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As a former RPL programmer out of self interest, I think I’d rather gouge my eyes out now. It’s one of those languages, like Perl, where you come back to a proj

by cjsuk 9y ago

As a former RPL programmer out of self interest, I think I’d rather gouge my eyes out now. It’s one of those languages, like Perl, where you come back to a project later and can’t understand any of it or remember how to write it. I respect people who managed to build a working CAS in it however! I still own an HP50g for the sake of nostalgia but it has been replaced with python and a new Casio FX-991EX now.

dm319 9y ago
Does the casio run python? I like the idea of having a portable machine I can write quick programs in, but some of these calculator languages are horrible. I'd rather write it in something a bit more mainstream like python or R. The numworks calculator[1] has got a kinda beta implementation of python. The other device I was thinking of was the Gemini (modern day psion) or something similar. [1]https://www.numworks.com https://www.numworks.com
- cjsuk 9y ago
  No it doesn't. It's really just a scientific calculator with a solver built in. It handles perhaps 95% of my requirements pretty well. Anything more complicated than that heads to a mac. I've been using scipy, matplotlib and sympy on that. The basic graphing calculators from Casio, while not overly powerful have a programming language that you can effectively drive on the device very easily. I've seen people do some amazing stuff on them.
yiyus 9y ago
Although I agree with your general feeling (RPL is mostly a write-only language), RPL is still a quite valid language to add useful formulas in some menus. For example, I still have many programs for electrical circuits, like adding resistances in parallel, and those ones are easy to understand. Full programs with many functions and branches? I had no idea what I was doing.
- cjsuk 9y ago
  That's exactly what I was using mine for. << INV SWAP INV + INV >> 'RPAR' STO Then I realised I don't bother with it. Can get close enough in my head. I only want to solve for one variable so the Casio gets full marks there.

by cjsuk 9y ago

dm319 9y ago

Does the casio run python? I like the idea of having a portable machine I can write quick programs in, but some of these calculator languages are horrible. I'd rather write it in something a bit more mainstream like python or R. The numworks calculator[1] has got a kinda beta implementation of python. The other device I was thinking of was the Gemini (modern day psion) or something similar. [1]https://www.numworks.com https://www.numworks.com

cjsuk 9y ago
No it doesn't. It's really just a scientific calculator with a solver built in. It handles perhaps 95% of my requirements pretty well. Anything more complicated than that heads to a mac. I've been using scipy, matplotlib and sympy on that. The basic graphing calculators from Casio, while not overly powerful have a programming language that you can effectively drive on the device very easily. I've seen people do some amazing stuff on them.

yiyus 9y ago

Although I agree with your general feeling (RPL is mostly a write-only language), RPL is still a quite valid language to add useful formulas in some menus. For example, I still have many programs for electrical circuits, like adding resistances in parallel, and those ones are easy to understand. Full programs with many functions and branches? I had no idea what I was doing.

cjsuk 9y ago
That's exactly what I was using mine for. << INV SWAP INV + INV >> 'RPAR' STO Then I realised I don't bother with it. Can get close enough in my head. I only want to solve for one variable so the Casio gets full marks there.