What makes "FOCAL" FOCAL?

[Andres]

Just to mention it, I submitted my entry for the HP-41 programming language name contest.

My idea (for what it may be worth) was based on the most important features which set the HP'41C on a class by itself at the time. Of course, this was just my opinion.

Those features were

> Expandability (hardware) There were many peripherals, modules, an expansion bus (albeit a proprietary one) and HP-IL as a more generic interface (quite proprietary indeed...).

> User-definable keyboard, by means of key assignments (and overlays!).

> RPN logic.

> Extendability (software) via modules, extended functions, and the fact that user programs (and ROM module based programs) can be invoked with the same format as built-in functions. Programs may be imported from external devices, also...

> Keystroke programmability, as opposed to BASIC text programming used by some Sharp handheld computers and equivalent machines at the time. We press SIN - (one key) instead of typing S I N ( ) - (five keys) .

> Alphanumeric capabilities.


These features form the acronym EUREKA, which seemed to be a good name for a scientific calculator programming language (from my point of view, at least).

I must admit that the HP-42S cannot be considered EUREKA compatible, as hardware expandability is regrettably missing and software extendability is hindered by the lack of wand, card reader and ROM modules, which makes program transfer a real pain.

BTW, as I had been a user of FOCAL on a DEC LSI-11 computer in 1978, I never liked FOCAL for the 41C. FOCAL was a BASIC-like language which accepts decimal fractions for line numbers: if you needed to insert a line between lines 1 and 2 you can number that line as 1.5 (or 1.234 if you prefer) and it will be OK.