In article ,
clifto wrote:

m II wrote:
I don't like the direction the company has taken. My experiences with
some of their printers have soured me on the 'new' HP. I loved their
products and philosophy until the end of the HP 41 era. They've turned
into just another mass marketer, with all the cheap plastic trappings
that accompany that mindset. .

I just never could follow a mindset that expresses an equation as

one enter one plus two [RPN]

when it's meant to be

one plus one equals two [Algebraic]

There was quite the debate on the relative merits of RPN versus
Algebraic entry in the engineering world 10 or 15 years ago. What
settled it (at least for me) was the observation that the example RPN
programs in the user guides for such things as mortgage calculation took
only 2/3 the strokes as the corresponding Algebraic programs. These
programs are written by expert programmers who work for the respective
manufacturers, so it's a fair comparison.

Aside from the technical advantage, there is the fact that people don't
try to borrow my calculator a second time.

But RPN is dead in the market - HP no longer makes RPN calculators, or
perhaps has one holdout, soon to vanish. Actually, the 12C (financial)
is still sold.

Joe Gwinn, who has something like ten RPN calculators, and hopes they
will last longer than he will