What calculator app do you use?

HP calculators are nice, but are expensive, even secondhand.

EDIT: Posted at the same time as you DrJ, will look at that one.

By the way, you know you (indirectly) introduced me to RPN? You made a thread about RPN calculators on DF some time ago, which got me curious, I tried it and been loving it ever since I got used to it.
 
fronclynne said:
I'm curious. Do you mean good calculators DO or DO NOT violate the order of operations?

xcalc(1), for example, produces "30" when I punch, "5 + 5 * 5 =" which is correct.
Click to expand...

Any good calculators *should* respect proper order of operations.

Windows calc for example does not, neither do most cheaper ``real'' calculators, we have 10 orso different ones at work and I tried them all :(

And yes, xcalc does it correctly. I dislike xcalc for other reasons though.

CS, look at this one: http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/c...2215AA%23ABA

It is a straight-forward scientific calculator, and it looks like a good one.
Click to expand...

That one looks nice, although it's quite a bit more expensive in the Netherlands because of VAT and stuff, in total about 85USD excl. shipping...
 
Carpetsmoker said:
By the way, you know you (indirectly) introduced me to RPN? You made a thread about RPN calculators on DF some time ago, which got me curious, I tried it and been loving it ever since I got used to it.
Click to expand...

Really? I had no idea. For me there was never any getting used to them: I've used them since their first HP 45 offering when I was in High School (when dinosaurs roamed the earth).
 
Carpetsmoker said:
That one looks nice, although it's quite a bit more expensive in the Netherlands because of VAT and stuff, in total about 85USD excl. shipping...
Click to expand...

If you use it fairly regularly, I think it is well worth it. Good tools always are. OTOH, if it is something you use once every couple of weeks or once a month, then probably not.

You should keep in mind that good calculators last forever. I bought an HP 25C as an undergrad, and this one in the early 1980s (*I think*). Other than replacing the batteries once, it is still going strong.
 
SirDice said:
Actually, it isn't. Mathematical precedence dictates that multiplication goes before addition. 50 would be the mathematically correct answer to 5+5*5.
Click to expand...

:q

Multiplication before addition means 5+5*5 = 5+(5*5) = 5+25 = 30 ..

Mister Van Dalen awaits a reply!
 
I ordered the 35s today.

Nice review with some nice comments too:
http://www.stefanv.com/calculators/hp35s.html

DrJ said:
If you use it fairly regularly, I think it is well worth it. Good tools always are. OTOH, if it is something you use once every couple of weeks or once a month, then probably not.
Click to expand...

True.
It's not something I use every day, but when I do use it, I always find myself cursing at those infernal dysfunctional contraptions and wishing for a better one ...

It turned out I could order one from my work, which is somewhat cheaper.
 
Generally along the topic of this thread, don't forget about the Unix utility "units." It does unit conversions, though only between those that use ratios (so no Celcius to Fahrenheit conversions). I always forget some conversions, like various energy units, and some prefixes, like atto, nano, pico and femto, which I work with very often.
 
  • Thanks
Reactions: Oko
DutchDaemon said:
x11/xcalc

Alll it needs is
Code: 
/usr/ports/devel/pkg-config
/usr/ports/x11-toolkits/libXaw
/usr/ports/x11-toolkits/libXtp
Click to expand...

Yet without xbitmaps it will moan, and without font-adobe-* it will moan and will not display square root symbol..

But I'm using it too.
 
fronclynne said:
I'm curious. Do you mean good calculators DO or DO NOT violate the order of operations?

xcalc(1), for example, produces "30" when I punch, "5 + 5 * 5 =" which is correct.
Click to expand...
That problem in mathematics was solved 100 years ago. Normal people use stack-oriented programming languages which in turn use correct reverse Polish notation. Parentheses and "operation priorities" are invented by people like me who make living by occasionally teaching "math" to the weak college students.
 
Carpetsmoker said:
Any good calculators *should* respect proper order of operations.

Windows calc for example does not, neither do most cheaper ``real'' calculators, we have 10 orso different ones at work and I tried them all
Click to expand...

Just to be fair: The "standard view" of Windows calc does not respect the proper order. The "scientific" (I don't know it's called in english version) does respect the proper order.

Regards
Markus
 
Emacs users have a few options within Emacs itself.
  1. You can simply evaluate lisp expressions like (+ 5 (* 5 5)).
  2. Use calc, which uses RPN and is sometimes referred to as the poor man's Mathematica because it can do some symbolic math, has arbitrary precision, and (a subset of) other goodies found in more complex packages.
  3. ESS makes using the math/R statistical package inside Emacs powerful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top