From: 93jay@williams.edu (Jonathan Young)
Subject: Re: HP95 scientific calculator
Organization: Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 06:06:08 GMT

>>In article <1992Nov18.055852.23273@williams.edu> 93jay@williams.edu (Jonathan Young) writes:
>>>I have long been frustrated by the built in calculator on the HP95,
>
>>perhaps a way to save and recall formulas as well.
>
>I agree with this, and perhaps a number of built in formulas ala the 48
>equation library. This with the costants would make a very useful reference
>guide as well as a powerful lab tool.
>
Ok yeah, I think this would be good, I have been trying to borrow a 48
for a while now but strangely enough the people who own them keep
using them. It was suggested that constants/formulas could be stored
in a user editable 123 worksheet. I think that these should be
editable from within the calc. application itself. However I suppose
that it might be desirable to edit a master list for labs/courses on a
desktop and distribute that to the individual HPs.

>>Although I don't have one, I'm know other people have an HP IR
>>printer.  Built in support for that would be nice.  All there is right
>>now is a PrintScreen driver.  Maybe a PostScript driver too.
>
>
>The IR print screen utility is very useful, though it is only a screen dump
>I don't think it should be built into a specific application, this is something
>that should really be part of 95Buddy or a stand alone facility for all
>applications.

True, but it looks very easy to allow at least stack dumps/receives
over the IR port. And hey, someone might need it. It's definately
something for final gloss though, I won't worry about it for a while.
>
>>I don't ask for much, only Mathmatica in my pocket :-).
>
>Have you had a play with Derive 2.5 on ROM card for the 95?? This may not
>be quite as powerful as Mathmatica, but its the best you will get on a 
>pocket computer currently. I doubt our friend has either the time or 
>inclination to go to this level.
>
That's true, and one thing I have noticed is that I never reach for
Mathmatica, Maple Theorist or MathCAD unless I need to do something
*very* complex. I doubt I could even approach Derive's power, but I
hope to fill in a few gaps.

>The things I would like to see are 64bit binary, Hex and Octal with standard
>operations (AND OR NOT EOR etc), more scientific functions, a stack that
>operates in the same fashon as the 28/48 calcs. A built in equation library
>with the same facilities as the 48SX equation library, including the periodic
>table, and more conversion factors, as provided on the 28S.
>
Ok this stuff is all certainly possible. I'm not sure what you mean by standard
operations. Is this part of the RPL programmability? 

One interface note. I think a large part of HP's built in calculator's
problems lie in its interface. The menuing system is a real pain and
slows down the user's ability to operate the calculator severely. I
was thinking that mapping the most common functions to keys would be a
fairly efficient interface that would prevent the proliferation of 5
item menus which seem to have no bearing on each other. Menu input
would still be possible, to avoid confusion but (assuming this ends up
as shareware rather than freeware) registered users would get a ...
Key Overlay! HP listed their recommended source for HP95 overlays
which shouldn't be too expensive. Also a postscript version would be
bundled with the thing for folks of the roll your own mentality.

Too impractical? Actually I think it might do wonders for
registrations although I'm not looking to make money off this by any
means.

>
>><-:(= Anthony Stieber	anthony@csd4.csd.uwm.edu   uwm!uwmcsd4!anthony
>
>Andy Smith

Jonathan Young