SwissMicros Calculator Forum

Today I received the first of many parcels, all of the same shipment.
They all should have arrived last Tuesday, no idea where they got stuck.
Unfortunately it's rather unlikely all other parcels being delivered this Friday.
So, it'll be next week.

Kizuna wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:56 am

Sick. I've been waiting since I found out about it a couple of months ago, and am excited to see it. I also hope to get it as a late birthday present for my father

My dyslexia kicked in and I read that as "I also hope to get it as a birthday present for my late father"

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, but I was wondering does the DM42 have unit conversions and physical constants e.g. as per the original WP 43S intention? quote from WP 43S feature list:
More than 80 unit conversions provided (e.g. to and from dB)
More than 50 physical constants (state of CODATA 2014)
Thanks

Leechpool wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 01, 2017 1:34 am

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, but I was wondering does the DM42 have unit conversions and physical constants e.g. as per the original WP 43S intention? quote from WP 43S feature list:
More than 80 unit conversions provided (e.g. to and from dB)
More than 50 physical constants (state of CODATA 2014)

The DM42 is based on Free42. Check the features of Free42 and you know ...

Michael wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 01, 2017 1:38 am

Leechpool wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 01, 2017 1:34 am

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, but I was wondering does the DM42 have unit conversions and physical constants e.g. as per the original WP 43S intention? quote from WP 43S feature list:
More than 80 unit conversions provided (e.g. to and from dB)
More than 50 physical constants (state of CODATA 2014)

The DM42 is based on Free42. Check the features of Free42 and you know ...

But the DM42 does have some functionality on top of what it inherits from Free42, so the question is not entirely unjustified.

Still, the answer is no: like the HP-42S, Free42 and the DM42 offer no conversions other than degrees <-> radians; decimal degrees/hours <-> degrees/hours, minutes, and seconds; and rectangular <-> polar.

However, look for "Convert" in my HP-42S/Free42 program collection: http://thomasokken.com/free42/42progs/

Leechpool wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 01, 2017 1:34 am

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, but I was wondering does the DM42 have unit conversions and physical constants e.g. as per the original WP 43S intention? quote from WP 43S feature list:
More than 80 unit conversions provided (e.g. to and from dB)
More than 50 physical constants (state of CODATA 2014)

Please note that DM42 and WP43S are different SW using the same HW. Anything published about WP43S may have forstered DM42 but was and is in no way binding for DM42.

And before you ask: SW work for WP43S hasn't really started yet - not for lack of interest but for lack of staff (i.e. capable people with sufficient spare time willing to devote it to this SW project).

((Edited to correct two errors in a foreign language.))

Thanks for the answers. It's made things clearer.
I'm not a calculator expert....I "grew up" with calculators in the 80s. They were I think what would be called immediate action i.e. to get sin of an angle you type angle then hit sin, but to add things you'd still type 1+3=....I've started doing a lot of maths and physics in later life and have been immensely frustrated with the algebraic type entry of the general current offerings. It just stops me in my tracks. I did some research and decided to try RPL. It took a while, but I've now started to think in RPL and can do sums quite quickly again on my HP35S and HP34S.
I love what the team is doing with swissmicros and will definitely be buying a DM42 (and a WP43S if it makes it over the line).
Again, huge appreciation for all the work the team is doing.

Leechpool wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 01, 2017 12:05 pm

Thanks for the answers. It's made things clearer. [...]

I did some research and decided to try RPL. It took a while, but I've now started to think in RPL and can do sums quite quickly again on my HP35S and HP34S.

Hopefully I won't muddy the waters again for you but the HP-35S, WP 34S (is that what you meant?), HP-42S and DM42 are not RPL machines. They are RPN machines. If you want to have a closer look at RPL then you should probably be trying to get hold of an HP 50g or one of the older HP-48 series.

grsbanks wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 01, 2017 12:17 pm

Leechpool wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 01, 2017 12:05 pm

Thanks for the answers. It's made things clearer. [...]

I did some research and decided to try RPL. It took a while, but I've now started to think in RPL and can do sums quite quickly again on my HP35S and HP34S.

Hopefully I won't muddy the waters again for you but the HP-35S, WP 34S (is that what you meant?), HP-42S and DM42 are not RPL machines. They are RPN machines. If you want to have a closer look at RPL then you should probably be trying to get hold of an HP 50g or one of the older HP-48 series.

@Leechpool: The real differences between RPN and RPL show up in programming. Though there are some significant ones in manual operation as well. Feel free to gather information elsewhere - it's an almost religious topic, so flame wars are just around the corner.

Walter wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 01, 2017 1:09 pm

@Leechpool: The real differences between RPN and RPL show up in programming.

Exactly. RPL is basically a structured language with many high-level constructs such as definite and indefinite loops, local variables and much more. RPN machines are keystroke programmable, ie. programs are basically scripts that "press" the calculator's keys on your behalf, albeit with some rudimentary looping constructs.

Walter wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 01, 2017 1:09 pm

Though there are some significant ones in manual operation as well.

...The biggest one being the stack. RPL machines have a stack with a depth that is limited only by the available memory. Each stack level can contain any kind of object that the calculator knows how to manage, so that's not only real and complex numbers and matrices but also lists of objects, programs, libraries, entire directories, strings and more. Whenever values are used they are removed from the stack, and the stack shrinks again.

RPN machines have a fixed stack with (usually) 4 levels: X, Y, Z and T. As values are pushed onto the stack, those already present are pushed upwards with the original value in T being lost (replaced with the value in Z). When values are combined to provide a result in X, they are popped off the stack with the value in T being duplicated into Z. Some programs rely on this duplication to work and would need changing to work on RPL machines whose stacks shrink instead of duplicating downwards.