Product Review

HP provides an impressive quantity of user documentation, but quantity is no guarantee of quality! Tom Barber has been a professional programmer of the C/UNIX persuasion for more than 25 years, hooked on HP calculators since his college days when he implemented Gaussian quadrature on the HP25. The reputation of HP calculators as being somewhat difficult to use, has a lot to do with the user documentation. That is why he wrote this book. Written primarily for novice users, experienced users who occasionally find themselves frustrated may also find help within the pages. The author takes a tutorial approach for certain topics such as the Equation Writer, and overall, his narrative explanations are better organized and more complete than HP's manuals. He uses tables and lists for topics where a more accessible summary of essential facts and behaviors is needed. He paid careful attention to the importance of writing in a clear, precise manner. Topics covered include: Essential Architectural Features Keypad operation Essential calculator modes What the CAS modes Numeric and Approx actually do Basic entry techniques using the command line Techniques and commands to manage global variables The text editor The Equation Writer Screen-based re-use of prior expressions Lists Custom menus Unit objects, Units conversions and the Constants Library Complex numbers and ordered pairs Vectors and arrays Binary integers and number bases Character/Text Strings The Matrix Writer Statistics applications The Equation Solver The TVM Financial Solver The numerical solvers for polynomials and systems of equations Programmatic management of the stack in RPN mode Recursive evaluation of the RPN command line and RPL programs Programming the calculator in RPL Techniques for manipulating algebraic expressions symbolically Plotting The File Manager System Operation 8.5 x 11, 110 pages, equivalent to 250 pages in a more typical handbook format.