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The Emacs Calculator (2009)

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11–20 of 57 posts

Re: The Emacs Calculator (2009)

#11
post #10
post #3

Being an old HP48 user, finding Calc was what me fall the rest of the way in love with Emacs. If I'm at the shell prompt I'll still startup GP/Pari for quick calculations, but it's hard to beat Calc for longer sessions. The only downside is that, like any advanced Emacs functionality, if you don't use it frequently you forget all the commands.

And an HP48 emulator is still what I use on my phone as a calculator. For the reason you mention, I need to get into the habit of using Calc for my quick calculations; right now, I usually use Google (ick, infix notation) or dc.

I'm the same! None of the native RPN apps even come close.

Re: The Emacs Calculator (2009)

#12
post #3

Being an old HP48 user, finding Calc was what me fall the rest of the way in love with Emacs. If I'm at the shell prompt I'll still startup GP/Pari for quick calculations, but it's hard to beat Calc for longer sessions. The only downside is that, like any advanced Emacs functionality, if you don't use it frequently you forget all the commands.

“The only downside is that, like any advanced Emacs functionality, if you don't use it frequently you forget all the commands.”

I thought this was happening only to me... but I’ve ditched Vim and went Emacs 100% so it’s bit better now, since I’ve been stuck with using both for like a year.

Re: The Emacs Calculator (2009)

#13
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL about SpeedCrunch! http://www.speedcrunch.org/ http://www.speedcrunch.org/download.html even links to 32- and 64-bit prebuilt Qt binaries for Linux. Nice.

How does it compare with good old command line 'mc'?

you mean "bc" ? Dunno, never used a lot.

For computations such as 10+3, it's comparabale. But I give SpeedCrunch an dedge because it can compute "sin(pi/2)" out of the box.

Re: The Emacs Calculator (2009)

#14
post #8

Calc is so useful to have right there. I have never used Windows calc since discovering the emacs one many years ago. Once I got used to it I had to find an RPN one for my phone (RealCalc and PCalc for Android and IOS, respectively). Algebraic formulas are great but beyond my typical reuse recall duration.

Could you explain why you feel RPN is better for you ? I've never been able to get used to it... Maybe I get it wrong...

Re: The Emacs Calculator (2009)

#15
post #5
post #2

I love Emacs but the calculator, being stack based is just too awkward for me. I know there is the "algebraic mode" but it still is too much. Is there a way to configure it to work like, say, SpeedCrunch (my favorite calculator by far) ?

TIL about SpeedCrunch! http://www.speedcrunch.org/ http://www.speedcrunch.org/download.html even links to 32- and 64-bit prebuilt Qt binaries for Linux. Nice.

I use Qalculate which is awesome and has similar features.

https://qalculate.github.io/

Re: The Emacs Calculator (2009)

#16
post #3

Being an old HP48 user, finding Calc was what me fall the rest of the way in love with Emacs. If I'm at the shell prompt I'll still startup GP/Pari for quick calculations, but it's hard to beat Calc for longer sessions. The only downside is that, like any advanced Emacs functionality, if you don't use it frequently you forget all the commands.

I find it so surprising that I got a HP48 young, felt in love with RPL, then later liked emacs, then later loved lisp and realizing they were all connected.

Re: The Emacs Calculator (2009)

#17
post #2

I love Emacs but the calculator, being stack based is just too awkward for me. I know there is the "algebraic mode" but it still is too much. Is there a way to configure it to work like, say, SpeedCrunch (my favorite calculator by far) ?

Gotta raise my hand here too. I'm in my mid-40's, have worked at all levels of the software stack, have played with favored development tools of like nine generations of engineers.

I still can't wrap my brain around a RPN calculator well enough to use it productively (but boy howdy can I tell you how the stack engine works!). All the cool kids in physics class in the 80's were using HP's, and I felt left out even then. Never managed to make it work for myself.

Re: The Emacs Calculator (2009)

#18
post #2

I love Emacs but the calculator, being stack based is just too awkward for me. I know there is the "algebraic mode" but it still is too much. Is there a way to configure it to work like, say, SpeedCrunch (my favorite calculator by far) ?

I mainly use the algebraic mode

Just prefix every expression with '

Re: The Emacs Calculator (2009)

#19
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And an HP48 emulator is still what I use on my phone as a calculator. For the reason you mention, I need to get into the habit of using Calc for my quick calculations; right now, I usually use Google (ick, infix notation) or dc.

I'm the same! None of the native RPN apps even come close.

RPN is so efficient when you are running a series of calcs when you learn it. I feel icky now if I use algebraic input or calculator and I have to backspace. It's like using a word processor, not a calculator! I am in Emacs all day for all things. It is a big mess of a world I like muddying about in!

Re: The Emacs Calculator (2009)

#20
JOE also had a calculator: Esc M

It tries to include features of a Casio scientific calculator, so includes things like statistics / regression (of selected block) and engineering notation display. It inserts underscores between every three digits for easier reading: 0.123_456

It is not reverse polish.

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