How and why do you use your HP calc?

[Dwight Sturrock]

At work, using either Free42 on my iPhone or a physical HP15C, basic electrical formulas such as the power equation, ohms law, parallel resistances, apparent power to actual, etc.

At home, anything including finances. I have the typical "late" models, 12C, 20b, 30b, 42S, 50G, 15LE.

Why? RPN!

[Neve]

(09-14-2017 05:54 PM)Dwight Sturrock Wrote:  At work, using either Free42 on my iPhone or a physical HP15C, basic electrical formulas such as the power equation, ohms law, parallel resistances, apparent power to actual, etc.

At home, anything including finances. I have the typical "late" models, 12C, 20b, 30b, 42S, 50G, 15LE.

Why? RPN!

Yeah! RPN is to equations what a large crane is to heavy lifting! Unbeatable.

[Csaba Tizedes]

(09-14-2017 01:32 PM)Neve Wrote:  What model are you using? What do you use it for, could you be more specific?

I'm a mechanical engineer - mainly fluid flow and process engineer. Our company (EWB Ltd.) works on ash handling technology field of power plant industry. My task is design process and preparing our solutions from scratch to contract signing (technically and partially financially).

Therefore during my work mainly stands lots of fluid flow calculations (eg. pressure drop on a pipeline during pneumatic conveying of various materials), lots of static calculations (loads on steel structures, pipe bridge's loads, loads on silo walls, silo tops, effect of earthquake, wind, etc...), equipment selection (direct selection from well known companies products or just estimating motor power requirements, selecting instrumentation, selecting vessel sizes, silo dimensions, unloading equipments under silos, compressors, blowers, dust filters, etc...).

Sometimes we have offering slurry systems, in this case same as above, but the material is high density slurry and we are using pumps instead of compressors.

Of course mainly we do the above on PC, but many little part of this procedure simply to calculate on a pocket calculator. For example if you must to select dust filter area, you can use "thumb rules" and you can estimate it with a calculator.

When I was a student (that was 1999~2004), I used a 15C, a 32SII and a 48SX. I have preferred my 32SII (because it was smaller than 48SX and have alpha LCD and EQN list which was better than 15C).

During years I noticed that for my design work no need to write long programs, only required to use a good solver. So my selection was a 35S, which is during a battery replacement deleted everything - so I trade it for something and I started to test many another calculator (the full TI83/84/89/TINspire line, old CASIOs, new CASIOs, HP 48GX, 49G, 48GII) - and it seems to me, my 32SII is the best, but I must to back to 35S again (because I have ~30-40 equations and ~4-5 little programs which is required for my job).

So my selection is a 35S, but I hate ->P and ->R is missing, and to start a program why we need to give the line number?!?! And yes, the greatest fault: why only one character variable names? Why - at least - one character + one number and we can write easily the Bernoulli equation - and many more.

And what about the weekends and free time? I prefer to use what I want: I have some CASIO, I like to play with them. I really like my fx-50F, this is the best well designed little calculator. I wrote on it many little programs (because it has 29 steps memory only).

I try to share stuffs in our Calculator Group (Calculator Google Group - Hungary), for example a short story about how to use SOLVE + indirect addressing on HP15C: Down to the Rabbit hole, a short article about the night sky temperature and freezing on a surface: Night sky temperature, and a story how I beloved to my dead 12C and how I prepared on it a SOLVE(i): SOLVE with indirect addressing on 12C.

So, you can guess, why I prefer mostly HP calculators.

Csaba

[David Hayden]

My first introduction to programmable calculators was around 1976 with a TI SR-52? Then I saw my brother's HP-25 and I was hooked. I convinced my dad to buy me a 29C for high school. A couple years later I bought a 41C. I clearly remember sitting down with the manual the day that I got it and reading it cover to cover, working through each example.

It's no exaggeration to say that calculators led to my career as a programmer.

In 1982(?) I traded in the 41C for a CV. Once I had the 41-CV I stopped paying attention to what was happening in the world of calculators. The 41CV met all my needs in glorious fashion. I vaguely recall hearing that someone had hacked the 41C to expose hidden instructions (aka synthetic programming) and I remember thinking that it was a really bad idea because what if HP changed the hardware or decode logic. Note to self: don't ever take your own advice.

Anyway the 41CV sat in my desk and I continued to use it whenever I needed a calculator - perhaps once every week or two. That was my only calculator (along with card reader, printer and math pac) for more than 20 years.

