Just my first hello to the forum

[MS_VieuxGaminHP]

Hi everyone.

We all are living « locked-up » moments. I hope you and your family are not victims of covid 19. And I hope you all keep your distances, wear masks and so on.

Actually, I am fully back in HP world: my old 28s is dead, I bought a 50g, which is « too much » (in my mind). Just a perfect , lovely « toy » that’s not interested in me thinking about how to solve my questions
During confinement/covid lock, I was sleeping even less than usual (I suffer from MS, so blank nights are known to me)... and trying to reach the limit of my credit card: I bought a used 28s (some repairs to do on the battery cover) and -after asking myself to forgive myself- an HP15c on e-bay. In excellent state, almost brand new. I feel 17 again.
And I’m working on my own programs to solve my unnecessary questions.
(I bought many science books of my past, in ebook version -not so sexy-. Because time has erased my main memory slots as far as mathematics, physics and chemistry are concerned).
And I feel ashamed to have bought something else too: a Swiss Micro DM 42.

Now, I’m sure I can stop the « shopping fuuury » and work on these jewels.

Nice to be among you
Take care

Pierre, from Belgium (near Waterloo... just a reminder for the way the Frenchies lost the battle - I think it is why I don’t use comma, but decimal point, as my American friends).

[Dave Britten]

(05-09-2020 09:12 PM)MS_VieuxGaminHP Wrote:  Now, I’m sure I can stop the « shopping fuuury » and work on these jewels.

That's what they all say.

[rprosperi]

Welcome to the Forum Pierre. Your penchant for buying nice machines means you will find good company here. Both the 15C and DM42 are great tools/toys for doing unnecessary tasks, they are even handy for some necessary ones as well. Who wants to balance a checkbook with a four-banger when you can do so with a machine that is ready to handle imaginary numbers if the spending gets really crazy.

And though the 50g is certainly capable of far more than a 28S, you can simply use it like a much faster 28S with a much better screen. No need to use all the fancy stuff, just keep having the same fun as you did with your 28S. One interesting thing to do is as you write programs for your RPN machines, follow that up with RPL versions that do the same thing. It's a much better way to learn RPL than trying to learn RPL.

[J-F Garnier]

Welcome ! We are a lot of "Vieux Gamins" here...

(05-09-2020 09:12 PM)MS_VieuxGaminHP Wrote:  ... I don’t use comma, but decimal point, as my American friends.

I'm a bit schizophrenic on that matter, I have no problem to use the decimal point on all my Basic machines and I use it almost all the time in Excel to facilitate data exchange with other tools, but still have to use the comma on many of my calculators because I can't get used with the comma as a 3-digit group separator.
It's hard for me to read 1,123.56 and understand it as 1123.56 not 1.12356 . On some machine it's possible to disable the 3-digit separator, but not on all machines such as on my every-day HP-32S.

J-F (French HP calculator/computer user)

[Moggul]

Welcome Pierre.

The 28S was my first HP calculator and I really love it. Ijust recently managed to get a couple of units in good working order and they bring back great memories. Never really liked much the newer machines such as 48, 49 or 50 but the 42S is a fantastic machine. You will love the DM42.

Be careful as you are getting into a dangerous slippery slope!!!

[Chr Yoko]

Hello, me too new to that forum too.

Same as for you during the "house arrest" times and after repairing everything possible , doing all maintenance possible on all my Mountain Bikes, including hydraulics and bleeding brakes, i got to a box in the building's "cave" and found my old 28C from 1986-87 that i bought new with my hard won pocket money back in the time.

2653A serial number, so made in the USA !

As student in Paris, the 28C did not helped me much in my studies, since it was pretty slow for algebraic calculations and i was quicker by hand&mind, back then ... it had to be too because of the blackboard live-tests we had at the time, no calculator allowed.
It was a great machine and very high tech with its large screen and symbolic modes.
But i did not used it from mid 1990s as i started to work as a mechanical engineer in the automotive industry.

Sadly, almost nobody is using anymore scientific calculators since heavy calculations are done onto powerfull PCs sometimes even laptops are good enough nowadays. And for small calculations and quick estimations, Excel is the tool of choice. These , i may want to carry them to a calculator just for the fun of it , will see.

Of course the original docs of the 28C are lost or somewhere 750km down to the south with no way to get theire anytime soon... So i got some scans from HPMuseum and there i was about 2 weeks ago.

The 28C hinges were terrible noisy and of course as a mechanical guy, i had to fix these with some proper oil, and the 28C is now smooth to open again like new. Keyboard quality and feel is just fantastic. Don't think any manufacturer ever managed to reach such level since then.
HP Keyboards are a piece of mechanical art.
Got a set of 10 of the special batteries too (thanks you Amazon !).

After playing a bit with my 28C, i started to look for HP stuff on used market, and got, not far from home a 48G for 30€ with its docs and (dirty) pouch. Playing with it right now.
So i am back to a quick learning curve of their functions and restarting RPL langage.
To be honest, these machines seem very slow now vs modern standards, especialy when you want to use some of their advanced features.
I had the same feeling back in the 80s, but it did get worse over time.

Since the kids had and, for the last one, have only Tis for school purpose (all friends having Tis they MUST have the same stuff, you know ...), so i also ordered a brand new fast HP-Prime G2 by curiosity and to play with. PPL langage looks a kind of basic that should reminds me of my 1980s programming period on TRS80, VIC20, AmstradsCPCs....will see it next week.

Contemplating now to get maybe some of the SwissMicro machine and its modern and fast hardware sometime in the future ...

[Nihotte(lma)]

(05-09-2020 09:12 PM)MS_VieuxGaminHP Wrote:  Hi everyone.


Now, I’m sure I can stop the « shopping fuuury » and work on these jewels.

Nice to be among you
Take care

Pierre, from Belgium (near Waterloo... just a reminder for the way the Frenchies lost the battle - I think it is why I don’t use comma, but decimal point, as my American friends).

Hi MS_VieuxGaminHP !

Welcome to a Belgian neighbor : I am from the French Ardennes where I lived all my youth !
I notice that you still lack a little financial (HP12C,...) to finish balancing the budget (laughs) !
With or without comma, and floating or not - but not sinking !!!

Keep you healthy !

[BillBee]

Hi and Welcome to the forum!

The 15c is a great compliment to the 28s. We used to have the two camps in school. One with the powerful and durable 15c (myself) and the others with the mighty but battery door popping 28s. Good times indeed.

Its always good to have a "backup for the backup for the backup" calculator.

One new guy to another!

B!ll

[Dave Britten]

(05-11-2020 11:22 AM)BillBee Wrote:  Its always good to have a "backup for the backup for the backup" calculator.

And of course you need to buy backups for all of those too.

[BillBee]

(05-11-2020 11:48 AM)Dave Britten Wrote:  

(05-11-2020 11:22 AM)BillBee Wrote:  Its always good to have a "backup for the backup for the backup" calculator.

And of course you need to buy backups for all of those too.

Very wise indeed.

I think the wife's eye began twitching when I mentioned that.