Re: LaPlace Transforms in TI89 and HP48 compared by Perez-Franco


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Re: LaPlace Transforms in TI89 and HP48 compared by Perez-Franco



In article <CALC-TI%1999012014360331@peach.ease.lsoft.com>,
Ray Kremer  <raykremer@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>I agree, to a point.  It is nice to know about the HP48 so that when first
>time calculator buyers want to know which one to buy we can tell them.  Also,
>when the HP people say it's better than the TI, they seem to half a valid
>point about half of the time.

        Actually, I feel that you have your statistics inverted.
        About %25 of the time, the TI's are the better machine.
        (Yes, I own both).

>                               I don't doubt that there are some very specific
>things the HP48 does better than the TI-89.

        There are; just as there functions for which the TI-89 shines.

>                                             (Though this doesn't stop the
>89 from being easier for students to use.)

        <Strongly stated negative comments deleted.>

        The TI-89 is a nightmare to use effectively.  If it were not for
        the previously mentioned functions for which the TI-89 shines,
        I would have destroyed and thrown away the TI-89 I own.

        A major of the TI-89's problems are the fault of its manual.
        The manual is poorly indexed.  Significant operational data
        is in the margin notes.  The manual is not a reference manual;
        such a complex calculator _requires_ a good, well-indexed
        reference manual.

        The calculator fights the user whom wants to use the result stack
        as a result stack or wants to redo the last computation with
        minor changes.  I have learned ``how to break its fingers'' with
        respect to this design flaw.

        The calculator converts arithmetic problems done in decimal
        arithmetic to fractions when the results easily could have
        been presented in decimal form.  This can be very surprising.
        It took a two hour reading session with the manual to discover
        both the reason for the behavior and how to recover the expected
        form of the answer.

        The calculator has a heavy business school as against engineering
        orientation.  It strongly supports spreadsheets and certain
        types of statistics e.g. curve fitting to a logistics equation)
        much beloved by the business school courses.  It does not have
        determine best fit to all types of curves known to the machine
        function.  My needs are for an engineering class of machine.

        The machine needs a much stronger and more reasonable programming
        language than BASIC.  The BASIC family of languages was designed
        to be a first computer language for people whom do not know how
        to program.  It since has been determined that that is a very
        poor idea because of the ``if one has a hammer, then everything
        looks like a nail'' problem of teaching people to use other
        computer languages which are designed for proper programming.
        (That is not just my opinion.  N. Wirth, the designer of Pascal,
        which has a similar purpose, stated that about Pascal.)  It
        does not have to be RPN nor C/C++ like; but the goto construct
        needs to be dropped from whatever language is used (it leads
        to very poor programming practices).  Something like awk
        might be appropriate.

        The machines needs to improve its notation.  As an example,
        the arctangent function is much less ambigious as atan than
        as tan^-1.  Yes, I know that that notation is much beloved
        by lower level teachers (partially because it creates such
        grand confusions on tests---did the teacher mean arctangent
        or cotangent by tan^-1 (it could mean either!))?

        The machine should have been designed for teaching students well;
        not for easy learning to use by teachers.

>However, this is a TI list, and it is bothersome when we spend so much time
>dwelling on the HP48.

        Then, stop the cross-postings in the HP news groups in the
        same manner as you are unhappy about in the TI news groups.
        (Yes, I read both.)

>                       Especially when someone asks "How do I do x on my TI?"
>and some smart-ass replies "Buy an HP48."  That's no help, the asker already
>has the TI.  Intelligent commentary on the differences between the two I can
>stand, but some of the HP people have some kind of holy war against TI, and
>that is very annoying (they also doth protest too much, as if they really
>were jealous of something).

        Hmmm, to me, it seems that the shoe is on the other foot.

>>I thought that the whole idea of this list was about TI's, not HPs.  As I
>>recall, i think that there was no mention of HPs at all in this list.
>>Frankly,  (and i speak for probably more than myself), who gives a rat's ass
>>about HP and whether it is better or not.  If I wanted an HP, I would have
>>bought one.  Lets talk about the TI's.

        Here,  I am in agreement.  But, I would permit questions of
        the form:  ``I can do .... easily on the HP48.  How can I
        do that on the TI-89?''  Then, maybe, the problems with the
        Ti-89 manual might be addressed.

>>We signed up for intelligent commentary on the TI product line, not HP.  So
>>if you "HP is way better blah blah" guys are jealous, you can probably start
>>your own list at listbot.com or something.

        The HP48 comments are not ``blah, blah.''

        I have yet to see an HP48 related comment that was
        technically incorrect in this group.  However, I have
        seen postings here that ought to have been only in the
        HP48 news group

        I do feel that the recent postings comparing the performance
        of the two machines, both wich problems they could solve on
        what basis and the time needed to solve those problems are
        appropriate in _both_ news groups.

        In this news group, if the HP consistently out performed the
        TI, then that would be good reason to pressure TI to upgrade
        the TI family of machines.  Just as some of the areas in which
        the TI shines is being used to apply some pressure on HP.

Randolph J. Herber, herber@dcdrjh.fnal.gov, +1 630 840 2966, CD/CDFTF PK-149F,
Mail Stop 318, Fermilab, Kirk & Pine Rds., PO Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510-0500,
USA.  (Speaking for myself and not for US, US DOE, FNAL nor URA.)  (Product,
trade, or service marks herein belong to their respective owners.)


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