What calculator do you use ?

[secsec]

I mentioned GNU bc above which is coming with basically any linux for quite a while.

Or why not use the dc command instead and get the good stuff (RPN) 

[PA4TIM]

My new calculator. A HP-48G. The PC-1500 and plotter did not work. looked great but nicads and batterys had leaked and did severe damage. The 1500 gives some image but the 3,7Vdisp. is not more as 1.5V and it draws 25mA even when powered off so something is wrong. If it was not all the battery damage I would give repairing a try.

And just finnished repair, a HP-9100A, I have also a 9100B here but that is in very bad shape, faulty HV (Q1 dead), fautlty PSU, missing CRT, non functioning processor, lots of damage by salt water. Probably not fixable. Both are not mine but from a museum.

[rr100]

Been fighting with Korad power supply, no matter, long story short - I need to increment 0.009A with 0.001. Well....... guess what (this is python):

>>> a=0.001+0.009
>>> print(a)
0.01
>>> b=1000*a
>>> print(b)
10.0
>>> print(int(b))
9

(I know WHY this is but really, pretty shocking).

[dannyf]

I started with some really old HP/TI calculators - brown plastic with yellow gold lines, led disiplay.

Then some Casio VFD calculators. Then FX-80/82, Sharp EL502, some Casio programmable, ...

Now, I am on 12C - love it.

[HighVoltage]

The calculators I use most often are:

1. HP 32S II (RPN)
2. HP 15C  (RPN)
3. Sharp PC1350 for fast programming with good size display
4. Sharp PC1600 for more advanced programming and 4 color plotter.

The Sharp PC's are connected to the laptop via RS232 and all programs are stored.
Anything more complex is done on the PC

[magetoo]

Or why not use the dc command instead and get the good stuff (RPN)  ;)

That is precisely what I use.

Interesting that the above comment was posted exactly two years ago today.  (Or should I say "2 365 * p" days ago.)

I just did a currency conversion on the command line before reloading the forum too.

[janengelbrecht]

Answer to question: Ti 89 Platinum.

[gildasd]

If you don't have to contend with exam rules, just get the best one available for less than 150us if you shop around:
- TI cx cas (think of it as a modern TI 89).
- HP prime or 50 (question of taste).
- Casio 991 as a pocket rocket.

On a side note, I just scored a new TI Nspire Touchpad for 1€ and I'm happy as a geek with a calculator.

[GreyWoolfe]

I had a TI-83 attending ITT Technical Institute in the late 90's.  Lent it to my stepdaughter when she was in high school and it was promptly stolen.  Just grabbed a TI-82 at a hamfest for $2 with minor screen issue and I have realCalc on my Nook HD+

[miguelvp]

I used to have a Sharp EL 506P, not sure what happened to it. Did replace it with an EL 506L because my main use for them was/is base conversion.

Now I just use the Windows calculator, although I don't like the change they made in Windows 7 that separates the programmer mode from the scientific mode.

The EL 506L is still around in my desk but I rarely power it up.
Edit: added image since there is a newer 506L model it seems.

[atferrari]

Casio fx-570ES

[saturation]

I still find using hardware calculators for brainstorming, field calculations and cross checking my software faster than using RealCalc on my phone or software calculators on the PC, except when I have to transfer numbers often to another app for further evaluation. 

When US schools went on summer break, Walmart and Amazon dumped inventory on the Casio FX260 for $6, FS-115ES [ called FS-991-ES elsewhere] For $11 and the TI-36XPro for $18.  I picked up a few Casios and a TI.

The last two are staples in US colleges for math and engineering courses.  They can do definite integrals, polynomials, expression evaluation and much more, have been around for nearly 15 years [ as prior model, without 'ES' for Casio or Pro for TI] and have been reviewed extensively by many for strenghts and weaknesses.

I've never liked the first version of VPAM and wrote such calculators off for many years.  But the updated 'VPAM' or textbook displays look very much like you'd write on paper and make entering fairly complex equations into these calculators easier.

Graduates of colleges >=15 years are likely seasoned veterans of these calculators but those of us who were in school before that will find these capabilities another timesaver worth a look, given the cost of these calculators.

There are also 2 other competing units with a similar breath of functions from Sharp and Canon, but they cost more and can be hard to find.  Casio and TI are the leaders in the education fields worldwide and one reason [ if not the only reason] these calculators are still made or so cheap.

[TopLoser]

A 25 year old very battered HP 15C.  This thread has just made me realise how long it's stayed with me through good and bad, one of the few things that's stayed on my desk for more than a few weeks 

Can't see me ever using anything else now, so much so that I've just been trawling eBay looking for a backup one, bloody hell they are more expensive now than when I bought it 25 years ago!!

Some years ago I sold the almost unused HP 16C I had, that fetched an astonishing amount on eBay.