Then in 2007(?) my daughter's school said that she needed something called a "graphing calculator" from TI. I went off and bought it. After looking at it for a little bit, I thought "hey, I wonder what HP has been up to in the calculator business." I looked on amazon, found that they were still making calculators. Appreciating my salary in comparison to finances of a struggling student, I plunked down the money for the top-of-the-line model: a 50g.

I have to admit that my initial experience with the 50g was not a happy one. I think I even wrote a long post here about it from the perspective of an enthusiast who was non-the-less completely new to RPL and the 48/49/50 series. But I persevered and pretty soon the 50g was my go-to calculator.

Then I made the mistake of discovering the HHC conference. My first one was 2009 or 2010. I was instantly hooked. I now own a 12C, 15C+ 15C-LE, 2 WP-34s, Both versions of the 48gii, a 48SX, 48GX, 28s, 30b, 20b, 2x 39gii, 39g, 40g, Prime, and probably others that I can't recall. They are scattered around my office, home desk and bedside table. I frequently grab one to do some calculation or play with some command I've just learned. My favorites are the wp-34s, 50g and prime. To me, those the top of the line in RPN, RPL, and modern calculators.

[Neve]

(09-14-2017 08:42 PM)Csaba Tizedes Wrote:  

(09-14-2017 01:32 PM)Neve Wrote:  What model are you using? What do you use it for, could you be more specific?

I'm a mechanical engineer - mainly fluid flow and process engineer. Our company (EWB Ltd.) works on ash handling technology field of power plant industry. My task is design process and preparing our solutions from scratch to contract signing (technically and partially financially).

Therefore during my work mainly stands lots of fluid flow calculations (eg. pressure drop on a pipeline during pneumatic conveying of various materials), lots of static calculations (loads on steel structures, pipe bridge's loads, loads on silo walls, silo tops, effect of earthquake, wind, etc...), equipment selection (direct selection from well known companies products or just estimating motor power requirements, selecting instrumentation, selecting vessel sizes, silo dimensions, unloading equipments under silos, compressors, blowers, dust filters, etc...).

Sometimes we have offering slurry systems, in this case same as above, but the material is high density slurry and we are using pumps instead of compressors.

Of course mainly we do the above on PC, but many little part of this procedure simply to calculate on a pocket calculator. For example if you must to select dust filter area, you can use "thumb rules" and you can estimate it with a calculator.

When I was a student (that was 1999~2004), I used a 15C, a 32SII and a 48SX. I have preferred my 32SII (because it was smaller than 48SX and have alpha LCD and EQN list which was better than 15C).

During years I noticed that for my design work no need to write long programs, only required to use a good solver. So my selection was a 35S, which is during a battery replacement deleted everything - so I trade it for something and I started to test many another calculator (the full TI83/84/89/TINspire line, old CASIOs, new CASIOs, HP 48GX, 49G, 48GII) - and it seems to me, my 32SII is the best, but I must to back to 35S again (because I have ~30-40 equations and ~4-5 little programs which is required for my job).

So my selection is a 35S, but I hate ->P and ->R is missing, and to start a program why we need to give the line number?!?! And yes, the greatest fault: why only one character variable names? Why - at least - one character + one number and we can write easily the Bernoulli equation - and many more.

And what about the weekends and free time? I prefer to use what I want: I have some CASIO, I like to play with them. I really like my fx-50F, this is the best well designed little calculator. I wrote on it many little programs (because it has 29 steps memory only).

I try to share stuffs in our Calculator Group (Calculator Google Group - Hungary), for example a short story about how to use SOLVE + indirect addressing on HP15C: Down to the Rabbit hole, a short article about the night sky temperature and freezing on a surface: Night sky temperature, and a story how I beloved to my dead 12C and how I prepared on it a SOLVE(i): SOLVE with indirect addressing on 12C.

So, you can guess, why I prefer mostly HP calculators.

Csaba

Very nice!
Yes, I do understand.
I've never owned any real calculators but an older HP41C (circa early 1980) bought in 1985, and another HP41CX 20 years ago that was stolen last year. Just bought another one that I'm actually waiting to arrive in the mail.
I also bought a HP50g 4 years ago, thinking it would be nice replacement and/or upgrade to the venerable 41. But, although a very nice calculator, a replacement it is not.

[Neve]

(09-14-2017 09:14 PM)David Hayden Wrote:  My first introduction to programmable calculators was around 1976 with a TI SR-52? Then I saw my brother's HP-25 and I was hooked. I convinced my dad to buy me a 29C for high school. A couple years later I bought a 41C. I clearly remember sitting down with the manual the day that I got it and reading it cover to cover, working through each example.

