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Hoerninger
08-02-2009, 02:14 PM
When engaged in speaker system building sophisticated computer programs can be of great help. But sometimes these programs will not give all you want.

Although a spreadsheet is a very versatile tool I am always unsecure whether I have unwillingly destroyed a cell. So I often use a (programmable) caculator, preferable the HP42S. But this model is out of production and a used one is very costly.

I want to point the attention to a software solution, a HP 42S emulation working on a variety of platforms. There is a free solution FREE42 (http://thomasokken.com/free42).

It works on a variety of platforms:
- iPhone and iPod touch
- Windows,
- Pocket PC,
- Palm OS,
- Linux (x86),
- Mac OS X,
- Sharp Zaurus
and there is the source code.

The PC based emulation has some advantages compared to the original hardware calculator.
- increased speed
- increased memory (on my PC ca. 176 MByte instead of 7,2 kBytes !)
- saving of programs and configuration
- drag and drop of results
- use of printer output.

Compared to the simpler anniversary model HP35S the HP42S has better implemented functions and a more sophisticated programming language. Compared to the HP48GX the HP42S is easier to handle.

The HP42S has an easy to program menu structure which will be demonstrated by an example. This example program gives the relationship of the volume of a cuboid (?) box with the outer dimensions A, B, C and the wall thickness D. You can calculate any value you want. The menu key which is pressed without input of a number will imply the calculation of the corresponding item. The program is very short:

00 { 59-Byte Prgm }
01>LBL "BOX"
02 MVAR "a"
03 MVAR "b"
04 MVAR "c"
05 MVAR "d"
06 MVAR "Vol"
07 RCL "a"
08 RCL "d"
09 STO+ ST X
10 -
11 RCL "b"
12 RCL "d"
13 STO+ ST X
14 -
15 ×
16 RCL "c"
17 RCL "d"
18 STO+ ST X
19 -
20 ×
21 RCL- "Vol"
22 END

Short manual:
http://joselauro.tripod.com/42s.pdf
There are more Hewlett Packard calculator emulations:
http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/pc/emulators/
____________
Peter

toddalin
08-02-2009, 04:20 PM
As far as I'm concerned, Hp calculators took a nose dive after they stopped producing the 32SII. (Just look what an unused 32SII goes for on the 'bay. :banghead:)

I ended up replacing it with a 35S, the logical successor, and well...:barf: