
Wall Street's Cult Calculator Turns 30 - hornokplease
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703841904576257440326458056.html
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sigil
Guess I'm a little too young for the 12c. I grew up on the 28S.

Concatenative languages like the HP RPN offer a nice gentle introduction to
programming. In fact, I'll go further and say they _trick you into programming
without even realizing it_. One minute you're working through a calculation
for the Nth time via the same series of button presses, the next minute you're
recording those button presses into a new user-defined button, and moving on
to some higher level calculation. I've seen people do this and think they're
"just calculating," when in fact they're doing bottom-up programming.

Here's an example if you're not familiar with HP RPN. Say you're performing a
repetitive computation like finding the euclidean mean with X and Y already
sitting on the stack. These are the buttons you push:

    
    
      DUP * SWAP DUP * + SQRT
    

You can turn this into a program by recording the same set of button presses,
then giving it a name:

    
    
      << DUP * SWAP DUP * + SQRT >> 'L2NORM' STO
    

On the 28S and later calculators, there's a menu that holds stored programs.
Now you just navigate to that menu and hit the button under 'L2NORM'.

This natural progression from calculation -> programming is something I miss
in other languages. I like the _idea_ of concatenative languages [1] like
Factor, Joy and Forth, but hesitate to embark on anything more than trivial
programming with them; their terseness can be even more extreme than Lisp's.

[1] <http://concatenative.org/wiki/view/Front%20Page>

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joe_bleau
They missed the best geeky part: the most recent 12C (or 12C+ as it's known
among the enthusiast crowd) is a hardware redesign, using a modern 32 bit ARM
based CPU (Atmel AT91SAM7L128), very similar to the 30B and 20B. But rather
than risk introducing firmware errors with a code rewrite, the 12C+ emulates
the original CPU and runs the original microcode. It's much faster, of course.

I think they've even released an SDK for it, if you're into reflashing with
your own code...

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bitwize
RPN saved my butt in chemistry class.

I was taking the final, and the professor lent me his calculator. It was an HP
RPN, and he said he didn't know how to use it. I figured it out quickly enough
-- as a computer guy I know how stacks work -- and went to town banging out
calculations on that thing in record speed.

Since speed is an essential part of test-taking, and I was notoriously slow at
doing calculations, I was at real risk of flunking the exam and the course. As
it is I saved my bacon. Thank you, HP! Thank you, RPN!

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quanticle
>"The financial calculator is headed the way of the >wristwatch: a no-longer
necessary device that users >carry because of sentimentality, vanity or an
>unwillingness to change,"

