Posted on 03/27/2014 6:18:30 PM PDT by re_nortex
My recent post (my other car is a cdr) brought forth the best of the high-functioning geeks that inhabit this here space. Since the thread veered off (as they always tend to do) into general computer language humor, mostly dealing with Lisp, I got to thinking about RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) and the Hewlett-Packard calculators that were popular in my post-college days working in IT around 1971 or so.
Are there other FReepers that still like RPN over infix notation for math? My trusty old H-P has long since departed (wish I still had it) but I've found RpCalc to be a nice tool when I want to have an RPN calculator in GUI form.
Getting well-grounded in RPN paved the way later for tweaking /etc/termcap entries back in the day. The sheer joy of nudging a terminal into working was sublime:
cs=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dr cm=\E&a%r%dc%dY
It took a few days for me to get used to RPN. No problems after that.
I still have my HP-45. If I could get a battery pack, I’d still be using it!
I have a 48SX emulator app for my android phone. Almost as good as the real thing.
My 23 year old 48SX uses AAA cells. still works like a champ. The app for my phone is great when I’m out of the office.
I should have [but sadly didn’t] log in at the dawn of the computer age, so unfortunately that’s all Geek to me.
I didn’t forget the joy and satisfaction of RPN though.
I haven’t realized my potential [yet?] but I only drive standards... that’s gotta be worth a few geek points. :-]
I'm such an old stick-in-the-mud that I don't even call those new-fangled things "automatics", I call 'em what they are: non-standard horseless carriages. If it has fewer than three pedals to operate, tain't a car! :)
Why use a calculator? In 1971, I was expected to solve simultaneous equations using matrices.
I still have 3 HP 12C financial calculators which use RPN.
It’s really hard to do things backwards when using a regular calculator. I never quite trust the answer I get.
I've had an HP calculator ever since the HP-35 came out.
My 16C is sitting in front of me, gets use every other day or so.
Every handheld device I have (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) has the HP Calculator emulator app on it (an excellent program for around $15 as I recall).
In 1985, the first significant program I wrote in my recently-learned new language of "C" was a command-line and interactive RPN calculator, extended to have additional features for writing scripts, variable-depth stack, file I/O, etc. etc. It is portable and runs on Unix (where it was developed), Linux, Mac OS-X, MS-DOS, Windows, basically anything with a command-line interpreter and a C compiler. That's almost 30 years now with only trivial-to-no source changes in each new machine, too. :)
I can't use an algebraic calculator without first thinking in RPN, then converting to the damn "infix" style.
Nobody actually drives an automatic, they just go along for the ride. No wonder people [literally] text themselves to death. They wouldn’t be able to do that if they were... driving.
(Now back to the original topic - didn’t mean to threadjack.)
There is a free Android app called “Droid 48” that has much of the functionality of an HP48GX, including Reverse Polish Notation. I spent about $274 (about $500 in today’s dollars) in 1991 on the slightly inferior HP48SX.
If I were on the dating scene, that kind of talk would melt my heart, lol.
Excalibur is also a nice calculator download for Windows. I put it on any machine I use regularly.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/Excalibur.shtml
Every time I use a AOS calculator, I’m reminded of why I like my HP’s so much better.
The other thing that sucks rocks off the ground on every calculator other than HP’s is the lack of tactile feedback on the keys.
Still use my HP-41CV for most everything.
Loaning it to kids when they’ve forgotten their calculators for machining class is highly amusing. It’s one of the pleasures of my life to torment kids who think they know oh-so-much more about electronics and computers than old farts with an HP calculator.
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