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Do you still use stand-alone ("pocket") calculators?

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tycz:
For engineering calcs I use a pocket calculator - a fairly ordinary Sharp EL-531WH. It has all the features I need and the interface is excellent. I find it easy to go back and make changes to a previous calculation because it has arrow keys, auto repeat, home/end. There's no history, but there are 8 memory slots which gets the job done.

For (usually low level) programming calcs I find the pocket calculator useless and instead use the program Speed Crunch which has infinite history and copy/paste features. It was the only calculator program I could find that let me switch the output between hex, binary, decimal, and decimal engineering notation on the fly. I also use it for engineering when I've misplaced my pocket calculator, but I don't like it that much. Maybe it's part habit and part ergonomics... engineering calcs are full of symbols and parenthesis, and this isn't great to type on a PC keyboard which requires two hands and lots of key chords on my keyboard with no numpad.

Mr Evil:

--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on January 11, 2020, 11:54:52 pm ---
--- Quote from: blacksheeplogic on January 11, 2020, 08:42:01 pm ---
--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on January 11, 2020, 03:00:18 pm ---The interesting thing all in all I noticed in this thread is that most people still using a pocket calculator are doing this either just from habit, or also because they just don't know (or have bothered) to find decent tools on computer.

--- End quote ---

I did not reach this conclusion and I am not sure how you would from the replies. I suspect you are projecting your preferences and views in the conclusion which is fine when stating your position but I don't think when read objectively that it representative of the the group 'Most'.

--- End quote ---

Just re-read every post made. Apart from ataradov, I haven't seen one that, when considering computer alternatives to calculators, wasn't only talking either about the basic Windows calc (an ugly joke) or mobile apps, which I also dislike as I stated (especially for the UI thing.) So obviously if your only reference to computer alternatives to calculators are these, I'd fully agree that they can't match a real calculator. But there are much more useful and capable software out there as I cited (and ataradov), and I haven't seen anyone talk about them apart from him. So this really looked like indeed "most" people here have this preference out of actually not knowing about better software tools, and I again strongly suggest trying. It's really hard to go back once you have.

As I said, there will certainly always be a personal preference part in this. But just make sure you know all your options, that was my point.

--- End quote ---
I can only speak for myself, but this isn't true. Since this was a topic about pocket calculators, I posted about the software related to that. That doesn't mean that I don't know about or use other software. I use everything from Windows Calc up to writing my own software for specialized tasks.

stefan_trekkie:
I still use my Citizen SR-170 scientific calculator with the original photo cell on it. It was present from my grandma when become EE student ~13-sh years ago. Love it, it was 30€ and back then was a lot poorer and treated as fortune.
I have calculator app on my smarty and it is almost the same and use it on the fly.. On my computer i don't using calc app (or programs) just because i work slowly on them. For some fast electrical calculations I have calculators in the drowning programs that using.

ogden:
There is no single "best" calculator. People have different tasks, different preferences & habits. I use mostly Casio scientific calc. Sometimes I need Excel or Google sheets, https://www.wolframalpha.com/ or GNU Octave. Thanx to this thread, I will definitely check Speed Crunch, thou it may reduce my woframalpha use, not Casio ;)

iMo:
Speed Crunch - nice! Calculator forensic test (in degree mode):

--- Code: ---arcsin(arccos(arctan(tan(cos(sin(9))))))
= 9.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000e0
--- End code ---

Here is PC-1251, HP-25, HP-48GX, WP-34s - not using them except charging NiMH batt in HP-25 (replaced in 2000) every 3-4y or so. Using Anitech SC-100 ("scientific and programmable", purchased new in 1991 for 4.99DEM), original batteries (2x LR-44) lasted for 28 years without leaking, btw..

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