[comp.sys.hp] HP 28S Numerical Display

billw@hpcvra.HP.COM (Bill Wickes) (07/20/88)

No, there is no way to make the HP-28 automatically display numbers with
digit separators.  The 28 generally does not display objects on the stack
in a form that you can't key into the command line.  Unlike more
primitive calculators, the 28 command line uses a parse-when-you're-done
approach rather than parse-every-key.  Thus it would be next to impossible
for the calc to insert separators as you go, and difficult to parse
them if they were manually entered (how do you interpret extra commas,
missing ones, etc.).  This does not preclude decompiling numbers with
commas, of course, but it was felt that showing something you can't
key in would be too confusing.

Bill Wickes
HP Corvallis