jimwsong wrote:Let me know if anyone of you used the iPad and iPhone emulator models and if this is going to now make the physical models obsolete.
As retired person I do not need an iPhone. What I still use is a Laptop equipped with several virtual machinery called emulators or simulations. Since long I have not touched any original calculator any more. IMHO, emulators are the poor man's hardware. Virtually it enables you to play with equipment physically and/or financially out of reach. And if a smart phone is your PIM+datacenter+interface why should you carry in addition a calculator in your shirt pocket?
Once the HP41 and some TI-calculators offered adaptability by plug-in modules. In contrast virtual remakes offer the chance to prepare several specialized calculators depending on your needs. Instead of magnetic cards or ROMs or bar codes, just open the next model/machine/setup. And if you need a new HP41 -- facile -- do Menu/File/New. And if it was to assay only,
litter it after the test (don't save the state file). In addition, the virtual remakes offer some additions the original lacks, edit/copy - edit/paste just to name one. So virtualisation is more than just playing copycat, it prolongs advantageous technics in an up-to-date environment.
Up to now there are three "eureka! products" in my lifetime worth to mention, i) the HP41 when I was student, it was exactly how I immagined what an ideal calculator should offer, ii) the HP200LX as PIM
with a DOS computer and plenty of free software for it, and iii) it was
Pipelines on VM/CMS (IBM host), for me it enhanced the usability of the mainframe by factor 2..3, minimum. Today I do my mails not on the 200LX and by IrDA over the Nokia 8210 any more
Something new neither the HP41 nor the mainframe offers are CAS -- Computer Algebra Systems. In case you'd like to calculate (do some calculus and not just compute) this could be a convenient supplement. Check if your choice may evolve the formula of arithmetic average by using the Least Square method. See "Which CAS to pick"
in here. If you don't grasp that you do not need any CAS
M.