Author Topic: Hp 50g (Read 14466 times)

TIfanx1999 · « **on:** February 18, 2008, 10:52:00 pm »

I was in Circuit city earlier today looking at the calculators and this happened to catch my eye. Upon closer inspection I found out that this was a fairly expensive calculator that supported CAS... just like the TI-89. However... this thing is a beast compared to the TI-89 . It has 512k user ram and 2MB archive (no big deal here)but, this sucker has an SD card slot . That is crazy. Like the TI-89 Titanium it also has mini usb, but it also has infared data transfer. How cool is that? Also, while the TI-89 has a 12 MHZ motoralla processor this thing packs a 75 MHZ ARM . This thing retails at 150 USD which is also the same as the TI-89 Titanium. This thing is drop dead sexy, so my question is why don't more people own these ? I'm considering getting one myself. Thoughts?
*edit* (131x80) b&w display vs. TI-89 (160x100) b&w display. So the display is smaller than the TI-89 but larger than that of the TI-86 (128x64) or the TI-83+family (96x64)
*edit*Programability: RPL,IPL,(forms of lisp, whatever that is)Hp BASIC,Saturn ASM(ASM that their older calcs use I believe),ARM ASM. hpgcc.org Yes, it supports C also.
Also has a built in clock function with alarms. Can be powered by battery or USB.

JonimusPrime · « **Reply #1 on:** February 18, 2008, 11:10:00 pm »

because ti wins in it's user interface, when you buy a ti calculator you ain't buying the hardware you are buying the software that kicks hp and casios butt.

TIfanx1999 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 18, 2008, 11:18:00 pm »

By software do you mean user created software, or the TI-OS vs the HP-OS ? TI is easy to use, and I havent ever used a HP. I don't know how their OS is setup or how easy to use it is.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #3 on:** February 19, 2008, 12:09:00 am »

HPs are harder to use, same for casio IIRC. Also the processor on Hp calcs is slowed down to something like TI speed, altough in ASM people can speed it up. It must eat batteries darn quick though.

If it's not why, then there must be another reason why so few people program for and use those. Even the Casio community is more active than the HP one (the only HP forum I ever seen has like 300 posts and Idk if it still even exists at all since the admin retired). Even the Casio community is more acitve, altough much less than the TI community.

Liazon · « **Reply #4 on:** February 19, 2008, 10:16:00 am »

TI is supported by most school systems in the country iirc.

With that much hardware power, I'm surprised some kids haven't figured out a way to get HPs to play games, or maybe I'm wrong.

TIfanx1999 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 19, 2008, 02:05:00 pm »

@Liazon: well...
Hpcalc.org
Update the first post with more info as well.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #6 on:** February 19, 2008, 03:52:00 pm »

That's prbly the most active HP forums I could find:

http://jacques-laporte.org/forum/
http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/forum.cgi
http://www.expansys.fr/f.aspx?i=139834
http://www.hp-network.com/forum/list.php?f=1

there is also a Usenet group at http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.hp48/topics

It has nearly 60000 topics, but it's because it has been around for 16.5 years. Half of the Omnimaga regulars weren't even born when it started. http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.hp48/browse_thread/thread/1d7bb21964ef5871

Most places are now calc help and support though. You may get some luck finding programmers in the Usenet newsgroup but I don't think there are much anymore because games on all sites I could find date back in 200-2001. For HP 49/50 series there are newer ones but they are still 2 or 3 years old.

There are a few of them avaliable in Omnimaga RPG section

As for the Casio community I just looked and it seems to have picked up a bit in the past 2 years, altough still a bit quiet:

http://www.planet-casio.com/Fr/forums/
http://www.planete-casio.com/forum/
http://www.casioexpert.com/forum/index.php
http://www.graph100.com/forum/
http://casiokingdom.org/modules.php?name=Forums
http://www.casiocalc.org/

The activity and the opening of new forums that succeed well could be because of Casioland.net shut down and that the Graph 100 forum (4th one in the list) is no longer really active though

bfr · « **Reply #7 on:** February 19, 2008, 06:28:00 pm »

Get it if you really think it will be worth the money. HP and Casio make some pretty good calculators, and in terms of hardware, they are generally better than TI's. But do you really need it? Are there some programs for it that you really want to try? Do you plan to program for it? If so, note that you'd be programming for a much smaller user base (and, in turn, there are probably less programs available for it).

