cover, the more complete the list become.

If instead I complain that no one is going to type all those equations for me in the device, meh.

I can understand an argument against the, say, 9860 series of the casio. There there is no way to name variables or to make variable scope only local, so to avoid overwrite variables used by other programs. One is limited with the programs, the labels have only 6 (or 8?) characters, and so on. So it is clumsy to build an extensive list of equations, although it is possible.

With the prime is really trivial. The HP PPL, although limited (ex: chars in variable names or function names are like "max 30" IIRC), is powerful and expressive.

And then, once again, if the prime is not for engineers because it is not filled with every possible formula, what about the older models from hp? Aside from 50g, 49g+, 49 series. Did the 71B or the 41 or the 67 model have all the formulas builtin without need of buying expansions? (or typing the formulas)

So even that is garbage?

I mean, I love the 50g. I have four (no other calculator is so present in my home). But to claim that all the others are garbage based on some weak argument is a bit of bad taste.

For example - I did not know this until some weeks ago - the 35. The first calculator. It is not better than any scientific calculator that you can get for 30 euro today in terms of functions. Nonetheless there is at least one book ( HP-35 Math Pac ) that collects a lot of equations for the 35 (of course one can adapt them to every calculator). For me a 35 plus that book is quite complete, one doesn't need much more if the need is to solve single equations.

So if the 35 can do it, the prime can do it too.

Wikis are great, Contribute :)
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RE: Beware not to buy HP Prime, if you are engineer! - pier4r - 05-05-2018 01:38 PM



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