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review of WP 34s
05-22-2018, 08:29 PM
Post: #3
RE: review of WP 34s
(05-22-2018 12:49 AM)gomefun2 Wrote:  If you are interested in this calculator try the emulator to make your own opinion of it.

For the record: the keyboard mapping of the (classic) emulator is a big PITA, I think. Don't expect to press key "A" when you type "A" on your PC keyboard...#-)

The 31s does a much better job here. And maybe that's more of an everyday calculator, compared to the 34s. Actually my Windows "calculator" hotkey pops up the 31s emulator. ;-)

(05-22-2018 12:49 AM)gomefun2 Wrote:  Brief review: The WP 34s has the steepest learning curve of any calculator I have ever used (by far). It almost feels like a calculator designed for calculator designers.

In a way this really is true. ;-)

(05-22-2018 12:49 AM)gomefun2 Wrote:  It has an incredible number of things it can do but lacks a large memory to store several complicated programs (though I am sure most people will be happy with the amount of storage). This calculator isn't meant for easy equation solving (It is not pick up and play at all (except for basic RPN calculations)). It is meant (ONLY) for repetitive tasks that can be programmed and it is a standard RPN scientific calculator besides this.

Quoting John F. Kennedy: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard". That's what the 34s is made for. It is a calculator that can do things no other calculator (I know of) will do out of the box. And not with this accuracy (up to 34 digits, even with exotic functions). Whenever I need a reference it's the 34s that I use. Another example: I have designed some rational approximations that approximate the Normal quantile function with 10+ digits. This means solving a linear equation system with 9 unknowns. Try it in Excel (which I normally use for such things): no way, the roundoff errors with 15-digit IEEE double precision make the obtained results unusable. Solve it on the 34s, and everything is fine.

(05-22-2018 12:49 AM)gomefun2 Wrote:  There is also a limitation when putting in long numbers into a program (if you wanted 3.1415 as a single line in the code this isn't possible, though it is possible to put the number in, it isn't as straightforward as other more recent HP calculators (and takes several lines of code)).

Yes, this is a limitation of the 34s programming model. But more important, even in normal calculations you cannot enter more than 12 digits ("Too Long Error").

Dieter
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Messages In This Thread
review of WP 34s - gomefun2 - 05-22-2018, 12:49 AM
RE: review of WP 34s - Paul Dale - 05-22-2018, 02:27 PM
RE: review of WP 34s - Dieter - 05-22-2018 08:29 PM
RE: review of WP 34s - Paul Dale - 05-23-2018, 12:43 AM
RE: review of WP 34s - Paul Dale - 05-23-2018, 12:45 AM



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