I disagree with the wristwatch comparison. I'm in my twenties, and I still
rather like having a watch. Checking a wristwatch is much, much, more
convenient than pulling a cellphone out of a pocket, activating its display,
and reading the time. Especially when outdoors, I'd much rather rely on a
wristwatch for timekeeping than a cellphone. I can drop a cellphone. I can't
drop something that's tied to my wrist.

~~~
lukeschlather
Sounds like you agree with the comparison but not the conclusion. Calculators,
like wristwatches, are instant-on, very durable, and can go through years of
use without charging the batteries.

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quanticle
I guess I'm really disagreeing with the validity of the analogy. I don't think
the situation with wristwatches is analogous to calculators. Wristwatches
still retain many functional advantages over cell phones (e.g. hard to drop,
always on, etc.) whereas calculators do not. In other words, a smartphone can
completely subsume the functions provided by a standalone calculator. A
smartphone cannot yet do the same for wristwatches, and hence the analogy is
flawed.

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pg
I love the HP-12C. I never realized till now it had a cult following.

Imagine how great it seemed when it was not only a beautiful thing, but also
the last world in technology.

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gaius
I have a 17B-II, just preferred the upright form-factor. Beautiful little
machine, does everything you need without frivolous bells and whistles. Also a
28S, just because :-)

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kwantam
Hackers might delight more in the HP-16C "Computer Scientist" calculator[1].
It can be set to perform calculations on variable word sizes up to 64 bits,
which is amazingly useful when you're working with processors that use non-
standard word sizes (e.g., the 29x22 bit fixed-point ALU from a chip I worked
on for a few years). It's also a great way to teach someone to program
assembler, since it's programmable in a rudimentary RISC style.

Full disclosure: I'm something of an HP calculator nerd. I have an 11C, a 15C,
a 16C, a 32SII, and a 42S. Once you get used to RPN, you will never want to go
back to algebraic calculators.

[1] <http://www.hpmuseum.org/hp16.htm>

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joezydeco
I'm a 42s diehard, but the Free42 app for iPhone has gotten so good that I'm
not using the real one anymore (and it's larger than the iPhone which is off-
putting)

Still, another great calculator for programmers. The extra fn keys are great
for working with large hex values.

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SkyMarshal
Speaking of smart phone HP calc apps, don't forget the free Droid48:

<http://www.appbrain.com/app/droid48/org.ab.x48>

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ubasu
Excerpted without comment:

 _It runs on an unconventional operating system called "Reverse Polish
Notation,"_

Now I need to go and dig up my 15c

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lukifer
Ironically, the usage would have been valid as a non-compound term if it had
been describing the person rather than the device:

 _To use the calculator, one must adopt an unconventional operating system
called "Reverse Polish Notation"._

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monk_the_dog
Here's a quick timeline of what I've used for calculators:

HP 28C (<http://www.voidware.com/calcs/hp28c.htm>): Mid 80's through mid 90's

Emacs calc mode: Mid 90's through mid 2000's

orpie (<http://pessimization.com/software/orpie/>): Mid 2000's through present

If you're an old HP calculator user go check out orpie. It's an RPN calculator
for the console. It doesn't appear to be actively developed. Still, it has
already got everything I want in a calculator and works very, very well.

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wiredfool
I love my 28S bought used 20 years ago for $100.

When I got my first real engineering job, you could tell the age of the
engineer by the era of HP calculator on their desk (or frequently in their
hand). One guy had one with red 7 segment lights and 4 slots in the back, lots
of guys had the engineering version of the 12, I had my 28S, and a couple
young-uns had the 48. There was one guy with a TI, but he didn't last long.

I find I'm a lot better with the 28 with it's 3 or 4 visible stack items than
the single visible one of the smaller calculators. But it is a lot bulkier,
and i teats batteries. I think I've had to replace them 5 or 6 times in the
time I've owned the thing.

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gcv
The 12c is pretty nice — it maintains the classic HP calculator look and still
has the really nice buttons. That said, the HP48 remains the best calculator
ever. The m48+ emulator for the iPhone is a great substitute for the real
thing.

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pbsurf
And for Android, Droid48 (my second most used app after the browser).

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chollida1
I own the HP 48G. This was the calculator of engineer's when I was in high
school and university.

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nhebb
I was dismayed to find the batteries had corroded and ruined my trusty HP-41C,
which I bought back in '82. I loved that calculator. I programmed my first
hack on it. You could set a flag to run the first program in memory on
startup. If someone walked away from their desk, I would grab their HP, write
a program to turn the calculator off, then set the flag. It was fun prank, and
it actually got a few people interested in learning how to program theirs.

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kai-zer
Calculator of choice on the trading desk today. Everyone has one, even the
young guys!

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jrockway
The calculator of choice I've found on the trading desk is Microsoft Excel.
It's also the production data-moving system of choice, with hilarious
consequences.

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alexg0
What is the right iPhone emulator? There are so many choices, from $3 to $15.

~~~
arn
presumably the official ones made by HP

\- <http://appshopper.com/finance/hp-12c-financial-calculator>

\- <http://appshopper.com/utilities/hp-15c-scientific-calculator>

\- [http://appshopper.com/finance/hp-12c-platinum-financial-
calc...](http://appshopper.com/finance/hp-12c-platinum-financial-calculator)

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burgerbrain
It may have a cult-like following, but it* is* a damn good calculator.

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slyall
I think the key sentence is:

" _...is the only other calculator test-takers are permitted to use on the
official CFA exam_ "

