biometal@watever.waterloo.edu (Andrew MacLean) (03/06/90)
WOW!!!! HP looks like they have created a great machine! Congrats! BUT, this is another one of those FIRST releases questions where, "Do I buy it now, or wait to see if they ugrade the ROM in the near future?" As people who bought the HP28C know all to well, once you have spent the money, it is DARN hard to get rid of an outdated machine! My question is this: (I would appreciate comments from HP people!) I want VERY much to buy this new calculator, but I am afraid that it may have some serious bug(s) that will be fixed within a year. Should I buy now, or wait for a year for things to settle down? Is HP still developing the software, and may therefore have a new release in a short period of time? UGH!!! SIGH!!! Decisions, decisions? Also, when do you think that the HP48SX will become available here in Canada? Thanks for any comments. Andrew MacLean Systems Design Engineer University of Waterloo
billw@hpcvra.CV.HP.COM (Bill Wickes) (03/08/90)
Yes the HP-48SX has bugs, although the only one of any consequence that we know about is the 8x8 matrix inversion bug that Dan Allen alluded to. (By the way, this bug only applies to the INV command; you can still invert a matrix of any size by dividing it into an identity matrix). HP's policy regarding bugs in early releases is (remains) to make the customer happy. If you find that a software bug seriously impairs your use of the calculator, you can have it repaired under warranty. Most people find that early release bugs turn out to be a minor problem, and never need to have any upgrade. This is a different situation that that of the 28C vs 28S. HP viewed that change as a model change (there was M$ worth of R&D involved) rather than a software upgrade. Unfortunately, customers didn't see it that way because of the near-identical appearance and same price of the two, so there was a lot of bad feelings on the outside and regret on the inside.
malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) (03/08/90)
In article <21580005@hpcvra.CV.HP.COM> billw@hpcvra.CV.HP.COM (Bill Wickes) writes: >HP's policy regarding bugs in early releases is (remains) to make the customer >happy. If you find that a software bug seriously impairs your use of the >calculator, you can have it repaired under warranty. Most people find >that early release bugs turn out to be a minor problem, and never need to >have any upgrade. Not to mention the bugs that are beneficial; the bug in the first 41Cs that allowed you do STO IND <reg> into program memory comes to mind -- it opened the way to synthetic programming much faster than would have been otherwise possible. My 41C has the full set of bugs, and I wasn't about to send it to HP and get them fixed. Sean Malloy | "The Crystal Wind is the Navy Personnel Research & Development Center | Storm, and the Storm is Data, San Diego, CA 92152-6800 | and the Data is Life." malloy@nprdc.navy.mil | -- _Emerald Eyes_, D.K. Moran
news@cc.ic.ac.uk (USENET News System) (03/08/90)
this early, is it? ALL products come with a few bugs in the first version - if you want it NOW, you have to live with it. VERY FEW readers here have a 48 so far, and you can hardly expect HP to say "don't buy our product folks", now can you? In fact the HP48SX has been exceptionally well tested, and the only serious bug reported so far is that inversion of large matrices (over 7x7 I believe) with the INV (1/x) key gives the wrong result. Even that is not a serious problem, since you can do a division instead. There are a few silly mistakes in the manuals, but they are obvious. I would say BUY IT NOW if you want it now. Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz, Space Physics, Imperial College, London BITNET: MIER @ SPVA.PH.IC.AC.UK Disclaimer: neither my employer nor I claim anything, but the above is my honest opinion. From: umapd51@suna.cc.ic.ac.uk (W.A.C. Mier-Jedrzejowicz) Path: suna!umapd51 D D an honest opinion
taber@pstjtt.enet.dec.com (03/08/90)
I got mine yesterday. Normally I'd have waited, but having independant
reviewers on the net persuaded me to move. This may become a classic
case-study for marketing people... what a great idea!
I'm very happy with the complex number handling (compared to the 42S or
*ugh* the 41 with the Advantage module.) I'm sort of sad about the
production quality of the manuals -- they feel like they were printed on
paper towels from a public restroom.
I'm ECSTATIC about the return to the single keyboard/vertical
form-factor -- I had serious fears that the new machine would be
horizontal or (*worse*) a clamshell.
The more I play with it, the more I'm sure I made the right choice in
skipping the HP28 series...
I don't think the comment about HP moving away from RPN is fair based on
this machine. It clearly uses RPN. The algebraic notation seems to be
limited to the places it makes sense -- like the Equation Writer. (It
wouldn't be much of an equation writer if it required you to re-write
an equation into RPN.) But for anyone used to RPN on the '41 or '42 the
machine works just as expected.