Gasp... just found out they did a limited edition re-issue of it in 2012 - $180 list price and they're now selling for $600+ !! Reviews of it aren't very good either, the quality just isn't there.

ahhh and look at these...
http://www.swissmicros.com/

[HighVoltage]

A 25 year old very battered HP 15C.  This thread has just made me realise how long it's stayed with me through good and bad, one of the few things that's stayed on my desk for more than a few weeks 

Can't see me ever using anything else now, so much so that I've just been trawling eBay looking for a backup one, bloody hell they are more expensive now than when I bought it 25 years ago!!

Some years ago I sold the almost unused HP 16C I had, that fetched an astonishing amount on eBay.

Gasp... just found out they did a limited edition re-issue of it in 2012 - $180 list price and they're now selling for $600+ !! Reviews of it aren't very good either, the quality just isn't there.

ahhh and look at these...
http://www.swissmicros.com/

I did buy 4 pieces of the limited version of the 15C in 2012. The price I paid was just $ 125 and I thought it was a lot.
One for me a three for my friends. I should have bought 10 or more of them, knowing now that they go for so much.

The Swiss Micros clone is good as well, I have that one in my pocket all the time.

Also, there is a really good 15C APP for the iPhone and it works really well too.

The 15C is probably the best calculator ever made.


 

[David Hess]

I finally replaced my HP-48 with an HP-50g.  My only complaint about the HP-50g is that it is slower latency wise than the HP-48.  I would like to know how they managed that with orders of magnitude higher processor performance.

If I could find a solar powered RPN calculator, I would consider it for when I do not want to carry the HP-50g.

[sdg]

HP-41C.
And the thing to its right is a Ti58 undergoing heavy surgery. It suffered a nearly fatal electrolyte leakage from the battery pack. After some cleaning and resoldering of several component, the calculator restarted, but the keypad is dead...

[jlmoon]

HP 67 & HP 25, still the best in the business.  eh, for the old school guys!

Sometimes if I can stand to wait, I might use the Computer but the 67 boots much faster. 

[atferrari]

, non functioning processor, lots of damage by salt water. Probably not fixable. Both are not mine but from a museum.

Sea water? 

[rr100]

I think I have a new favorite for 2015: Sage.

I am a long-time (~20 years!) Maple user (and that was my go-to program for anything more than what you can put (now) in Google Calculator). However using software that starts from triple digits for students and goes (easily) into thousands for anything commercial at all is totally a show stopper in most cases I deal with. I have nothing at all against commercial and even expensive commercial turnkey solutions but they aren't for what I deal with. Plus I didn't like the programming part at all in Maple.

Using something GPLed or similar to do math just feels better. I was actually surprised to recently find a somewhat old document:  http://wstein.org/mathsoftbio/history.pdf where William Stein (Sage's Linus so to speak) basically expresses the same feeling (plus he does something about it instead of wasting time for 20 years like me).

Of course over the years I tried (as well) SAGE but it was breaking too easily, it would not install without extra steps, etc. However now it just works. It installs on ubuntu (and most likely on many other distributions) with one command.

And programming is python-based (the modern language I am most productive in, not that it means much). And there is a public server anybody can use if you don't have linux and you don't want to bother with a virtual machine: cloud.sagemath.com

What more can you ask for?

[retrolefty]

HP 32S II RPG is my goto calculator. Over the years I was frequently amused when someone would ask to borrow/use my calculator for a quick results only to see them stare for way too long looking for the equals button. 

[pmurray4]

I use a Casio fx-991MS, excellent calculator, has engineering notation input and outputs too!

[HighVoltage]

HP 32S II RPG is my goto calculator. Over the years I was frequently amused when someone would ask to borrow/use my calculator for a quick results only to see them stare for way too long looking for the equals button. 

+1
Happens again and again and is always funny to watch

[SeanB]

Even funnier is replacing the built in calculator on a PC with a RPN version. Or set it to octal mode. That one can be really confusing as it seems to work...........

[rr100]

Speaking of that - try either in normal windows cmd or linux:

ping 192.168.0.01
(doesn't matter your network, should be working as expected, either timeout or answer, whatever - and do not forget the extra 0)

you can continue with any or all below:

ping 192.168.0.02
ping 192.168.0.03
ping 192.168.0.04
ping 192.168.0.05
ping 192.168.0.06
ping 192.168.0.07

Still nothing special, works as expected.

and then the surprise comes:

ping 192.168.0.08

WTF IS GOING ON!

(and the same with 192.168.0.09 for that matter)!

[TopLoser]

Obviously the leading zero indicates that the number is octal. Since 8 is not a valid octal digit, the command fails.

This is a pretty common trap for young players using the C standard library. Functions like atoi() treat numbers with leading zeros as octal.

Hmm not quite... ANSI Standard C atoi() only supports base 10 ASCII values, strtol() and other some functions support alternate bases such as hexadecimal and octal.