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Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

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Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#21

Post by goldcd »

billfruit wrote: post #19

It has been a great wonder for me that why US highschools seems to require expensive programmable/graphing calculators especially those made by HP/TI. I assume it was some deal made by these companies with the education departments of the states and administrations. In most other countries, students complete university undergraduate courses, let alone high schools with only needing a cheap non-programmable calculator…

There was a podcast that touches on this - https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/28/642675050/hurr...

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#22

Post by jstanley »

billfruit wrote: post #19

It has been a great wonder for me that why US highschools seems to require expensive programmable/graphing calculators especially those made by HP/TI. I assume it was some deal made by these companies with the education departments of the states and administrations. In most other countries, students complete university undergraduate courses, let alone high schools with only needing a cheap non-programmable calculator…

I bought a TI calculator after reading Americans rave about them, and I used it for a while to try and get the hang of it, but the interface really sucks compared to my Casio, so now I just use the Casio. I don't see what's so great about TI calculators.

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#23

Post by MayeulC »

billfruit wrote: post #19

It has been a great wonder for me that why US highschools seems to require expensive programmable/graphing calculators especially those made by HP/TI. I assume it was some deal made by these companies with the education departments of the states and administrations. In most other countries, students complete university undergraduate courses, let alone high schools with only needing a cheap non-programmable calculator…

Well, at least in France, those expensive graphing calculators are mandatory in high school and later if you choose to study sciences.

Some of it is to avoid "cheating" (not using a computer during exams, a new "exam mode" was also recently mandated, with a flashing LED). But I am not sure why calculators are still that expensive today: https://xkcd.com/768/

That, while you can buy a linux-compatible processor for a few dollars, slap python or GNU Octave on it and call it a day.

I think it's in part due to the certification process taking quite a bit of time. Even new incumbents such as https://www.numworks.com/ have relatively poor specs at a high price by today's standards.

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#24

Post by jimnotgym »

billfruit wrote: post #19

It has been a great wonder for me that why US highschools seems to require expensive programmable/graphing calculators especially those made by HP/TI. I assume it was some deal made by these companies with the education departments of the states and administrations. In most other countries, students complete university undergraduate courses, let alone high schools with only needing a cheap non-programmable calculator…

UK too. I had to have a graphing programmable calculator for A levels in the 90s (16-18 year old). My college bulk bought them and sold them to us for a huge discount. I can't remember if they were sharp or casio. At the start of exams you had to erase the memory and show the invigilator.

Those things ate batteries!

If you hit them on the back the outside cover of the screen would pop off. I found drawing a graph on the back of the screen in dry wipe marker, and then popping it back in, was a hilarious trick. People would rub like mad thinking someone had drawn it in the permanent marker (I would leave a permanent marker next to it to help them get the idea).

I always messed around (or snoozed)in maths class, and still got an A. It was much later that I realised I actually had a learning difficulty...

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#25

Post by detaro »

billfruit wrote: post #19

It has been a great wonder for me that why US highschools seems to require expensive programmable/graphing calculators especially those made by HP/TI. I assume it was some deal made by these companies with the education departments of the states and administrations. In most other countries, students complete university undergraduate courses, let alone high schools with only needing a cheap non-programmable calculator…

Germany has plenty schools that use graphing/CAS calculators too. You typically borrow it from the school, so cost doesn't really matter.

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#26

Post by papito »

MayeulC wrote: post #23
billfruit wrote: post #19

It has been a great wonder for me that why US highschools seems to require expensive programmable/graphing calculators especially those made by HP/TI. I assume it was some deal made by these companies with the education departments of the states and administrations. In most other countries, students complete university undergraduate courses, let alone high schools with only needing a cheap non-programmable calculator…

Well, at least in France, those expensive graphing calculators are mandatory in high school and later if you choose to study sciences. Some of it is to avoid "cheating" (not using a computer during exams, a new "exam mode" was also recently mandated, with a flashing LED). But I am not sure why calculators are still that expensive today: https://xkcd.com/768/ That, while you can buy a linux-compatible processor for a…

We should just treat cheating as a skill, as those people will get ahead first anyway.

