I would love a programmers' calculator but I really hate RPN. I wish they would make one without it. Back in the day they did it for efficiency. But that's no longer an issue these days.

I do still have a mint HP48GX but never use it for the same reason. The successor the 49 had normal math as an option but it was not as iconic.

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kstrauser 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

RPN felt so weird and alien to me, and then one day I felt my brain pivot, and now it's the only method I can bear. RPN isn't just more efficient for the calculator to process. I mean, it is, but that's not the selling point. It's way more efficient to use. It requires the least number of keystrokes necessary to enter a formula, and never requires parentheses for grouping. You can start at the innermost nested, hairy bits of a formula, then quickly work your way outward. That's the part I love and would hate to be without.

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wolvoleo 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Yeah I understand. For me I just never could get my head around it. My brain doesn't work that way, and I'm the kind of person that always needs to bend their tools to them rather than absorb a new way of working. For example, I deeply hate opinionated software where you have to learn the workflow the developer intended. It can be powerful but I don't work that way. I have my own ideas how something should work and I adapt my tools to it.

RPN but also something like Gnome doesn't match. So I use things like KDE that have huge amounts of configurability. I also deeply hate processes and methodologies at work and I often ignore them leading to endless stress for my more bureaucratic coworkers :)

TL;DR, me not liking RPN doesn't mean I think it's bad. It's just not for me and that is more a 'me' thing than an RPN thing.

	▲	cindyllm an hour ago \| parent [-]
		[dead]

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wkjagt 20 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I felt the same and got a Casio CM-100 that has similar functionality. Not as nice as the HP but it does the job. Much cheaper too if you can find one.

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gdelfino01 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I absolutely love my HP48SX and HP48GX (I have both) and the RPN is what I like the most. But if you don't like RPN, just type a regular expression between simple quotes and evaluate it.

	▲	wolvoleo 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes that is true, but that only works in expression mode and that is not always suitable.

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NetMageSCW 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They did it for user efficiency, not machine efficiency. And it is still better today for hand calculation.

	▲	wolvoleo 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		As I read it was also about including the highest amount of features in the tool. But to me it's more like Dvorak. Sure, it's more efficient if you learn it and really absorb the mehtod but most people don't bother. Personally I'm not very flexible in that way, I want my tools to adjust to me not the other way around.