HP-42S display

[Thomas Okken]

(09-05-2017 04:59 PM)Jake Schwartz Wrote:  

(09-05-2017 02:02 AM)toml_12953 Wrote:  I find the alpha input of the 42S (and DM42 classic mode, of course) much easier than that of the 41C/CV/CX calculators. À chacun son goût, I guess.

With respect to the ALPHA input (which I personally didn't like because every letter required two keystrokes), you would think that making such a radical change in the user interface might cause a backlash. It seems to me that there was room on that keyboard to have the ALPHA input that they chose, PLUS the old way as well. Making it flexible like that might have won (or kept) some additional fans.

This is a topic that has been discussed at length over on the DM42 forum. The quick summary: it's not as easy as you might think. One difference between the 41C and the 42S is that the latter has a full set of lowercase characters, so with only one shift key, that's 26 keys for nothing but the alphabet, and given the special roles for EXIT, Up, Down, R/S, Backspace, and ENTER, you don't even have enough keys left for the digits.

Also: having to press two keys for every letter is cumbersome, sure, but just how often do you have to enter text into a 42S?

I think HP faced some difficult decisions with cramming so much functionality in a calculator with a 37-key keyboard, and they came up with a reasonable compromise. Most of the people who decry the design as awful don't seem to have thought things through to the end; they criticize but don't offer better alternatives. Witness the ongoing evolution of alpha entry on the DM42 to see how hard it is to get that right.