Button feedback, reduced chance of fat fingered mistype. Doesn’t tie up phone holding numbers on screen.
Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?
51–60 of 130 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?
#52Oi! You forgot adding machines. Big buttons, +/- features, auto-tax. And! Inexplicably none of the pre-installed calculators emulate them—bizarre.
And yes, I do use an adding machine, Sharp EL-1750
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?
#53I keep my ~25 year old Ti-83 or 84 from middle and high school in my shop because I find using it while working on stuff with dirty hands much easier than my phone or tablet. I just need something which basically never needs new batteries and lets me use parentheses to group expressions and the occasional trig function. I think the current batteries are almost ten years old now.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?
#54I think you accidentally a verb. But, yes. Casio fx-991EX. It's designed for schools, I think, but at the time it was the most advanced one they made that wasn't a graphing calculator, since I figured that if I ever wanted to draw a graph I'd just fire up "Grapher", which is still bundled with every Mac. In about a decade I think I've done that once. The Casio is great. Looks like it's discontinued now? I guess the f…
There’s a 991CW 2nd edition out even. Because they’ve realised they forgot to make the different “apps” accessible by pressing a number button. In the original 991CW, you always have to use the arrow buttons to select the feature you want to use.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?
#55There's a farm here in Zurich where we buy a lot of our groceries. The store is unmanned. You use their calculator (or your cellphone calculator) to add up what you're buying then use your phone to scan a QR code and pay.
That’s so cool, I wish something like this existed in the states. That’s the kind of trust local communities thrive in <3
These exist all over in the U.S. There are easily hundreds in my area, though I only frequent a dozen or so.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?
#56HP-42S; cold dead hands; etc.
Why?
Satisfyingly-clicky real buttons in memorizable positions
Easy to grab without thinking
I have a functionally identical emulator on my phone, which is far better than the built-in calcualtor, but it's a supremely dissatisfying substitute for the real thing.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?
#57- I have a HP 16C, mainly for doing number conversions (DEC-HEX-BIN) and binary arithmetic. - I have a HP 15C to take with me all the time (due to its small form factor). - I have a HP 48 GX as main calculator, it is most feature complete and has a clock and alarms. I use it a lot for time calculations. - I have a HP 48 SX, but did not use it much any more after acquiring the 48 GX. - I have a HP 10bII+, which was a…
Neat collection! Do you have advice on how to use those calculators with modern tooling? For example I remember there were cross-compilers for the hp48 [0], do you use any of that (and how do you transfer data to/from the calculators)? [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20250124204959/https://sourcefor...
No, I do not get that deep. I used to exchange data on the Ti-92 plus and the Classpad. Connecting those devices is either rather outdated (serial port with USB converter) and/or comes with vendor subscriptions, which I am not willing to pay.
Maybe, if I had more time ;-)
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?
#58I 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 can't think of another electronic device that has survived and remained useful for half the 43 years my 15C has - through two years of high school, a math degree, and an entire software engineering career. When I calculate something any other way, it involves thinking about what my thumbs automatically do on my 15C and translating that.
When I'm away from it, there's a wonderful emulation of the 15C (and 16C) at https://jrpn.jovial.com. The numeric algorithms behave identically as far as I can tell, and it even includes the back panel (3-dot menu near the logo, then "Help"). The visuals make me feel right at home. If only they could reproduce the tactile experience.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?
#59I 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 the edges personally and professionally, I like a calculator. If I'm at my desk, I'll use the physical version.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?
#60I actually own one, a Casio. Simple reason, I'm a ham radio operator and you need one for the exams.
FCC license exams I am assuming?
I'm German, but yeah, our version of the license exam.
To add to the original question, even for normal operations (e.g. calculating exposure limits), I prefer the "natural" way of entering a formula with fractions over having to manually think about braces like I'd have to do with the macOS calculator.