NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Calculators for Navigation
From: Monte Lee Mechler
Date: 1999 Mar 14, 08:43 EST
From: Monte Lee Mechler
Date: 1999 Mar 14, 08:43 EST
Does anyone still calcualte thier sites - star and sun via normal math w/ out the programmagle ones. I use the Starpath forms to do all my reductions. It is completely by hand.........but, I know what is going on. Is it better to use the programmables instead? LTJG Monte Mechler, CEC, USN ---------- > From: Daniel K. Allen (Visual C++) <danallen@XXX.XXX> > To: 'Mike Wescott' <mike.wescott@XXX.XXX>; Titanium Tom <titom@XXX.XXX> > Cc: Dan Hogan <dhhogan@XXX.XXX > Subject: [Nml] Calculators for Navigation > Date: Friday, March 12, 1999 12:21 PM > > Personally I prefer to spend my time doing lots of programming on my HP-48GX > to get sight reduction to the fewest keystrokes! The HP 48 uses very little > power and has great built-in functionality. It has a strange programming > language called RPL (Reverse Polish Lisp) but it is quite powerful. Sadly > HP is doing very little with calculators any more. > > My best nav programs are written in the C programming language and run on my > laptops, although I am about to port them to a small HP620LX Windows CE > machine... which is what HP is putting its efforts to now. At least these > machines can be programmed in C -- a big step forward -- but they do not > support much programming on the machine: you need to write the programs on a > desktop machine running Windows 98 or NT. > > I've begun experimenting with some nav software written as an Excel > spreadsheet, and it actually works quite well. These Handheld PCs that run > Windows CE (like the HP620LX and their newer Jornada) have a Pocket Excel in > ROM and one CAN program on the handheld machine in Excel simply by writing > formulas. (No macros or VBA yet though.) > > One of the great advantages of using Excel for numerical calculations is > that you can see as much of your intermediate results as you want along the > way. You can change just one variable and see how it affects the answer, > etc. Writing nav software using Excel is actually pretty promising! > > Dan > danallen@XXX.XXX > > -----Original Message----- > From: Mike Wescott [mailto:mike.wescott@XXX.XXX] > Sent: Friday, March 12, 1999 6:18 AM > To: Titanium Tom > Cc: Dan Hogan; navigation@XXX.XXX > Subject: Re: [Nml] Silicon Sea II: Show of Hands > > > > > What type of calculator is the best for working the calculations, should > it be > > programable? > > Personally, I prefer minimal computer help for doing the Silicon Sea > problems > (and maximal help on the open sea). I use a simple calculator and plotting > sheets. If I weren't too lazy to use an Ageton method (or one of it's > relatives, > I would do without the calculator. > > > -- > -Mike Wescott > mike.wescott@XXX.XXX > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= > =-= TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send this message to majordomo@XXX.XXX: =-= > =-= navigation =-= > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= =-= TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send this message to majordomo@XXX.XXX: =-= =-= navigation =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=