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#27

Post by jack_pp »

qz2 wrote: post #18
parsimo2010 wrote: post #9

Relative to other graphing calculators, I've always felt that Casio's offerings were a good value relative to TI- ever since TI captured the education market they stopped being cool and definitely stopped being a good value. I think that having Python is a neat feature. I have strong opinions about calculators in general, and have owned a wide range of Casio, HP, TI, and even some old/niche ones that only real calcul…

I think your position is unrealistic for an education setting. You’re proposing working computers and smartphones for every desk and student. Computers and apps are not standardised at all. Disparity between them and compatibility issues are a massive contention when you have lots of people to educate. Not only that, even today here in the UK, not every student has a smartphone or a home computer so you’re instantly…

You are saying that there exists a segment of the college student population that will spend 100$ on a scientific calculator but does not own a smartphone?

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#28

Post by blablabla123 »

simonh wrote: post #15
parsimo2010 wrote: post #9

Relative to other graphing calculators, I've always felt that Casio's offerings were a good value relative to TI- ever since TI captured the education market they stopped being cool and definitely stopped being a good value. I think that having Python is a neat feature. I have strong opinions about calculators in general, and have owned a wide range of Casio, HP, TI, and even some old/niche ones that only real calcul…

The problem with allowing phones into maths exams is they have browsers and internet connections, and can store thousands of pages of searchable reference material. The calculators allowed into exams are specifically chose because they do not have these features. My eldest is doing maths at the moment and has an fx-CG50, it also has Python but only a very stripped down subset of MicroPython with just the math and ran…

I never got the point of math exams that required punching in numbers into a constrained calculator interface. And while I was at school nobody enjoyed that either. (FWIW in the 90s I used a PIM database that looked like a calculator and allowed me to store formulas I was too lazy to memorize ;)) At university math no calculator is required anyways and everything can be done on paper. And when going to the supermarket with a constrained budget, you definitely don't want to stand in front of the products and summing up the items using a calculator (or smartphone for that matter) but rather use your hopefully developed numeric intuition to stay within your budget

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#29

Post by pansa2 »

> Please note that MicroPython is different from the Python that runs on a computer.

I once considered embedding MicroPython into a (software) product myself, but was dissuaded by the number of people who didn’t like being limited to a subset of Python.

Instead I used Lua, which is much less widely-known but is small enough to embed the whole language.

It’s interesting that Casio made the opposite decision. There’s definitely a trade-off between embedding MicroPython (“it’s the language you already know, but you need to learn which bits are missing”) and Lua (“you need to learn the language, but it’s the same everywhere”).

Re: Casio Graphing Scientific Calculator Fx-9860GIII Comes with MicroPython

#30

Post by fireattack »

laurentdc wrote: post #20
parsimo2010 wrote: post #9

Relative to other graphing calculators, I've always felt that Casio's offerings were a good value relative to TI- ever since TI captured the education market they stopped being cool and definitely stopped being a good value. I think that having Python is a neat feature. I have strong opinions about calculators in general, and have owned a wide range of Casio, HP, TI, and even some old/niche ones that only real calcul…

I don't know how much things have changed in ten years but when I was in university I simply couldn't find a computer calculator software that had the same easy to use UI as my HP 40gs or even a basic Casio fx-991ES. Sure I could fire up Matlab with the Symbolic toolbox or even Derive under wine but nothing came close to just typing in what I wanted and pressing a button. I guess it's more a matter of dedicated physi…

For any "calculations" I definitely prefer a real calculator. The keyboard and screen layout and the fact most of functions have dedicated buttons are simply superior compared to software.

For rediculous things like running/writing Python on calculator here, I would like to use a real computer though.

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