It's no exaggeration to say that calculators led to my career as a programmer.

In 1982(?) I traded in the 41C for a CV. Once I had the 41-CV I stopped paying attention to what was happening in the world of calculators. The 41CV met all my needs in glorious fashion. I vaguely recall hearing that someone had hacked the 41C to expose hidden instructions (aka synthetic programming) and I remember thinking that it was a really bad idea because what if HP changed the hardware or decode logic. Note to self: don't ever take your own advice.

Anyway the 41CV sat in my desk and I continued to use it whenever I needed a calculator - perhaps once every week or two. That was my only calculator (along with card reader, printer and math pac) for more than 20 years.

Then in 2007(?) my daughter's school said that she needed something called a "graphing calculator" from TI. I went off and bought it. After looking at it for a little bit, I thought "hey, I wonder what HP has been up to in the calculator business." I looked on amazon, found that they were still making calculators. Appreciating my salary in comparison to finances of a struggling student, I plunked down the money for the top-of-the-line model: a 50g.

I have to admit that my initial experience with the 50g was not a happy one. I think I even wrote a long post here about it from the perspective of an enthusiast who was non-the-less completely new to RPL and the 48/49/50 series. But I persevered and pretty soon the 50g was my go-to calculator.

Then I made the mistake of discovering the HHC conference. My first one was 2009 or 2010. I was instantly hooked. I now own a 12C, 15C+ 15C-LE, 2 WP-34s, Both versions of the 48gii, a 48SX, 48GX, 28s, 30b, 20b, 2x 39gii, 39g, 40g, Prime, and probably others that I can't recall. They are scattered around my office, home desk and bedside table. I frequently grab one to do some calculation or play with some command I've just learned. My favorites are the wp-34s, 50g and prime. To me, those the top of the line in RPN, RPL, and modern calculators.

I also started as a software and system engineer. And like you bought a 50g a couple of years back along a HP Prime. I returned the latter after a week playing with it. I was pretty disappointed with the non-RPN CAS. To me an HP is RPN or it's not an HP. I could do with the 50g cause at least you can choose between both modes. Not on the Prime (at least not for the CAS). Plus having to learn not one, but 2 programming languages put me off. I understand HP wanted to evolve and created RPL for the 50g and that line, but yet again another one for the Prime? Nope, not for me... And it's too classroom oriented. It's more of a high-end toy to me. No offense. It makes programming simple tasks complicated, I'd rather use my 41. I admit that it is a very nice looking machine, though. As I said in another post, it could have been a true replacement for the 41 line. HP decided otherwise...

[Arno K]

I usually use some kind of calculator as I own a helping school and teach maths and physics there, mostly I take one of the Casios (fx-991 plus) or whatever the pupil uses at school to show him or her how to perform the necessary steps on it, for sketching graphs and calculus stuff I take out my Prime on which I also have some self-written programs for special problems and for fun I now own a 50g.
My calculator history in fact began when I was bored, I noticed a Ti57 in a bookstore in 1977 and bought it, learned to program it and one year later began studying Maths and Physics. Since thet days I always owned programmable calcs, TI 58C, Casio PB100 (a crippled fx700) and a Sharp PC 1401 taught me Basic and first steps in Assembler, then there was a graphing one from Casio which I didn't own very long as the programming capabilities were too restricted, another Sharp, PC 1475 with more memory and double precision, then my first HP, a 28c, when the battery latch broke it was followed by a 48, both made fun, I learned RPL and really liked it. Nevertheless I traded it for a TI92 which later was expanded by the PLUS-module, a nice calculator, way too clumbsy, but assembler was fun here as I had learned 68000 Assembler for my Atari Mega ST. Then there was a HP49, I did not like the keys, so I sold and bought a 49G+, too bad that after some years two of its keys broke, I had learned a bit of SRPL on it and still have it in its pouch. After a break in using calculators, I had a lot of other things to do, I somewhere saw a picture of the Prime and its capabilities were impressing and so I bought it, the data sheet said something about RPN which I identified with RPL-programming on it, that was false, but it is a really good calculator. Since these days I am an active user of this forum and so finally came to the conclusion that I needed a 50g to play with it, at the moment I am brushing up my RPL.
Arno

[JimP]

Why do I use my HP calculator? (Which might at any one time be a Prime, 17bII+, WP34s, 50g, or 35s) Because fiddling my way through sin(29) = (as one has to do, say, on a TI-89 Titanium) is annoying beyond belief when all I want to do is press 29 SIN. Because entering a calculation where you do anything other than X enter Y [operator] is counter-intuitive to the point of self-inflicted baldness.

