From: Teuvo Yrjömäki on
Hey

I have 48gx, 48sx, 28s + other older HPs....

.... and were wondering whether to buy the 50g. For me paying that 113�
is not too much, I'm just wondering if the 50g would be significantly
better than the 48gx.

So, I tried to read all the previous 48gx vs 50g threads, so I'm trying
to ask about stuff I couldn't find in previous discussions about the
issue... let's just not talk about the 50g looking and feeling different
than those oldskool HPs... So if the 50g has more cool features
softwarewise than the 48gx, it doesn't bother me that the 50g doesn't
look and feel as as cool and pro than the 48.

Talking about actual features of the 50g, what is really new on the 50g
software? What can it do that the 48gx cannot, like numerical and CAS
stuff? Installing Erable and stuff on the 48GX is of course an option,
but OTOH, having erable, UFL, speedui, Jazz and stuff at the same time
on the 48gx is not possible and I don't want to buy 2nd-hand mem cards
for the 48gx as they cost a lot. 128kb isn't too much anyway.

Basically, what I have in mind is to use the 50g as a serial (rs232)
terminal to interface to different kinds of stuff. Serial data logging
from a device > 9600bps, and trying to find/build a simple data logger /
AD to be used with a calculator in conditions where using a laptop is
not an option.

thanks for your $0.02's.

teuvo
From: John H Meyers on
On 4/1/2010 3:00 AM:

> wondering if the 50g would be significantly better than the 48gx.
> What can it do that the 48gx cannot, like numerical and CAS stuff?

New data types:

Exact integer -- number of digits limited only by memory.

Symbolic array -- no longer limited to real/complex cells.

Font


New apps:

MetaKernel (once sold for GX, now built-in, by its original authors)

File Manager (as in MK)

CAS (usually vastly better than 48G, but not always :)

Better Equation Writer (& Matrix Writer)

Better editor: Clipboard, find [& replace],
text display effects (B|I|U) and text/grob viewer,
fonts (5x5, 5x6, 5x7, minifont).

Development library
"Hack" library in ROM, Library builder, SysRPL/ML compiler.

"Algebraic" mode
("Imitation [of TI] is the sincerest form of flattery" :)


Hardware:

256K user RAM, built-in RAM port 1 + user "flash" port 2
+ external SD card (to 2GB) with computer (FAT) filesystem

Larger screen (131x64 -> 131x80)

USB link (to computer) and serial (issues mentioned below)

Faster (Saturn emulated in ARM OS layer)

Weaker IR than ever before.


Software:

More at www.hpcalc.org than ever before.

HPGCC for "native" programming (as far as the project went).


> Basically, what I have in mind is to use the 50g as a serial (rs232)
> terminal to interface to different kinds of stuff. Serial data logging
> from a device > 9600bps, and trying to find/build a simple data logger /
> AD to be used with a calculator in conditions where using a laptop is
> not an option.

Besides need for (available) special serial cable,
wasn't "flow control" originally removed from serial support
in Saturn ROM, with potential for data "overrun"?

Does Eric's cable (or the ARM OS) provide its own flow control?
(via X-ON/X-OFF characters in HP48 series)

[r->] [OFF]
From: Teuvo Yrjömäki on
Thanks all for you comments,

in fact, I just ordered the 50g along with the 82240b. Can't wait to
start hacking on the 50g... when I was in high school (some time in the
90s) I did some SysRPL programming on the 48gx. Nice to continue that
with updated hardware. Will check native code on ARM too, if that's
possible.

y.
From: Veli-Pekka.Nousiainen on
Teuvo Yrj�m�ki wrote:
> Thanks all for you comments,
>
> in fact, I just ordered the 50g along with the 82240b. Can't wait to
> start hacking on the 50g... when I was in high school (some time in the
> 90s) I did some SysRPL programming on the 48gx. Nice to continue that
> with updated hardware. Will check native code on ARM too, if that's
> possible.
>
> y.
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