Calculator blog

I have installed in my Mac the latest version of Xcode. Not that I am doing any programming; and I will be very much limited in testing the output of it, since I am not paying the Apple developer fees; but I just wanted to know all the fuss about Swift, the programming language that is taking the It world by storm. I wanted to know how it feels, what it looks like, and whether HP should have used it instead of the sort of Basic that is now being used in the HP Prime.

Well, the initial impression is very satisfactory. But the best thing of all is the simultaneous interpreter, that shows you the result of whatever you’re programming in real time (not when you run the program, but as you write it: it tries to make sense of the current sentence meaning, and shows you any possible error along the way. It is something I have never seen before, and it speeds up programming like never before. If, in addition, you read in the included documentation the file called “The Swift Programming Language - a Swift Tour”, and paste in the development windows the different examples, and do the exercises as proposed in said document, you’ll probably get the same feeling as I did.

As a first observation, it is less stricter in syntax than C+ or any of its siblings; but also much more powerful, it that you can say many things in a small space; the inferences the interpreter makes about what you’re doing are very intelligent, and sufficient most of the time; and the by-side result and clever error warning as you write, helps a lot in developing fast.

Of course, such power is very much above what is required for a calculator like the HP Prime - but it is a pity that we cannot have the leading programming language in the HP Prime. Someone willing to write an interpreter for it?

Just wanted to tell you that I have included links to several Eddie B. Shore videos in the HP Prime manuals and tutorials area.

On a different subject, I have just received the last three available circuits of HP Prime. There are just three calculators available for them, and I intend to spend thei week end to install at least a couple of them. One will be a tall key unit, from 1980, with the satin, 45-like keyboard surface (as opposed to the rugged surface of later units)

Stay tuned for Monday! And remember that, once sold, there won't be any more units until Systemyde decides to produce more!

As you may remember if you follow this blow, yesterday we reviewed Eddie Shore’s Tutorial videos.

I was trying to follow Eddie Shore’s video tutorial on Advanced RPN functions on the Prime. I wanted to do it since I get many errors when trying to use CAS functions in home (since i much prefer RPN)

As I am “mainland European”, I use “,” as decimal point. I have chosen space as thousands separator.

An example Eddie uses is factoring 76 in RPN

When I enter, as in the video:

76 - level 1

CAS.ifactor(1) edit line

I get syntax error, while Eddie does not.

Checking what could be the error, I change number format to decimal point instead. Now it works (and there was no decimal point in sight)

In the past, I also had several problems with odd number formats in apps that used solver. If I was using a number format with a space as thousands separator, it would not work and hang the machine. However, this error was solved several firmware updates before, and has not been an issue already for a long time.

I have already reported this error to someone in HP.

We have already discussed the blog of Eddie Shore several times in this blog. A customer of ours, we knew about him before he purchased a blue hp50g from us.

His written tutorials in the blog are excellent - provided you have the patience of going through it carefully and with attention. I have that patience, but many don’t. I am now thinking, for example, in my children. Probably video gaming has changed their brain and the way it relates with learning. They expect to get the knowledge infused, matrix-like, instead of making the effor of going through a subject. And don’t tell me they are not able to pay attention - try to divert their attention from the video game they’re playing at a given moment!

For that kind of learning, you need something more intrusive in your learner’s mind - you need video tutorials.

I have just gone through Eddie’s first two videos. One covers the basic RPN procedures in the HP Prime - the second, called RPN Mode Tutorial - Advanced functions, covers practically everything you need to get started with the HP Prime at a decent level. You can find it here:

I have been the last week on holidays, far far north, and I have been quite disconnected from the HP world for the period.

Well, there is a new firmware available. It was issued on June 17th, nd its release number is 8151. It also includes a new connectivity kit and virtual calculator too. It doesn’t offer substantially improved functionality, since it is mostly oriented to clear bugs and inconsistent behavior of the different apps, both in CAS and home modes.

You need to use you connectivity kit. Normally, you will be prompted to upgrade the firmware of the connected calculators, but if not, you can do it through the right button click on the calculator identifier in the Comms kit.

In my case, the download was started without prompting, and it takes 54 MB. There have been stories about slow HP server, even with fast connections - and it seemed to me slower than most downloads, although not too much.

Next week, we’re having our holidays in the Norwegian Lofoten Islands. These are located above the Polar circle, and therefore we can expect to have midnight sun (since next week is the summer solstice). Where can the sun be found next week in the Lofoten? it may happen that there are clouds for extended periods.

Precisely, Eddie Shore’s blog of this month is about this! He has written a program for the HP Prime about how to fin the Solar Position (Right Ascension, Declination, Altitude, Azimuth).

it uses as Input the following data:

• Month
• Date
• Year
• Local Time
• Longitude
• Latitude

A precision: the standard time must be used - daylight savings time not to be used.