How do I use my HPs? With a great deal of appreciation. Daily, without actually spending as much time as I could, digesting all their capabilities. But I'd rather have a good HP (or, say, a DM or WP) than any of the other major brands.....

[Dave Britten]

(09-15-2017 04:35 AM)JimP Wrote:  (as one has to do, say, on a TI-89 Titanium)

The TI-89 is the gold standard for absolutely wonderful functionality and programming features, and totally awful experience for basic computation.

[EugeneNine]

I used to get magazines from the local library, the old computer gazette, popular electronics, etc (last 80's to '90 and '91). I'd read the reviews of the HP calculators, probably the 28s or something around that time. Moved to the city for college and a taught a transfer student how to use the scope and he showed me his new 48sx then I had to have one. Finally in 1992 after getting my first tax refund from my first job I had $350 so I went and bought the $329 48sx from Service Merchandise where the display model was under glass like expensive jewelry.
That calculator saved me in the various math classes being able to enter the equation and eval it to get the answer so I could see if I was doing it right on paper. I didn't have a good background in higher match since my school deemed me 'not college material' so I was behind some of the other students.
I ended up getting a job in IT and the 48sx was replaced with a windows CE 2.1 mobile.
A few years ago my so started getting interested in electronics and I was always using droid48 on my current phones so my original 48sx gets pulled out of the drawer every now and then when I get time to actually sit down and do some hands on work. So sadly it doesn't get used as much as I'd like it to.

[Marco Polo]

(09-14-2017 03:04 AM)Neve Wrote:  I was wondering what is your reason for using a HP calculator.
I have no particular reason for asking this besides my own curiosity.

I am a chemical process engineer and I need a reliable and flexible tool to be used from simple number crunching to very complex tasks.
Furthermore I need a unit of measure support in calculation.
I am using the 48/50 series since 1990.

[Zac Bruce]

I bought a HP Prime for university, not because I really needed a graphing calculator but it seemed like it was the "best" available. I also liked the idea of playing around with programming it, however I haven't even tried yet. It was useful for checking my work during my statistics class. Probably later on when I do econometrics classes I'll again find some use for it when I'm away from my computer studying. It's nice to be able to sit at a bigger desk and have it sitting right next to my workbook rather than having a screen and keyboard etc. all in the way, and having to look up and down all the time.

I had a bit of a play around with RPN on the Prime and found that I quite liked it. I did a bit of reading online and there seemed to be a passionate group of people supporting it's use. So when looking for a calculator that I would be able to use in exams I picked up a cheap secondhand 12C Platinum, one with a silver faceplate. I'm an accounting/finance student and it's the only RPN calculator that is allowed to be used in exams and so it fits well. I very quickly fell in love with the horizontal layout, the RPN, the feel of the keys...

Now I can't really imagine using anything else. I think in RPN, and find that it is much, much quicker to do what I need to do. The roll down, x<>y buttons, 1/x and the three percentage functions save me so much time. Especially being able to calculate a %age, record that, then+ or - it from the original number. Being able to do arithmetic on a few storage registers is also very welcome. I've bought and played around with other financial calculators; 19BII, 17BII and 10BII, and a Sharp EL series (don't have it in front of me now), and at some stage I'll buy at TI BA too, to compare.

I'm also enrolled in a self-paced pre-calculus course through the university, preparing me for further study. The obvious choice for me was to buy a 35s, so I use that occasionally when I need something the 12C doesn't have. I wish I could find a decent priced, good condition 15C!

But the 12C sits all the time on my desk. Now I use a regular 12C instead of platinum; I like the shorter digits in the display, and like that the screen flashes when I input something. At the moment it's not a 12C+, and IRR can seem to take forever, but otherwise it's not too slow. It's a good excuse to buy another one.

[Matt Agajanian]

As a calculator collector and programmer, since 1972, and programming since my SR-56 in 1976, my loyalty and respect for calculators is quite etched in stone. Although I enjoy and appreciate an excellent PalmOS, iOS,Win, or MacOS version of a classic, having and using the original calculator is, for me, the purest and most authentic experience.

Once you own, program, use, and care for Classic, Spike, Voyager, 41, 28, 48 series in their own pristine creations will you be able to truly appreciate their importance, significance, relevance and usefulness.

