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I was a huge fan of the HP16C but it is now long dead and I've decided that I must have some sort of replacement. It might as well run on my desktop, like everything else. For some time after it died I used anything that was available, including MacsBug (yep... that's a bit weird but it mostly works). I eventually settled on Bitwise by Eric V. Curtis. If you've never seen it (and have a Mac with Classic installed) you should take a look... I always liked the nibble/byte marks and the classic gate operations. I ended up with version 1.4 while the last version made available was 1.8.1 (I wish I knew how that happened). I'm tired of Classic and I need something native (because I can't fall back to MacsBug?) so I need to find something new.
Here are a couple good jumping off points if you too are searching... RPN/RPL Calculator implementations, a list of and RPN/RPL Implementations. Both are FAQs which get updated from time to time.
The most popular item is an HP16C simulation in Visual Basic (did I read that right?) and another for the Palm. These won't work. That led to a swing based HP16C clone which is both interesting and frustrating (I want a local application!)
Moving on we find Emu48 for Mac OS X, a free emulator for modern HP calculators. I played around with a few of these and I'm lost. I assume that after the factory reset I'm stuck in some non calculator mode that I need to get out of. It's an interesting concept, but doesn't work for me (yet). One thing worth noting, they use MovableType for the parts of project pages.
From there I wandered over to MPCalc, a multi-precision RPN scientific calculator. It uses the C++ NTL Library, a library for big numbers (and a few other big number concepts). I also found RPN Calculator, another calculator which uses the NTL Library. I'm going to hang onto this one, even though it's not really what I want (I need bit twiddling).
Eventually via VersionTracker, I wandered over to PCalc (which I already had). For now, that also seems to be where I'm going to stay. The binary and hex support is good, even in RPN mode. We need 64 bit support... it sounds like I need to let James know.
Posted by Dave at November 18, 2003 11:26 PMHave you tried X48, an excellent HP48GX emulator? I use it so often that sometimes I forget that I have an actual 48GX in my office drawer.
Posted by: Kjoules on November 19, 2003 11:46 AM commLinkI have now... it's pretty nifty.
Thanks for the tip.
Hah, I remember when I first joined your team and you proudly showed me how to do simple calculations using MacsBug. So long ago.
Posted by: KayaBowl on December 1, 2003 11:57 PM commLinkKayaBowl,
You crack me up. I'd forgotten that I actually showed people how to do basic bit twiddling in MacsBug. Talk about your lost arts... that's gone forever. Just like the proper use of a slide rule.
It wasn't really all that long ago to me. Too long at one company? Perhaps, but I'm inclined to consider other factors. Doc Searls had a good comment not long ago about how fast things seem to move as you get older, which rings true.
I need to take you out to lunch soon (Mako, Kabuki, you name it), it's been too long since we did lunch. I think I might still owe you for a certain OSU vs FSU game in which case we have to make the destination better.
Posted by: Dave Ely on December 4, 2003 10:05 AM commLink