Electronics > Beginners

EE Pros: Is RPN still relevant?

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kultakala:
I also started with a HP-41C back in the eighties and never had something else than RPN calculators.
It takes less key presses usually than an algebraic one, but i think the biggest advantage is that you have to understand the structure of the equation or whatever you are trying to calculate to be able to do it with an RPN calc.
On an algebraic thing you can blindly type in everything and when you did something wrong you dont know where, because you dont think first before using the calculator as you have to do with RPN.

newbrain:
Do yourself a favor, download "free42" on your phone (fruit or robot), and if you want, to your desktop (fruit, non-flying bird or glazed hole in the wall).
It's a one to one emulation of one of the best (IMHO) HP calculators.

Just take some time with RPN, if you are a natural RPN guy it will "click in" very quickly, otherwise you'll hate it.
Of course, all the advanced functions take a long time.

As for the practical value...as much as I'd love to praise it, I don't think it's that much: apart from computer science, the only other exposure to RPN comes from HP calculators.


--- Quote from: claytonedgeuk on March 03, 2017, 11:08:28 pm ---I learned rpn on one of the hp financial calculators.... 

--- End quote ---
Same here: this one (this might show my age...I was just a kid, I swear!).
I was able to calculate logs/exp with the financial functions!

It's been a kind of imprinting, and I have always had problems with algebraic calculators, as they have all slightly different syntax (even the same brand!).
I'm actually evaluating getting a new HP35S...

frozenfrogz:
Funny you are asking this today, as I started a thread on my own about buying an HP 16c.
Having a calculator handy is very much essential to me, though I would not need it every day. For me, it is most convenient to have it sitting on my desk for whatever task comes along instead of using a software based solution - just like notes on real paper work best for me.

RPN is fun to use apart from being faster and more natural than working with brackets. There is, however, something very nerdy about it xD

TNorthover:

--- Quote from: orolo on March 04, 2017, 10:15:39 am ---RPN is the mathematical way of operating. First you get the operands, either in a stack, a tuple, or whatever. Then you apply some function, and get the result.

--- End quote ---

That's a bit of a stretch. There's no notion of a stack in conventional mathematics, and the notation is definitely infix.

If I had to say any paradigm was "the mathematical way" I'd go for declarative, like prologue. A mathematical expression representing a series of constraints on the variables involved that may or may not uniquely determine a result.

David Hess:
Besides being faster and ultimately easier to use, I like RPN for the stack which holds, and in the case of the HP48g and HP50g, displays multiple results.  I prefer a calculator over using a PDA/phone or computer because it is portable, the battery life is effectively unlimited, and the interface is better.

While the HP50g has many improvements over the HP48g, it is a step back as far as user interface performance (it is several times slower) and the PDA/phone calculator programs I have tried except for my old Palm Pilot are even worse. :(

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