While a PDA, smartphone, desktop OS app is quite extraordinary, there is no comparison to the original calculator.

[Helix]

I can't live without a calculator. I have very often some calculations to do, for various reasons. I guess I think mainly with numbers…

My current calculator is the HP 50g. I like its power, its extreme flexibility, its big screen and infinite stack, which allow putting intermediate results on the stack, instead of storing them in registers or printing them. Another wonderful feature is list processing, which in many cases avoids writing a program. I rely heavily on list processing and stack operations.

I use also EMU48 on my laptop, even more often than my physical 50g. RPL is great in this case because it saves a lot of keystrokes, and that's especially convenient on a keyboard not designed for a calculator.

More specifically, I'm interested in astronomy and optics, as a hobbyist. Both domains are math-related. For example in optics, I'm working with a lens design software, but there are still calculations to do to choose the initial values, to verify the results, to understand what happens, etc.

I have also other scientific interests. For example, several years ago I've tried to learn and understand fractals and chaotic systems. Last year, I've begun to learn special relativity. In both cases, there are examples or exercises in the books which require a calculator.

I've tried the HP Prime emulator, but I fail to understand its logic. I find this calculator very difficult to learn. In comparison, the RPL logic is desperately simple.
For me, the HP prime is not a "HP calculator". It's a calculator made by HP. That's different!

I'm also interested in programming. I've discovered recently that writing C programs for the 50g is very easy with HPGCC 2.0 and the Programmers Notepad, so I've decided to learn C, just for my knowledge and my pleasure. C is a universal language which can be used in many devices, whereas HPPL is useful only for the HP Prime.

[Neve]

Quote:For me, the HP prime is not a "HP calculator". It's a calculator made by HP. That's different!

I'm also interested in programming. I've discovered recently that writing C programs for the 50g is very easy with HPGCC 2.0 and the Programmers Notepad, so I've decided to learn C, just for my knowledge and my pleasure. C is a universal language which can be used in many devices, whereas HPPL is useful only for the HP Prime.

I totally agree that the Prime is not an HP calculator at all. In its current state, it’s a piece of junk made by HP.

[pier4r]

Neve, may I request you to compact the many quotes in your message? They do not help readability.

Maybe leaving just the passage that you think is important or the first paragraph from every message.

[DA74254]

Actually not my first post here on the forums, but I've absolutely lost and cant recall neither my nick, nor my pwd, so a "new" username..

Anyway, Why, what and where:
I am a ships engineer (working in the engine room).
My very first HP was a 28s, which I bought used from a friend when studying to chief engineer in '92-93. I still have that one, though my collection has increased significantly.

At work (for fuel calculations and other "engineering" calculations) I shift between my Prime and the Free42 on my phone.
At home, for my hobbies (electronics, astronomy and general math "playing") I use any of my calcs in no particular order. I actually love the CAS on the Prime (even though it's not RPN), but use my 28s, 50G and 35s, whichever is closest to my hands when needed.

On my PC/Laptop I use Maxima (http://maxima.sourceforge.net/) and for astronomy MICA (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/software/mica/micainfo.php).

As a hobby, I frequently program all my calcs

[Eddie W. Shore]

My reason for using HP calculators is that I love mathematics, and calculators have always been fascinating and fun to use. I have a Masters Degree in Mathematics from Cal Poly Pomona. My primary use is mathematics and programming mathematical applications.

[HP67]

I bought an HP-67 in 1981 before going to college. I used it for a few decades. I remember aceing the Amateur Radio General and Advanced Class licenses in one sitting at Motorola with that calculator.

I bought a 12C on the way to buy a new car one day in the mid 1980s. I caught a problem with the financing and the calculator paid for itself about 30x. I still use the 12C for personal finance.

Much later I bought a bunch of other HPs. I use a 50g for programming astronomical algorithms and a 48G (haven't found a GX but would like to buy one in perfect condition) for desk use since it is much faster to use than the 50g.

I got a DM-16L recently and I use it very often at my job since I write and debug software written in assembler. I don't remember why but I bought the TI Programmer in the early 1980s and did not get the HP-16C. The TI was junk and fell apart after a few years of daily use but showed signs of sickness not long after the purchase. I have a friend who bought a 16C in the old days and still uses it. I hope my 16L will last.

[Trond]

I have to admit that what I mostly do with my HP calculators is very mundane: I add up student exam scores, and check their percentages. Sometimes I check some statistics, again related to student scientific lab work. Programming is something I sometimes do for fun.