I've got 2 TI-59s. They also have the card reader/writer but it is directly on the calculator, like in HP-67. Magnificent machines, I love these retro gadgets!!
El sonido estremecedor del teclado es una fantástica experiencia al usar esta hermosa máquina. Una súper computadora de bolsillo. Soy Ingeniero Estructural y la uso a diario.
They ought to have an HP-IL accessory with a built-in SD card reader. The SD cards are more reliable than magnetic cards and they are industry standard that can also be used in digital cameras.
@@p0k7lm every HP calculator used a stack based math system known as Reverse Polish Notation (RPN). It’s a stack based system also used by the programming language Forth. There was no equals key. The most complicated algebra solutions required no memories or parentheses. The other TI type calculators use an algebraic system requiring the user to store and recall memories and/or use parentheses.
The incorporating of this magnetic card reader(and programability) doesn't by itself make this a computer, it is still hardwired for floating point calculations
AFAIK it is not hardwired at all, it is microcoded... ...And it goes beyond basic floating point maths, it can also manipulate alphanumeric strings from what i recall, it has all the conditional instructions and so on...
Back in the 70's, the difference between a programmable calculator and a computer was the ability to make comparisons and branch or jump based upon the result. Yes this is a computer. This machine was used as the backup navigational computer for the space shuttle. Back in 1981 I worked on calculators for Monroe Systems for business while in college. The year the IBM PC came out. We had systems called computers (they could make decisions) that were way less powerful than this. The logic unit was the size of a suitcase and sat under the desk, while the printer/display/keyboard sat on the desk. Back in the 1960's there were many huge desktop machines that could be programmed to do repetitious tasks, but they could not branch based upon a greater than, less than, equal, zero, positive or negative result. They were not classed as computers. I was able to do just about any electrical engineering task on this HP-41C that I could do with FORTRAN on the IBM 360-40. And I did not have to punch cards and submit the job to run. So yes youngling, this is a computer. It most certainly computes.
The HP-41 is a full blown computer system that I used in numerous applications, in the 1980s. It supports complex data processing and the HP-IL Interface, which allows it to control various external devices, including printers, plotters, a screen interface, measurement devices etc. One of my applications was used to examine the state of Swiss forests. Forest engineers entered data about trees into the HP-41. The application prompted them for the required data - adapting to the location & previously entered information, then transferred the data to a PC application I had also written where the data was evaluated (NB: the forests were totally fine, no sign of the alleged "forest death" the alarmists worried about).
Lol are you high? Of course the HP-41C is a computer because it could store and run programs and has Conditional if statements, data storage registers, alphanumeric strings, I/O, etc.