Windows Programmer/Engineer Calculator

[forrestc]

For a long time I've wanted to install a better calculator on the windows computer where I do my electronic design & development work.   The windows 10 calculator is a bit better once I realized I could resize it.   (It shows all 4 bases at the same time, etc.).  But the modality of it bothers me - why can't I have a floating point, scientific calculator AND a programmers calculator AND one which does unit conversions (english to metric) all at the same time?

But before I go off ranting about everything which is wrong about the calculators I've used, I'll stop and just ask what everyone else has used....

So, what else is everyone using?  Is there an awesome windows calculator I haven't found yet?

[Mechatrommer]

for calculator i use this... cross platform even in Aliendows...


for 8/16/32 bit specific, i'll use this...


if i cant reach the casio and only for simple math, i click calc.exe
when i go out when my casio left at home, i installed/use PowerCalc by Scalea Software by Petr Hapal in my android phone the closest interface to my casio that i can find...

[miguelvp]

I had a simpler one before, but now I'm using an old Sharp EL-506L for I don't know how long.

I do use the windows one mostly, but I don't like what they did that when you change modes it erases your memory and values, used to be it kept it.

Hmm, I just downloaded the EL-W506 windows emulator from Sharp, I wonder how it compares or if they do have better emulators that have Hex, Octal, Binary conversions (And whatever PEN means, maybe base 5?): Edit: yup, PEN is base 5, who uses that?
http://www.sharp.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/gb/hs.xsl/-/html/pc-simulator.htm



It looks fancier than mine since it looks like a graphing calculator and mine is not although a bit archaic on looks.

Edit: Hmmm, no help within the application, but I bet the manual is available somewhere.

[EEVblog]

I use real Casio's on the desk.

[Gyro]

I keep a copy of XCALC on my desktop:

http://www.tordivel.no/xcalc/

It's open source freeware but no longer under development. It does however display the full RPN stack and handles, Dec, Oct, Hex, Bin as well as Complex numbers and if fairly customizable. I haven't tried it on Win7 but don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

[Lightages]

Yes, xcalc works in Win7 x64

[Ian.M]

I use the Excalibur 32 bit RPN calculator v2.00.  The author hosted the project on Geocities which is long gone, but the wayback machine archived the page and the zip file:
http://web.archive.org/web/20091021133658/http://geocities.com/dbergis/freeware.htm

There's a review and an alternative download location here:
http://www.freeware-guide.com/OldGoodFreeware/Excalibur.html

I'll have to check out xcalc and see if it is any better.

[ElektroQuark]

EMU48

[Jeroen3]

All these software calculators look like actual calculators. They don't need to.
Just give me something like wolframalpha (but faster) where you can literally type your formula.

Meanwhile I've got a FX-991MS, because it can do base conversions and binary stuff. No more than 10 bit in binary unfortunately.

[LA7SJA]

I have, and use this on a daily basis:



If you would like a "New" HP try DM41 or DM41L from https://www.swissmicros.com/ or DM15/DM15L.
For pure programming try the DM16/DM16L.

Johan-Fredrik

[0xdeadbeef]

Many, many years ago I wrote myself a command line calculator I called Calcutta and still use it ever day at work and at home.



It's written in Java and released as Open Source. Unfortunately I became lazy and stopped really working on it years ago. I just get back to it now and then when I have to.
Anyway, you can write your own function in its own scripting language.

[retrolefty]

Convert  for Windows 

 I've used it for many years now. Great little aid to add to the desktop. Freeware at it's best.

http://joshmadison.com/convert-for-windows/

[eHeadB4Bed]

Windows calc for programming (I like to see the bits), but python's IDLE interpreter for everything else.  Looks like Python has a unit module too (see https://pint.readthedocs.org/en/0.6/).

Want to change from a float to an int? Just cast it with int().  Want to see the hex or binary view of a value? Use hex() or bin().

Would that work for you?

[ThomasDK]

I use calc.exe for simple quick things. I use Matlab for everything else.