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Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending
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Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending
#22Related story (the author describing the TI monopoly jogged my memory): I am part of the generation that was required to buy a big blue or black graphing calculator. As a high schooler I was indignant that we were being told to buy from just one company. So, based on reviews posted in a variety of online forums, I bought an HP-48 instead of the specified TI. After telling all my friends that my new calculator was goi…
Calculators without RPN feel like a joke after an HP 48. The keys are a sheer tactile delight, too!
Oh yeah! The keys were amazing. They rank right up there with popping bubble wrap in terms of satisfaction they bring. They had a crazy high activation force and zero ambiguity as to whether or not they had clicked.
Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending
#23Do you all hear that? What is it? It's the fond-memory train coming to this thread. A friend and I were programming a text-and-map based RPG on the Ti-85. It was really awesome, you could walk around on the map from town to town and enemies would find you kinda like Final Fantasy, then you fight them. Anyway we were pretty far into the game. I started programming a "Quadra Pong" game at the same time. This Quadra Pon…
should've used version control \s
(truly sorry for your loss!)
Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending
#24Going digital would have some other advantages too. It would be easy to make a staged calculator where buttons only appear as you learn how to use them, for instance, so you don't stick a calculator in an Algebra II student's face that has stuff for calculus on it, which only contributes to the mystique of "math being hard". For a specialist who uses physical calculators all the time for serious computations, the adv…
Pretty much anyone working non trivially in STEM fields would find a physical calculator usefull - Acountants would be another group. Which reminds me I must see if I can get a replacement battery for my old HP RPN Calculator
I just use a computer, since generally I'm already using it when I have a question, it has many more resources, and it's easier to program complex calculations in.
Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending
#25Do you all hear that? What is it? It's the fond-memory train coming to this thread. A friend and I were programming a text-and-map based RPG on the Ti-85. It was really awesome, you could walk around on the map from town to town and enemies would find you kinda like Final Fantasy, then you fight them. Anyway we were pretty far into the game. I started programming a "Quadra Pong" game at the same time. This Quadra Pon…
On the TI-86 you could put machine code into programs (as hex strings). I lacked the cable to connect it to my PC so this was great fun. Simple calculation programs were so much faster. Until I mistyped something and bricked it, had to force a full reset (removed batteries and the watch battery). That's probably where I learned to appreciate what my parents had gone through with punch cards in the 70s, manually translating assembly to machine code.
Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending
#2653I8008
Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending
#27It's hard to justify a $100 calculator in the age of $100 2-in-1s.
Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending
#28Related story (the author describing the TI monopoly jogged my memory): I am part of the generation that was required to buy a big blue or black graphing calculator. As a high schooler I was indignant that we were being told to buy from just one company. So, based on reviews posted in a variety of online forums, I bought an HP-48 instead of the specified TI. After telling all my friends that my new calculator was goi…
Yes, I used and still have the HP48SX. It got me through college as a math major and then graduate school as well. And the fact that people can't understand RPN doesn't speak well to the caliber of the students in higher education.
It's an interesting mental litmus test. Opposition to RPN is rarely about inability or carefully considered dislike. It's mostly about rejection of difference.
Same deal with lisp syntax. Beginners take to Racket's parens easily, but (some) veteran programmers are dispositionally unwilling to even attempt to see the rationale beyond the learned aesthetics, even when there's so much to gain.
Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending
#29How is replacing a offline device with a connected app better? The school boards should simply certify multiple devices for use in the exams. Hardware is primitive and some enterprising company can devise a much nicer interface and probably at 1/4th price.
There are phone apps too. It is better because you don't need an ad hoc device, but you can use this multi-tool that everyone has instead.
Re: Reign of the $100 graphing calculator is ending
#30Do you all hear that? What is it? It's the fond-memory train coming to this thread. A friend and I were programming a text-and-map based RPG on the Ti-85. It was really awesome, you could walk around on the map from town to town and enemies would find you kinda like Final Fantasy, then you fight them. Anyway we were pretty far into the game. I started programming a "Quadra Pong" game at the same time. This Quadra Pon…
+/- 10-15 years ago i was also programming games on an Ti-83?
There is a cable you can connect the calculator with the usb port of your pc.
very usefull to save your games, and get even more games.
There was also a program, you can program it on your computer, and than sync it to your calculator.