Re: The HP 35S has arrived...

[expanded -- first "send" might have got lost, anyway]

JHM:

There was very good reason for the original HP35's
arithmetic key placement, however, which was on the
left, with [+] and [*] adjacent in the middle
of the grouping, but that has long been forgotten.

On Tue, 29 May 2007 08:23:50 -0500, Dave wrote:

And what were those good reasons?

Your right hand (most people are right-handed)
does not hide the keys while you are entering digits,
so you can see the (less frequently pressed)
operation keys all the time, and may find them
slightly faster and with fewer errors.

Being a right hander I find having the last key I usually press (the
arithmetic keys) on the left hand side very inefficient, as I have to
move my hand to the left side, press the key and then bring my hand
all the way back over to the naturally resting right side again.
That's poor layout in my book. Having the arithmetic keys on the right
side is more natural and efficient IMHO.

If the operation keys were on the right, the (more frequently pressed)
7,4,1,0 column of digit keys would be just as far to the left instead
(see the photo at http://www.hpmuseum.org/four35s.jpg);
in fact, all the (more frequently pressed) digit keys
would be farther to the left than otherwise,
so you would, given that you rest your hand on the right side,
always be performing more movement over the long run,
however you may believe otherwise (ask people who are unaware
of what's to be analyzed to just work out some problems,
make videos of their movements, and see what adds up).

The grouping of the (more frequently used) [+] and [*]
operators at the center seems also to have been based
on similar consideration, including that the sequence
[*] [+] is used all the time when adding sums of products.

We don't primarily use scientific calculators now to add up
long grocery lists or invoices, however, so other considerations,
including "what everyone else (or a competitor) does"
come to be more important.

Oh, by the way, if having operation keys at the right,
by your resting hand, is so important, why isn't
the frequently used ENTER key being at the very bottom right,
accompanying the arithmetic keys,
the very best place for it to be?

On the original HP35, ENTER was in fact at the top
of the arithmentic operators column; as time has passed
(and the 49 series appeared), many wails have arisen
about ENTER having moved to where it is, still along with
the other most common functions, but I never heard anyone
wail about the earlier moving of the arithmetic keys,
perhaps because everyone was already conditioned
by the rest of the industry having generally
put arithmetic keys on the right, in the same order,
which now one would fight to keep, just because
it's become ingrained habit (which itself is one reason
for established precedent to continue being followed,
even if arbitrary, just as in law).

--
.

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