I mean, yes, it's cool, it has good hardware and an SD card slot, but think about if you going to actually use it, or just let it sit around and admire it on occasion. Whatever TI calculator you have - I'm guessing a TI-83+ or TI-84+ - can probably do whatever you need to do (and if not, then there's always the TI-89/TI-92+/Voyage 200 series, and now the TI-Nspire CAS too) and you're more familiar with it.

Also, if you still insist on buying a new calculator particularly because of its hardware, I suggest you take a look at other calculators too, such as the Casio ClassPad 330 and those in the Casio fx-9860 series, and also take a good look at the Casio fx-9860 Slim. And then, of course, there is the TI-Nspire (CAS).

TIfanx1999 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 20, 2008, 01:33:00 am »

I'm looking at it mainly from a programming standpoint. As far as TI's go I have the 83+ BE, 83+ SE, 86, and the 89. Unfortunatley there does not seem to be a whole lot of information available on the HP's, so that makes me wary. I havent checked into casios yet, but I think I will. My internet is acting rather funky tonight though.

The Nspire (CAS) looks extremley sexy, but as of yet you cant do alot with it so I'm gonna wait on that one to see what develops.
*edit* Looked into casios, they don't hold any intrest for me. For the 9860 series the screen rez is only slightly larger than that of the ti-86, and the processor is sligtly under 15 MHZ. The Class pad doesnt intrest me at all, as the res is much taller than it is wide, and I just don't care for the design. I can't even find specs for the processor speed on the class pad.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #9 on:** February 20, 2008, 04:16:00 am »

Also Casio BASIC is apparently MUCH slower than on TIs from what Casio guys told me back in the EPS days, and since most people prefer to use BASIC due to it being easier it draws people away from Casio calcs. I wonder how fast is BASIC on HP calcs (if there is such language on them)?

JonimusPrime · « **Reply #10 on:** February 20, 2008, 09:00:00 am »

I'm sure there Is but it is most likely just as slow. There is a reason no third party os's have had parser yet, its because they are very difficult to make and they take a lot of work and most likely ti's parser would still win.

TIfanx1999 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 20, 2008, 02:25:00 pm »

@Omnimaga: HP's have built in HP BASIC, but if I had to guess I'd say it's their old BASIC being emulated on the ARM processor. One of the two types of ASM it supports(saturn ASM) is emulated and I assume that the BASIC that runs on there is emulated as well. Don't quote me on it though. From what I've read though everything runs faster on the HP 50G than it's early predecessor, (the 48G) so despite the emulation (again I'm not entirely sure about this) it should run fairly fast. In regards to how their BASIC language is sturctured or how advanced it is I'm not sure. I'm still looking into it. =) I will update the first post as I find more info.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #12 on:** February 20, 2008, 05:19:00 pm »

Too bad they don't sell this calc here

JonimusPrime · « **Reply #13 on:** February 20, 2008, 06:29:00 pm »

You mentioned ti supported Lisp

Just for info lisp was one of the first interpreted programing languages. Most interpreted lauanges today own most of their structure and power to lisp.
Oh and how much do these bad boys run his is really starting to sound interesting.

bfr · « **Reply #14 on:** February 20, 2008, 07:03:00 pm »

Quote

*edit* Looked into casios, they don't hold any intrest for me. For the 9860 series the screen rez is only slightly larger than that of the ti-86, and the processor is sligtly under 15 MHZ. The Class pad doesnt intrest me at all, as the res is much taller than it is wide, and I just don't care for the design. I can't even find specs for the processor speed on the class pad.

If I remember correctly, kucalc had a very helpful post on the old Omnimaga forums that said that the Fx-9860 could be over clocked to over 70MHz or something like that. In addition, I think the Classpad and the FX-9860 series can be programmed in C.

Also, check out these calculator benchmarks (it's no surprise that they're on an HP website).