General > General Technical Chat
Do you still use stand-alone ("pocket") calculators?
spudboy488:
I still use a HP-11C purchased new in 1985.
Berni:
Used to use some random TI scientific calculator, then also a TI Nspire CAS in uni. Now i just use SpeedCrunch on a PC.
The PC keyboard numpad is nicer to type on that calculator keys while i can do everything that a scientific calculator can. But SpeedCalc also gives me a history in the same window that i can just look up at rather than having to scroll trough and it keeps calculating the result as you type, so its easy to jump back and change just one number in a long math expression and watch the result change live. It also takes hex numbers by simply typing 0xABCD.
I don't see the benefit of having a physical calculator next to a PC. What does it do better? (Compared to SpeedCrunch that is, Windows Calc.exe is shit)
KL27x:
--- Quote ---I don't see the benefit of having a physical calculator next to a PC. What does it do better? (Compared to SpeedCrunch that is, Windows Calc.exe is shit)
--- End quote ---
You might be using your computer for some combination of IDE, a datasheet PDF, PCB CAD, Youtube and Netflix, PC logic analyzer and/or scope, and emails and browser. How many monitors do you run, already, and how much of that extra monitor space did you allot to use just for a calculator?
To me the calculator is part of my bench. The computer is the most important tool on that bench, but I have others on hand what help me work.
Berni:
--- Quote from: KL27x on January 14, 2020, 08:17:11 pm ---
--- Quote ---I don't see the benefit of having a physical calculator next to a PC. What does it do better? (Compared to SpeedCrunch that is, Windows Calc.exe is shit)
--- End quote ---
You might be using your computer for some combination of IDE, a datasheet PDF, PCB CAD, Youtube and Netflix, PC logic analyzer and/or scope, and emails and browser. How many monitors do you run, already, and how much of that extra monitor space did you allot to use just for a calculator?
To me the calculator is part of my bench. The computer is the most important tool on that bench, but I have others on hand what help me work.
--- End quote ---
I have been using two 1080p monitors for a really long time now (Both home and at work). I find it being enough space for me, occasionally a third monitor might come handy, but Win7 being able to tile a window across half of a screen with the Win+Arrow shortcut makes it easier to multipurpose one screen. I usualy have one maximized window of my main task on the main monitor and all the other things like documentation on the side.
Something like SpeedCalc wouldn't be always open in a dedicated area of the screen for me, there is no significant benefit to that. To be able to type into its window you need to click it in order to make give that window focus, but in Win7 you can click a pinned icon of SpeedCalc, this will launch it if not running or bring it to foreground if it is running, ending up with that window in focus so you can start typing. When you don't need it anymore simply one more click to bring the window behind it in front, or click the taskbar icon once again to minimize the calculator.
Id say its all mostly just a matter of habit. People are just used to doing things a certain way. Where i work right now pretty much nobody keeps a calculator on the desk, but then again the people that work here are not old graybeards.
ogden:
--- Quote from: Berni on January 14, 2020, 09:35:45 pm ---Where i work right now pretty much nobody keeps a calculator on the desk, but then again the people that work here are not old graybeards.
--- End quote ---
Indeed it is habit and generation-related. If I see that there is no paper and pencil on the desk (of millenial), I do not look for calculator or ruler either. (no pun intended)
I tend to use best tool for the job, use best I can learn from last and current century approaches. I have both Casio fx-991es and convenient/quick shortcut to windows calculator SpeedCrunch in the right corner of windows popup menu.
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