111–120 of 130 posts
I have a Swiss Micros DM42, a modern clone of the HP42s on my desk and I have the plus42/free42 app on pretty much every device I own. Stack based calculators are great because the stack works as a little scratchpad when I'm trying to figure something out. If I'm solving a problem of any complexity I'll move to a more appropriate tool like python or a spreadsheet, but for the simple math that needs to be done around…
It's a similar argument to the touch-screen vs. physical buttons debate in car dashboard design (but hopefully with fewer fatalities): A button I can feel (and that never gets moved around the interface overnight due to some cargo-culting UX dev) wins every time.
I have an old HP 15C RPN scientific calculator. - I know where the buttons are without looking. - It has functions my Android calculator does not have (directly or that I know of). - It has a strange satisfying tactile feedback. - It never interrupts me. Ever. - It never distracts me. Ever. I reach for it frequently.
I use a junky $5 calculator when I'm working with my mill and lathe. It's easier to have the little thing there at hand in the machine shop to do quick calculations than to have a whole computer.
Same, but for the cleanliness and safety of my phone.
As a habit, I do not touch others' phones. CoVid helped solidify this decision, but meeting a sex worker that also cleaned houses was the real eye-opener — she would casually go from cleaning a toilet to washing dishes to fluffing johns... then hop right back on her phone. In my previous career (as electrician) many crawlspace disasters were photographed on my own personal device.
Obviously no hand-washing was involved in the above observations. I personally no longer use a mobile phone. Hand sanitizer is my fragrance (I add witch hazel ... shh!)
For quick conversions → Chrome address bar (10 USD in EUR, 1.82 m in inches, ...)
For additions, multiplications, substractions and divisions: my android built in calculator because it has a large display and it is independent from my monitors
For advanced calculations, Wolfram Alpha ← it is really good (when it understands what I men which is often, or otherwise ChatGPT as below). The only problem with this one is that it is greeting me with emojis, cracking some jokes and generally tells me about his life before telling me how long)
Or recently ChatGPT/Gemini ("200 MB on 140 Mbps how long")
For personal use, I have an android emulator that runs TI 89 titanium. It hits the sweet spot for me in terms of completely covering basic and advanced features I would need from a calculator. If I need something extremely basic, I use the one built into Google search. If I ever feel myself limited by the 89, it's always been because I am trying to do something that would be better served by Excel or Desmos.
The best calculator is the one most easily available. I personally don't see value in keeping a separate device. On the other hand, I will go out of my way to make sure the keyboard I am using has a dedicated numpad. There's nothing that comes close to the efficiency of tactile keys when it comes to doing long numeric calculations.