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Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#91

Post by runjake »

Yes, I use one all the time. I have a small collection of them, depending on the task.

As for why I use them?

- They are tactile.

- They are forgiving, pushing a button doesn't accidentally swipe to some random app or screen or slide down notifications.

- The physical calculator doesn't interrupt my work with a notification or popup.

I realize it makes me a boomer, but using modern smartphone interfaces, especially post-home button iOS, feels like interacting with a UI sitting on top of a banana peel. Buttons now require more precise and well-timed touches to activate their actions (eg: the buttons on the lock screen). I frequently find myself accidentally swiping between apps or navigating to new views.

I really wish I could go back to the old way of having a singular app be the focus, and having a home button or something I can press to switch between app contexts, without all the easily triggered and hidden gestures.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#92

Post by idontwantthis »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #4

I 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…

I have never known about Grapher in all my years of Mac use. Thank you!

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#93

Post by tkgally »

Froedlich wrote: post #88
tkgally wrote: post #21

I don't, but I sometimes see them used here in Japan. Some small-shop operators use them to add up charges and show the total to the customer. I was recently in the office of a small company, and I noticed that the bookkeeper had a calculator next to a pile of paper (receipts?) on her desk. She also had a computer in front of her with a spreadsheet on the screen. When I moved here forty-three years ago, it was common…

Back in the (early 1960s?) Isaac Asimov wrote a book on how to do arithmetic calculations in your head. He pointed out that someone who developed that skill could solve problems faster in their head than by reaching for a slide rule, and they wouldn't necessarily be limited to slide rule approximations. Engineers, accountants, etc. would be more productive by being able to do calculations without having to reach for…

That’s one reason the abacus hasn’t been completely replaced by calculators: some abacus users become able to calculate very quickly in their heads by visualizing the changing bead positions. In Japanese the skill is called 暗算 anzan, literally “dark calculation.”

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#94

Post by voidUpdate »

I still use my casio fx-83gtx from time to time, if I'm doing something especially complicated. Having a physical devices feels nicer than using windows calculator or my phone. I use desmos for things where graphs would give more insight, and wolfram alpha where I need more than the specific answer, and some information around it might be useful

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#96

Post by akst »

Yeah, there’s something convenient about a dedicated device when you’re using a notebook and pen and your only other screen is your phone. It’s also nice not having to dedicate screen space to a calculator too.

If I have something more complicated with more moving pieces and data points I will just write a python script.

I like the CASIO fx-CG50, is good but there are more feature rich calculators out there, it’s just less finicky than my more powerful TI-nspire CX II one. I also just kind of dig the aesthetic of the UI reminds me of my old Nintendo DS.

My TI one is good for verifying algebraic substitutions as it’s a proper CAS one.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#97

Post by wolvoleo »

AlphaGeekZulu wrote: post #28

- 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…

The 16C is amazing, I wish I had one as I'm doing a lot of embedded stuff. But I've always found RPN very annoying. Though I guess with binary/hex stuff I would use it mostly for conversion anyway.

But they don't make them anymore it seems.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#98

Post by wolvoleo »

ralferoo wrote: post #40

The first time I went to China and spoke basically no Mandarin (just "want", "don't want", "this one", "that one", "how much money", "thank you") I took a cheap calculator when I went shopping for electronics and just let people type in the price they wanted. It was also useful for haggling too.

When I went to Thailand all the merchants had calculators for exactly that purpose:)

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#100

Post by seanhunter »

buddylw wrote: post #59

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…

Me too. Love my DM42. I also have an HP35s and two HP12Cs still on the batteries they were rocking over 10 years ago when I used them daily in my finance days.

To answer the op's question, any RPN calculator is wildly better than the default calculators on things like iOS once you take the time to learn to use it[1]. If you want a good calculator app, Thomas Okken's free42 is a great, free HP42S emulator which runs on iOS. I still prefer a physical calculator (eg the swissmicros has more screen space so you can see 4 lines of stack and dedicated function buttons) but it's much better than the default.

[1] Great support for complex numbers in polar or rectangular form, fewer keypresses for multi-step operations, no ambiguity (whatsoever) about operator order without any need for parentheses, vast number of memory slots (not just one), the ability to write a program to do anything you can do manually on the calculator so you can automate anything you do frequently, numerical integration and root finding etc etc there are many many benefits.

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