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The Definitive User's Guide to the HP 48g/49g/50g Calculators | 
| Author: Thomas B. Barber
Buy New: $18.95
as of 11/22/2009 16:03 CST details
Seller: HPCalculatorsCom
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 102730
Media: Spiral-bound
ASIN: B000U2M5JM
Publication Date: 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
HP provides an impressive quantity of user documentation, but quantity is no guarantee of quality! Tom Barber has been a professional programmer of the C/UNIX persuasion for more than 25 years, hooked on HP calculators since his college days when he implemented Gaussian quadrature on the HP25. The reputation of HP calculators as being somewhat difficult to use, has a lot to do with the user documentation. That is why he wrote this book.
Written primarily for novice users, experienced users who occasionally find themselves frustrated may also find help within the pages. The author takes a tutorial approach for certain topics such as the Equation Writer, and overall, his narrative explanations are better organized and more complete than HPs manuals. He uses tables and lists for topics where a more accessible summary of essential facts and behaviors is needed. He paid careful attention to the importance of writing in a clear, precise manner.
Topics covered include:
Essential Architectural Features
Keypad operation
Essential calculator modes
What the CAS modes Numeric and Approx actually do
Basic entry techniques using the command line
Techniques and commands to manage global variables
The text editor
The Equation Writer
Screen-based re-use of prior expressions
Lists
Custom menus
Unit objects, Units conversions and the Constants Library
Complex numbers and ordered pairs
Vectors and arrays
Binary integers and number bases
Character/Text Strings
The Matrix Writer
Statistics applications
The Equation Solver
The TVM Financial Solver
The numerical solvers for polynomials and systems of equations
Programmatic management of the stack in RPN mode
Recursive evaluation of the RPN command line and RPL programs
Programming the calculator in RPL
Techniques for manipulating algebraic expressions symbolically
Plotting
The File Manager
System Operation
8.5 x 11, 110 pages, equivalent to 250 pages in a more typical handbook format.
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| Customer Reviews:
 mostly a descriptive version of the printed manual. nice and to the point. November 2, 2009
Les Kraut (central utah)
I have not had time to read the manual completely but about half way through.
It is very concise reading and is to the point. seems to cover everything so far as I can see.
 Gives me a headache... October 29, 2009
K2 (Semi-Autonomous People's Republic of Brooklyn)
This guide does contain a lot of valuable information, but it is very poorly written - not a professional quality document - lengthy, wordy prose, long paragraphs, poorly organized. For some reason, these calculators are plagued with horrible documentation, no matter who writes it. Apparently, the assumption is that if you're smart enough to use them, you should be smart enough to figure them out. This is true - but it's time consuming and not worth it unless you REALLY need the functionality they provide. If you must use one of the advanced HP calculators, this pamplet may be of some help if it doesn't give you a headache - otherwise buy an HP 40GS, which is the best grapher on the market by a long shot and costs half the price of a 50G. 40GS comes with a great manual and is very intuitive to use and program.
 A Little Better Than Okay April 6, 2009
Zhen C. Zhu
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am a novice to programmable calculators.And I have to say, the book was written a little better than the HP 50g user's manual, and I often get a headaches reading this book.
But I did learn some things from this book --directly and indirectly. Here's what I learned directly from this book: RPN, Number Format, CAS Modes, Equation Writer, and Equation Solver. While I was reading this book I also found some incredible features. Such as factoring expressions like 3x^3+14x^2+17x+6 to (x+1)*(x+3)*(3x+2)and vice versa.
The calculator is impressive, and this book did introduce me to some awesome features.
If the book had more graphical illustrations and more examples, I would give it five stars. Because I was often lost just reading the texts.
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