ccastdd@prism.gatech.EDU (David Preston Dykes) (06/14/91)
Hello Again- Earlier, I posted that my 48sx drops keystrokes. Well I got about 15 responses to this, some from 28s owners asking for a summary.. Well here it is: Psychologists have a name for it I can't remember what it is... When you work so hard for something that you overlook its bad points, that seems to me to be what I got from alot of 48 owners. "[the functions are faster therfore overall productivity is increased..]" and so on, but all the people that wrote me conceded that the 48 drops keystrokes! These users also pointed out that my gripe about the lack of a seperate alpha keyboard was moot since I could always use a pc... This is an undisputed advantage. I guess to summerize for those of ya'll that asked about upgrading... I PERSONALLY don't use all the functions of the 48, and PREFER THE 28s. If you are a math stud and utilize the 48 to its fullest perhaps you can overlook the fact that it can't take input as fast as the 28. For those of you like me that find yourself doing alot of simple operations, DON'T switch. For me the i/o is hard to do without, but I have a hard time justifying slowing down for a test because I don't have to type in tetris. -dave
herman@corpane.uucp (Harry Herman) (06/15/91)
In <31342@hydra.gatech.EDU> ccastdd@prism.gatech.EDU (David Preston Dykes) writes: > I guess to summerize for those of ya'll that asked about upgrading... >I PERSONALLY don't use all the functions of the 48, and PREFER THE 28s. If you >are a math stud and utilize the 48 to its fullest perhaps you can overlook the >fact that it can't take input as fast as the 28. For those of you like >me that find yourself doing alot of simple operations, DON'T switch. > For me the i/o is hard to do without, but I have a hard time justifying >slowing down for a test because I don't have to type in tetris. > -dave First off, I also have OCCASIONAL problems with lost keystrokes. Most of mine occur because I try to start typing as soon as I turn the calculator on, and it does not see what I am typing while it is setting up all the installed RAM libraries. At least I assume that is the problem, since it has gotten worse with my adding more libraries. However, if you do lots of engineering or scientific equations with units, get an HP48SX. It is a lot nicer to type in the units along with the numbers and let the HP48 do all the unit conversion AS IT DOES THE MATH than to have to remember what all the units were on paper and then figure out what needs to be done to convert to the desired units after the fact. Also, the HP48 allows you to define your own units. For example, on the HP48: 5_in 1_s / 2_ft 1_s / + (5 in/sec 2 ft/sec + ) gives a result of 2.4166666667_ft/s And on the HP48SX, you can enter this with even fewer keystrokes than I shown here, since the divisor is 1. (Just thought I would mention it before people started sending me mail about it.) And the standard metric and english units are assigned to menu keys so you don't have to remember the exact spelling and case required, and you don't have to keep searching through the "Units" catalog like on the HP28. On the HP28, you would have to convert the 5 inches to .416666667 feet then add that to the 2 feet. I have had an HP28C, and HP28S, and an HP48SX, and am selling my HP28's because I find them difficult to use after using the HP48 (Hmmm HP28 can't do this, can't do that, where is this function on the HP28, ...). I also found the seperate alpha keypad on the HP28 to be more trouble than help, and that the alpha-shift on the HP48 is not that difficult to use (except that you have to turn alpha-lock off to use the cursor keys) and is easier than having to constantly turn the HP28 over to get from alpha-keypad to numeric keypad to alpha keypad when using the HP28 in the shop, where no tables are available to lay it open flat. I bought my HP48SX for the following reasons, in roughly priority order: 1) Units math 2) Kermit capability with PC for archiving data and restoring it later. 3) Equation writer (if only it was faster) 4) Additional RAM can be added if needed. Harry Herman herman@corpane