You can find the program here:

http://edspi31415.blogspot.it/2015/03/hp-prime-solar-position-right-ascension.html

I have received mails about my previous comparison between the HP17bii+ and the HP19bII. Some felt unfair that we compared a calculator that is 25 years old with one in current production. They say that the proper comparison is between the HP12c and the HP17bII+. For some reason, no one includes neither the HP10bii+ nor the HP20/30b, nor the HP12c Platinum. Truth be told, they are right. The new HP10bii+ is a fantastic calculator for the price, and arguably much better equipped than both of our contenders with functions - but has a cheaper feel to it - albeit less than the HP20/30b family, which is not worthy of the HP tradition.

On Monday we’ll discuss both calculators (HP12c and HP17bII), their applications and typical use in real life.

I have been comparing the HP19bii with the HP17bII+ for the last few days at work. Have to say that it was a fair fight - both units are really very good.

HP19bii

Pros:

• several lines on the screen allow for clear interpretation of what you are doing and what you need to do
• when you need to enter a solver formula, the attached keyboard helps you in doing three or four times faster than the 17bii+
• Very good keyboard that never misses a beat.
• nicer font (in my opinion) than the other machine
• Fantastic menu system.
• additional math items: trigonometric, hyperbolic, unit conversion, etc.
• When folded is pocketable. No more losing the calculator case!
• Graphs (but I have never used them!)

Cons:

• Too much real estate taken from your desk
• Half of it is not used at all most of the time!
• screen contrast is really low. You depend on good lightning conditions.
• Problematic battery bay door - unless you have the back door model.

HP17bii+

Pros

• Much better form factor.
• Elegant silver design.
• much better screen contrast - black is black!
• Currency exchange on first menu level
• Better key feel

Cons

• Just one line seen on screen
• Good font, but not as nice as the competition above.
• Sometimes, I’ve missed some keystrokes. Not often, but it is different from “never”, which was my experience with most other HP calculator.

I hope this helps in selecting the right one for you!

On the day of the presentation of the new firmware, Tim Wessmann from HP posted a list of the improvements that had been implemented in it. Among them, there were both new density and cumulated statistical distribution functions, and random generators following said distributions. This made the Prime much more appropriated for deep statistical analysis, montecarlo tests and simulations, and saved a lot of programming time for those who needed. I have already mentioned in the blog that HPmuseum user Salvomic generated a substantial number of programs to create different distributions. But now, according to Tim, this would not be necessary. Or would it?

Here is what was mentioned in the post:

New Functionality (Calculator Software)

———————————————————

1. Added more distribution functions – density/cumulative/inverse: beta, exponential, gamma, geometric, negbinomial, uniform, weibull
2. Added more random generation functions: binomial, chisquare, fisher, geometric, poisson, student

Well, when you try to find a function, you go to the toolbox key. Then I press Math -> Probability -> Random, and I get the following list:

• Number
• Integer
• Normal
• Seed

Very far from the list. Let’s get some help for one of them, for example the normal distribution. Clicking on it, it comes to the entry line, and pressing the help button, you get to the help for that item. There is a useful button on the lower right, “other”, that links to related functions. Will them be there?

Nope! It only shows the other three of the list. So wasn’t Tim right?

User Salvomic directed me to where I should have started: the function catalog. I avoided it since there are all functions there, and even scrolling, it takes you a lot of time to navigate it! But if you just press the first letter of the function, it will advance up to that letter. Ok, but what’s the name of the function? I guessed they would start by R (from Random), and there were they!:

• randbinomial,
• randchisquare
• randexp
• randfischer
• randgeometric
• randnorm
• randpoisson
• randstudent

The fact that they are lower letter functions means that they are used in the CAS environment, or in the home area but preceded by “CAS.”

I have a windows 7 computer. It has several company policies that make it quite awkward to work with. In fact, I had some issues upgrading the computer connectivity kit to the latest recent version, and also the desktop HP Prime. The virtual calculator wouldn’t connect to the server; the updater in the connectivity kit, while connected to the virtual calculator, wouldn’t get the upgrade that was stored in my replicated driver - for some reason. These are the kind of things that never fail if you work on a plain vanilla PC - but until I upgrade the operating system of my Mac windows partition from XP to something better, I won’t be able to do it there. (Have I said already that my Mac has been my best ever XP platform, faster, stable and reliable?)

Well, I have found a better solution - restart from scratch. download the packages from a HP FTP site and run them directly from Windows, instead of running the application from the connectivity kit or the virtual calculator.

The ftp site is:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/calculators/Prime/

For those born after 1995, an FTP site is a primitive way of downloading and storing material in internet. It was one of the primitive protocols. If I’m not mistaken, it predates even HTTP!

To use, you just need to paste the line above in the the url text box of your browser. You will be asked to connect with username and password, or as a guest. Choose guest. From then, you can navigate the folder structure and grab what you need.