What makes "FOCAL" FOCAL?

[rprosperi]

(04-11-2020 02:14 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  To further continue this thread drift: As much as I like the HP-71B myself, there is one very important aspect in which it is vastly inferior to almost every other calculator, unfortunately: Its very limited usablity as a simple calculating tool. 95% of what I - and I guess almost anyone - use a calcultaor for is performing simple calculations on the fly. No elabaorate programming tricks, no laboratory equipment controlled by a pocketable device (never had any use for that anyway), no printing or mass storage. Just like the question I was asked lately: How much does an aeroplane contribute to the total water contents of the atmosphere during every hour of flight? And what must be the conditions so that a contrail will either dissolve quickly or become the cause of a cloud overcast. I guess the 71B would be one of the last calculators to use for that kind of task...

And to the original thread: In my opinion the HP-41C did not add sufficient new features to previous RPN keystroke programming implementations to qualify for it's own programming language. FOCAL or what else one may call it.

Regards
Max

Within a couple months of introduction of the 71B, RPN programs became available for it, initially in BASIC, then a .BIN program (assembler) and later still in FORTH. I've had one installed since they became available for on-the-fly calculating, since I effectively can't use the 71B's cute 'CALC MODE' to do anything useful.

As for the name, I don't think the 41 'qualified' based on anyone's assessment of technical merit or innovation, it was simply that the number of people that were actually writing calculator programs exploded with the introduction of the 41, including many people with non-technical backgrounds (aka average consumers) and HP was looking for something simpler/easier to say and write than 'the HP-41's programming language' every time they needed to reference it.

Henry Horn did not consult with me when he decided to run the contest, so I can't guarantee that was their motivation, but they did publish more than one letter from folks asking what the language was called.