Are RPN calculators still made? I saw recentlly a TI calculator that had an enter button, but no = button. Is that RPN. The card that the bubble was glued on trumped the wonders of the calculator, but nothing on it said or even suggested RPN. I find “standard” calculators much harder to use. On an RPN machine, I can do a computation on the fly, while on a standard one I either have to plan in advance or reenter the numbers several times.
I have a free RPN calculator called co-calc installed on my computer.
TI has never made an RPN calculator. Hewlett-Packard still makes them. Current models include the HP-12C, HP-33S, and HP-50G+. The HP-12C has been in production for over 25 years. That’s longer than any other calculator that I’m aware of.
As far as I know, only Hewlett-Packard makes them. I have a 32SII that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I thought only their graphing calculators supported it nowadays, but apparently I was wrong. That 33S isn’t so expensive.
My HP RPN finally died a few years ago. Very durable product that survived a lot of falls off the lab table. The new one looks fragile or I might plunk down for one…
Another wonderful RPN calculator HP made was the 28S, which opened like a book. Interestingly, this calculator used a FORTH-like version of RPN. That is, the Enter key performed DUP, there was a SWAP, and there was no “stack lift enable/disable”, which was a dumb way of implementing RPN that always tripped me up.
I have a 15C that I have owned since December of 1984. 22 years, changed batteries once.
I’ve found that using an algebraic calculator after years of RPN is like trying to drive a car without power steering. Sure you can do it, but you sure don’t want to.
RPN rocks on the calculator. I was surprised how easy it was to switch into a stack-based frame of mind when using it, and the macro capabilities are amazingly powerful. RPN is an especially useful programming interface on a calculator, because it lets you accomplish so much with so few keys and only two thumbs. It makes me wince when I try to enter algabraic equations (or, God forbid, its verbose infix-style macro code) on a TI calculator.
I loooove my old HP48GX. I just wish it wasn’t such a brick. I keep getting excited when HP announced newer and newer models, but when they come out they’re just as ungainly. I can’t figure it out - my Palm Pilot III had more power and more memory, and while large by today’s standards, fit much better into a pocket than my HP.
In the 6-7 years I used a Palm, not one calculator program for it came close to RPN. There were some stack-based calc apps, but they all sucked. I thought it would’ve been a no-brainer.
Then what’s with this TI calc that has an enter button and no = button?
The whole thread is interesting. I have a 28C and it is nice but is too big to stick in my shirt pocket.
Since there seems to be unanimous agreement that RPN is better (and I obviously agree) why has the other kind taken over the world? Except, I guess for the posters to this thread. I guess I will look for a 33.
It is a shame the Windows calculator doesn’t have a switch to change modes.
The enter key tells the calculator to evaluate the expression that you just typed in. Like “sin(45)*100+42<enter>”.
TI did a very good job of marketing their calculators to secondary schools and teachers. They also supported their calculator division, unlike Hewlett-Packard, which closed their Corvallis calculator operation after the release of the HP-48GX.
I’ve been using a Palm for less than two years (after switching from the HP 200LX), but I have found some RPN calculators for it:
[ul]
[li]RPN Calculator, by Felipe Bergo. Very basic functions, including trig and exp, and is based on the GNU license.[/li][li]Infinity PowerOne, from infinitysw.com. The algebraic version came with my Palm Zire 71, but I understand that a version you can purchase supports RPN.[/li][li]Free42, from Thomas Okken, emulates the HP 42. I just downloaded this yesterday, and it seems pretty good, but the default skin sucks, and it takes three or four seconds to start up.[/li][/ul]
Many people would love to see Hewlett-Packard put the HP-15C back into production. It was a great little shirt-pocket sized programmable RPN calculator. They sell for big bucks on eBay.
One of the problems with Hewlett-Packard, and many other American corporations, is that they have outsourced most of their manufacturing. That lowers product quality to what the bidders can supply. In the old days, there was a tight integration between design and manufacturing, and the manufacturing engineers designed and built innovative production facilities to meet the product’s unique requirements.
Except for the fact that the battery hatch would crack adn then you’d have to tape or glue it into place. It was nice to have the separate alphabetic keyboard, but the tiny screen wasn’t all that condusive to graphing.
Is this any different than the 48G/GX and subsequent models? I never had any difficulty switching from the 28 to the 48, or using my officemate’s 49. And I use the “Enter as DUP” feature all the time to keep an interim answer on the stack while continuing to perform the successive calculation, allowing me to easily back up without having to store it as a value.