FOCAL (HP-41)

FOCAL is the most common name of the programming language for the HP -41 series calculators from Hewlett -Packard that was started with the model HP -41C. FOCAL is an acronym from Forty One Calculator Language.

FOCAL offers more options than the simple calculator program the computer early days, when simply a sequence of keystrokes that you would type in the manual solution of a problem (possibly supplemented by conditional tests and jump instructions ), has been recorded as a program sequence. However FOCAL offers fewer options than the object-oriented, much more complex " RPL " language of the later, more advanced models HP -28 and HP -48 series.

FOCAL allows the input and output of characters and the accepting user input when prompted, and proved to be sufficiently powerful to expand over the years, the functionality of the HP -41 models and over again.

This programming language is not to be confused with the same programming language for the PDP DEC-Groß-/Minirechner series (also known as FOCAL -69).