The only problem I had was that mine was delivered with only three of
the four rubber feet in place... I hope I can clear that up without
having to send the calculator back. (Which translates to "I hope I can
get it cleared up without having do something ugly since I'm not about
to send it back for a stupid rubber foot....)
>>>==>PStJTT
Patrick St. Joseph Teahan Taber
Mail address: Nahhhhh, you don't want to send me mail....lishka@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu (Chris Lishka (a.k.a. Fish-Guts) ) (03/10/90)
biometal@watever.waterloo.edu (Andrew MacLean) writes: >WOW!!!! HP looks like they have created a great machine! Congrats! You can say that again ;-) >My question is this: (I would appreciate comments from HP people!) > I want VERY much to buy this new calculator, but I am afraid that it may > have some serious bug(s) that will be fixed within a year. Should I buy > now, or wait for a year for things to settle down? Is HP still developing > the software, and may therefore have a new release in a short period of time? I just picked up the hp48sx. Mine must be an early machine, because it is revision A. Included with the manuals were some photocopied sheets, one of which included a list of known bugs, although there didn't seem to be many and the one's that were there were pretty specific. In addition, there was a "workaround" for each bug, although not all solutions were that helpful. I would post the bug list, but it is currently at home. Email me if you want more specifics. One interesting thing was that the bug lists mentioned revisions from A to D. I would also be interested in what HP's policy is on providing upgrades. Is it possible (with a little bit of extra cost) to send the calculator in to get the ROM's swapped (actually, this would likely be a motherboard swap)? Although none of the bugs that were mentioned would really affect me, I plan on having this machine a loooong time and would like to iron out some of the problems in the future (of course, I thought I would have the hp28 for a long time, and then HP released the wonderful 48sx!). .oO Chris Oo. -- Christopher Lishka 608-262-4485 "Somebody said to me, `But the Beatles were Wisconsin State Lab. of Hygiene antimaterialistic.' That's a huge myth. John lishka@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu and I literally used to sit down and say `Now, uunet!uwvax!uwslh!lishka let's write a swimming pool'."--Paul McCartney
ln63wkp@sdcc4.ucsd.edu (Viet Ho) (03/13/90)
I need to know if the 48SX can directly be used as a
small terminal and not just Kermit. Our 3B2's don't have
kermit on them and there's no outside connections. All
I want to do is send some ascii files thru using "cat >infile"
on AT&T Unix. With the serial kit, can't I just plug in
to an 9600 baud terminal connector (RS232 of course) and
log into my unix account thru the HP?
-Viet
vho@ucsd.edu
There's got to be a way. Aren't there low level routines
that can be called?
lishka@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu (Chris Lishka (roommate of Lord Greystoke) ) (03/13/90)
billw@hpcvra.CV.HP.COM (Bill Wickes) writes: >Yes the HP-48SX has bugs, although the only one of any consequence that we >know about is the 8x8 matrix inversion bug that Dan Allen alluded to. (By >the way, this bug only applies to the INV command; you can still invert a >matrix of any size by dividing it into an identity matrix). There is one other known bug that I consider serious: using the KGET to get a zero-length file from a PC (via the serial cable) will clear the machine! Fortunately, one can get around this by using RECV instead. Also, I believe this is only in revision A (forgive me if I have gotten the details wrong; my bug list is not in front of me). >HP's policy regarding bugs in early releases is (remains) to make the customer >happy. If you find that a software bug seriously impairs your use of the >calculator, you can have it repaired under warranty. Most people find >that early release bugs turn out to be a minor problem, and never need to >have any upgrade. My hat is off to HP! I don't think the bugs will stand in my way, although it is nice to know that HP will replace the machine if it does. .oO Chris Oo. -- Christopher Lishka 608-262-4485 "Somebody said to me, `But the Beatles were Wisconsin State Lab. of Hygiene antimaterialistic.' That's a huge myth. John lishka@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu and I literally used to sit down and say `Now, uunet!uwvax!uwslh!lishka let's write a swimming pool'."--Paul McCartney
rayde@hpcvia.CV.HP.COM (ray_depew) (03/14/90)
Yes, the HP-48SX makes a great "dumb terminal." All it needs is someone to write and post (hint hint) the code for it. On the last page of the I/O menu are the commands XMIT, STIME, SBRK and BUFLEN. These are rudimentary commands that let you talk "plain ASCII" to any RS-232 device. If you have the right convertor boxes, you can even talk to RS-485 and RS-422 devices. Ray Depew HP InkJet Components Operation "An original idea? How quaint!"