No need to worry, it is an RPN model, but it also has an algebraic mode, and that's how it comes up by default. Fiorina's HP has given up on the idea of producing decent scientific calculators, they came out with a new line of models, including a brand new RPN scientific calculator, the HP-33S.Įxcept that it's neither brand new nor quite RPN. This program is not as accurate as the one I wrote for the HP-32S, but it sure requires a lot less program space. Make sure the calculator is in radians mode, otherwise the result will not be correct. To use the program, just enter the imaginary part, hit ENTER, enter the real part, and hit XEQ I. It is based on a Russian programmable calculator algorithm, and it computes the logarithm of the complex Gamma function. The programming example for the HP-32SII is one I originally wrote when I first received a "brown bezel" version of this machine. The button cells do a fine job powering the calculator, as indeed they have since the day the first Voyager series machines like the HP-15C were introduced. Which shouldn't be a surprise, since it already has three perfectly functional LR44 button cells installed in the appropriate location, so there really is no need for any AAA batteries. Yet no matter how hard I look, I cannot find any AAA batteries in this calculator. It is what is written on the package that caught my attention (actually, the attention of the kind chap in Spain who found this unit for me.) You see, the packaging (printed by the Hewlett-Packard Company) says the following on the back: No, I'm not referring to the fact that it is a blister pack: that we're already used to. That we live in penny-pinching times when it comes to mass produced goods is evident from the Spanish-language packaging of this HP-32SII that I just received. The only difference between this "silver bezel" version and the original HP-32SII is cosmetic: the colors of the metal bezel are more psychedelic, with the display surrounded by a silver rectangle. But a plain simple scientific calculator with RPN appears to be a thing of the past. Reverse Polish notation is not completely dead yet: it lives on in the form of the HP-12C and some not-yet discontinued graphing calculators with RPL programmability. Is it possible that I am holding the very last RPN calculator from Hewlett-Packard in my hands? I sure hope not, but with the recent discontinuation of the HP-32SII, for the first time in 30 years, Hewlett-Packard no longer sells a "reverse Polish" scientific calculator. This program is not as accurate as the one I wrote for the HP-32S, but it sure requires a lot less program space, even though I haven't even optimized it yet, making use of capabilities in the HP-32SII not present in the Russian models, such as register recall arithmetic. So here it is, a program that actually calculates the complex logarithm of the Gamma function for any complex argument. Since the B3-34 is an RPN calculator that works much like a typical HP machine, adapting the algorithm to the HP-32SII was a fairly trivial exercise. Just today, I received an e-mail from a fellow calculator enthusiast, who forwarded me some remarkable algorithms from one of the numerous Russian books dedicated to the most successful Russian programmable calculator, the B3-34. I've written an implementation of the complex Gamma function for the HP-32S, but rather than repeating it here, here's something new. So writing a Gamma function program, my favorite programming example, makes little sense. Like the HP-32S, the HP-32SII has a built-in extended factorial function that calculates the factorial for any real argument. It also has two shift keys, simplifying menus at the expense of a more cluttered keyboard. To the already impressive capabilities of the HP-32S, this machine adds fractions support, and support for algebraic expressions. This interesting (and, I should add, very good) calculator is an improved version of the HP-32S. It took nearly two months for BID.COM to deliver my order, but finally I have an HP-32SII in my hands.
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