Conversation

Notices

1. Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Saturday, 26-Feb-2022 06:55:47 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅
   The CPU of this thing is still a 4-bit processor. It has a 20-bit address bus, but you address nibbles, not bytes.
   
   www.hpmuseum.org/saturn.htm
   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Saturday, 26-Feb-2022 07:21:11 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to
     When I started senior high I wanted my own programmable HP calculator, but not a graphing one. My parents gave me the HP-32S-II. The picture below is of the HP-32S 50th Anniversary Edition, but I don't know if there is any significant difference between the various submodels.
     
     I loved this one. Almost every key is a potential variable name or programming label, so in a way you have an alphanumeric keyboard. The keys are lower, rounder and softer than the three models mentioned above, and extremely comfy to type on.
     
     The batteries are three cell batteries and they lasted me all the way through secondary school without a single change.
     
     The screen is character-oriented, but not 7-segment or 11-segment, they're pixeled.
     
     The programming is keypress-oriented, not text files, but the display is proper words, not keycodes. It gets away with one shift key, as functions are in menus like on the 28.
   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Saturday, 26-Feb-2022 07:22:16 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to
     The compromise that goes into designing a device like this and the usability that comes out of it is really quite astonishing.
   • Borup (borup@hackers.town)'s status on Saturday, 26-Feb-2022 08:09:07 UTC Borup

     in reply to

     . lacke@libranet.de I still have my HP-32S. I cannot remember how to program it, though. An truthfully I don't use it anymore.
     I still love it though

     Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 likes this.
   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Saturday, 26-Feb-2022 08:12:21 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to
     Actually the step above 7-segment isn't just four diagonals, it also has the middle vertical and splits other segments, so it's ... 16 segments? Anyway, this one has neither, so that's a tangent on the tangent. =)
   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Saturday, 26-Feb-2022 08:13:49 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to

     • glyn
     @underlap Unfortunately as an HP and RPN zealot I must inform you that TI is the enemy. 😇
   • glyn (underlap@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 26-Feb-2022 08:13:50 UTC glyn

     in reply to

     @clacke I still have my childhood TI-58, complete with manuals and box. I forget how, but you can hack it to view its internal program memory, which was fun.

   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Saturday, 26-Feb-2022 08:19:53 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to

     • glyn
     (don't tell anyone, but when I need a calculator in a pinch I use bash arithmetic, tcl expr or bc, never dc ... I have fallen)
     
     @underlap
   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Saturday, 26-Feb-2022 08:46:54 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to
     Of course I had to start playing with dc and I discovered that busybox dc is broken!
     
     Correct behavior:
     $ nix run nixpkgs.bc -c dc -e '1 2 3nnnf' 321Busybox behavior:
     $ nix run nixpkgs.busybox -c dc -e '1 2 3nnnf' 3 3 3 3 2 1