[comp.sys.handhelds] Other HP handhelds

tim@looking.on.ca (Tim Tyhurst) (02/23/90)

First of all, I agree that the traffic in this group doesn't warrant renaming
or splitting.  However, it would be nice if people would indicate (either
in the subject line or early in the article body) the machines to which
the posting is specific.

In article <6803@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> ccsteve@rivendell.Ucdavis.EDU (Steve Nichols) writes:
>	I would like to see more postings about HP's older machines.  Does
>anyone out there still write programs for the HP 41, 65, 67, 71, or 75?
>Am I the only one with an interest in these machines?

No, but we are clearly in the minority.  I really don't do very much in
terms of programming my 75 and 41 anymore, but there are still times
when one of them is the best machine for a particular job.  In fact,
I just wrote a quick chess clock for the HP75 a couple of days ago.
I'd be happy to pull out some of my older stuff, if anyone is interested.

On a slightly different tack, does anybody still have an HP28C?  I'd
appreciate it if someone could fill me in on the major differences
between it and the 28S, and whether or not there is any hope at
all in upgrading a 28C to a 28S.

-- 
Tim Tyhurst          Looking Glass Software, Waterloo, Ontario.
tim@looking.on.ca               (519) 884-7473

bmaraldo@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Commander Brett Maraldo) (02/23/90)

In article <100544@looking.on.ca> tim@looking.on.ca (Tim Tyhurst) writes:
>On a slightly different tack, does anybody still have an HP28C?  I'd
>appreciate it if someone could fill me in on the major differences
>between it and the 28S, and whether or not there is any hope at
>all in upgrading a 28C to a 28S.

	I used to own a 28C.  I had it for about 1 year, then the S came out
and I quickly sold it.  I bought a 28S about 6 months ago.  There are a
number of differences between the C and S.  This is from memory and not
all of the differences are important to me so forgive me if I miss something.
	I will explain features of the S and the C and when I do so these
features will be understood not to exist on the other machine, unless otherwise
stated.  The S will dump the LCD display to a string object which can be
stored and manipulated as such.  This enables you to store LCD displays (plots)
and even plot on plots (ie. you can have any number of functions plotted
on the same axis).  The S has a programmable menu called the CUSTOM menu.
With it you can design your own menu of commonly used objects (one 
application is to put all the common math functions you might use in
a custom menu so it will be easier to use your S as a scientific calculator).
The S has a heirarchical (sp?) directory system that can be traversed like
a UN*X directory system.  You can write a CD and CD.. command that
will do the same things as on UN*X.  The S is about 2 times as fast as the
C, but you can easily modify the C to be as fast as the S.  The S can
be programmed to run in ultra-fast mode where is will be about 4 times
as fast as a stock C.  The S has 32K of memory, which is important for
working with non-trivial mathematical problems (I used to run out of
memory on my C when I would go do differentiate certain non-trivial
equations).  I think the S corrected a number of bugs that existed in the
C, but I am not sure what they were (I think that the lightyear unit on
the C was wrong).  
	I can't really remember what other diferences there are.  These
are the differences that are most important to me and that I find make
the S a significantly more useful machine than the S.

Brett L Maraldo


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