hp 12c financial calculator manual download

#Hp 12c financial calculator manual download how to#
#Hp 12c financial calculator manual download pdf#
#Hp 12c financial calculator manual download software#
#Hp 12c financial calculator manual download code#

In fact, some users make this comparison explicit. See discussions here and here for perspectives, if you're interested in seeking one out.Įarlier I drew the comparison between the 12c and an infantryman's rifle. I purchased this one on eBay, and while it's hard to know the exact year, it's at least 15 years old, and in virtually as-new condition.

#Hp 12c financial calculator manual download pdf#

(The original spiral-bound one is also sized to be just about the same footprint as the calculator itself.) Having said that, you can download the updated version of the manual in PDF form on the HP site.Īpparently build quality of newer models is not as good as older ones. These days you'd download that as a PDF, but it is very nice having it as a spiral bound book for easy reference and flipping through. The 12c also came with a large instruction manual that is itself a mini course in arithmetic, and the critical calculations needed for accounting. The back of the calculator provides a cheat-sheet for some calculations. While today we are in the habit of charging our mobile devices every day or so, the 12c can run for months before its tiny button cells need replacing. Instead of increasing the overall thickness, the engineers, just raised the height slightly at the rear (where the batteries are stored), and this serendipitously also helps with typing on the keypad.Īnd the third battery does make a difference. The top surface has a very slight tilt to it, which apparently was a late design change driven by the desire to add a third button-cell battery. Rubber feet on the bottom mean that it resists sliding around your desk. To my fingers, they are not particularly ergonomic or quick to use, but I'm far from expert with it, and presumably you get used to it. The keys require a fair amount of force, and have a distinctive trapezoid shape with sloped front faces. It's surprisingly light weight, but feels sturdy.

#Hp 12c financial calculator manual download code#

(Apparently the 12c is so unchanged after more than three decades that it's still running much the same arithmetical code that Harms wrote for it.) In the Hand

#Hp 12c financial calculator manual download software#

He initially was involved in writing the software code for doing calculations, and then was promoted to project manager for the 12c effort.

The project manager was a man named Dennis Harms, who had a recently acquired PhD in numerical analysis when he joined HP. There's a good chance the case design and graphics were done entirely by an engineer. I haven't been able to find any information on the designer of the 12c, and at that point in HP's history there may not have been a distinct design role. This also shows the evolution of our gadget culture - today all products are 'consumer' looking, but in 1981 a high-end calculator was seen as more of a tool than a desirable consumer product, and so was styled and built accordingly, with an emphasis on rugged functionality. Compare it next to Sony Walkmans of the time, for example, which were much more high-tech looking (in an eighties kind of way), even though they were really just analog/mechanical cassette players and not state-of-the art computing devices. Its utilitarian styling and gold-tone brushed metal panel would have looked more at home in a Radio Shack or Heathkit catalog from the 60's. When it came out in 1981 (same year as the IBM PC), the HP12c would have looked rather old-fashioned even for that time. The 12c was the first calculator by HP to employ RPN, and a few others adopted it since. In addition to reducing the number of keystrokes in some situations, other benefits cited by fans of RPN are that it doesn't require thinking about order of operations when doing longer calculations (eg multiplying happens before adding, or putting parts of the calculation in parentheses in order to force a specific order), and reversing of mistakes doesn't require starting over.

#Hp 12c financial calculator manual download how to#

For a simple comparison, here's how to multiply 4.3 by 2.7: The feature which makes it both beloved and at first confounding is its use of Reverse Polish Notation, or RPN. Even at that price it was an instant success. But when it was launched on September 1, 1981, it retailed for $150 (equivalent to over $400 today). Today the 12c can be bought for under $50.