[mdlug] HP-11C emulator

[Aaron Kulkis]

Michael Corral wrote:
> I don't know if any of you have seen this, but it's extremely cool:
> 
> http://nonpareil.brouhaha.com/
> 
> It's a program (for Linux) that emulates a lot of HP calculators,
> including the 11C (my favorite), 12C, 15C, and more.
> 
> Screenshot of it in HP-11C mode on my Fedora system:
> http://home.comcast.net/~micorral/hp11c.png

I've been unsuccessful in my search for software which emulates
modern HP calculators (circa 1986 HP-28C/HP-28S and the later
developments HP-40/48/49 (SX/GX/whatever).

I did find one, but it usually crashes whenever you try to do
an operation....

So finally, I just broke down and bought an HP-50G. $150.

VERY nice.  From what I understand, HP-49 series was
kinda junky.... lousy rubber-chiclet keypad (I seem to
recall seeing those, and the mere appearance screamed
"cheap").  The HP-50 is very much like the HP-48, except
a much faster CPU, more memory, SD card slots, and USB
port, and unfortunately, the reduction in size of the
enter-key from 2-columns wide to a single column :-(

Other annoyance with the HP-50...the HP-28's and HP-40's
had two manuals, both high quality (spiral wire bound, so
that they would lay flat on a table), the first being
something of an introductury "primer" which would get
you started with each of the major functional groups
within the software collection (statistical package,
calculus package, equation-writer, equation-solver
(numeric and symbolic), equation library,  unit conversion
library, etc.)  The 2nd manual was a complete catalog
of all several-hundred built-in operations and functions,
as well as documenting system flag values and the use
of defined memory addresses.

Now, the 1st manual is traditionally bound, is rather
poorly written, even though 95+% of the software inside
is just is a recompile of the same source code that was
on the HP-28 and HP-40 series, and so the manual didn't
even need to be rewritten!  The 2nd manual isn't even
included, other than as a PDF file, which, of course,
is formatted for 8.5 x 11, instead of the much more
handy size of the 28/40 manuals.  In this respect, I
am completely bummed out, because the 2nd manual is
what makes the calculator truly powerful in the hands
of its owner.  -- perusing it electronically is just not
the same as having it physically in my hands.

ARRRRGH!


Nevertheless, the actual calculator itself is
very good -- the keyboard is back to the quality
of the HP-11C/12C/13C/15C/28C/28S/40S/40SX, the
graphical screen is the largest ever.  The graphing
package now does 3-d, including with parametric
equations (such as x, y, and z are all functions
of some other variable, say t for time)...it now
handles rational values (integer fractions) as
integer fractions (of unlimited precision to the
limits of memory!) when doing ANY operation as
long as the rational value doesn't mix with any
floating-point value (ie. fp + rf => fp).