What Is RPN? Why Did/Does HP Use RPN? Learning RPN (1999)
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Re: What Is RPN? Why Did/Does HP Use RPN? Learning RPN (1999)
#2I like to repeat everywhere that HP48 series had code block syntax with arrow notation.
a a + >> (double function)
Re: What Is RPN? Why Did/Does HP Use RPN? Learning RPN (1999)
#3Every time I end up on a non-rpn calculator I struggle to convert the calculation I have in my head to use infix operators.
Re: What Is RPN? Why Did/Does HP Use RPN? Learning RPN (1999)
#4I can hardly use a non-RPN calculator. Wonderfully efficient for both simple and complex calculations.
Re: What Is RPN? Why Did/Does HP Use RPN? Learning RPN (1999)
#5I like to repeat everywhere that HP48 series had code block syntax with arrow notation. a a + >> (double function) Those machines were well before their time.. I hope the makers had fun, it's really sad it's gone from the market although one could say that ES6 in your smartphone browser is your modern day HP48 reincarnation.
My grandfather was a civil engineer and he had a number of different RPN HP calculators. He gave them to me when I was becoming interested in programming - a really exciting gift to explore.
Re: What Is RPN? Why Did/Does HP Use RPN? Learning RPN (1999)
#6It's simpler to implement RPN than algebraic notation with precedence. The latter requires an operation stack where operations are stacked until they encounter a lower precedence operator or the user presses =.
The user types less, the computer does a lot less.
I find it fun to think in RPN.
Re: What Is RPN? Why Did/Does HP Use RPN? Learning RPN (1999)
#7This is an odd explanation. II mean I t may be factually correct but has nothing to do with why people choose to use RPN calculators.
When calculating with an RPN calculator you do the calculation the same way you would by hand: “ok, figugpre out the numerator, now calculate the denominator, ok, do the division, ok now there’s a product, so do the multiplication, now add it to that fraction I just calculated...” except you don’t need to write down the partial results.
Not only is it fewer keystrokes and parentheses and such, but as you’re doing it as you naturally would anyway you’re less likely to get lost.
Re: What Is RPN? Why Did/Does HP Use RPN? Learning RPN (1999)
#8It took awhile to learn RPN in undergrad in electrical engineering. But, once you learn it, it is so much easier to solve problems and it is much more efficient. You never go back, and you are less likely to make errors entering in equations compared to your peers. This is important on timed exams.
I prefer to always use RPN. MacOS has an RPN mode on their calculator, which one can activate by pressing command + R. On my iPhone I have an app called i41CX+, which is an HP-41CX emulator. I highly recommend the app, as the developer is constantly updating it. It probably is the most updated app I have of all of my apps.
Also apparently there are some companies that recreate old HP RPN scientific calculators: https://www.swissmicros.com/products
Re: What Is RPN? Why Did/Does HP Use RPN? Learning RPN (1999)
#9It's simpler to implement RPN than algebraic notation with precedence. The latter requires an operation stack where operations are stacked until they encounter a lower precedence operator or the user presses =. The user types less, the computer does a lot less. I find it fun to think in RPN.
Yeah, it feels like the whole "why" is that RPN reflects how the machine works, so it's easier to build it that way.
Re: What Is RPN? Why Did/Does HP Use RPN? Learning RPN (1999)
#10It took awhile to learn RPN in undergrad in electrical engineering. But, once you learn it, it is so much easier to solve problems and it is much more efficient. You never go back, and you are less likely to make errors entering in equations compared to your peers. This is important on timed exams. I prefer to always use RPN. MacOS has an RPN mode on their calculator, which one can activate by pressing command + R. O…
My 'desktop' calculator on my Linux machines:
(yes, I know that xcalc has an HP mode, but I only learned of that mode long after I'd begun using GPRN.
The calculator on my Android phone (I 'disabled' the maker installed one):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.efalk.rpnc...
And I've still got my original 80's HP-15C.