Hacker News Reader

Comment by jerf | Hacker News Reader

Going 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 advantages of a dedicated physical keyboard for your math probably can't be beat.

But... uhh.... who exactly does that describe nowadays? I'm sure it's non-zero; I'm also sure we're into "niche within a niche" territory here.

View on HN

I'd still be using my HP 48G on a fairly regular basis if it hadn't suffered catastrophic damage (moron with a cup of coffee, paired with a drop onto a concrete floor). I used to have a lot of calculations programmed into it. I realize, of course, that I can do that on my computer, and I do. But it was handy when I was running around between different systems (main desktop, lab stations, etc.). I could just grab one device and have it with me all the time. Especially since I shifted OSes as well (Windows, various flavors; Linux, various flavors) and not all had network access (or accessed the same network). Keeping those programs synced up would've been tedious. And then there were meetings where dragging out my laptop for something that was quick (but hard to do by hand) was way overkill. My phone could work, but often I've been unable to have it in the labs (various reasons over the years).

I'll add, a lot of those calculators were pretty damned hardy. It really did take an unfortunate sequence of events to kill my HP. Any one of which it probably could have survived, but the combination was just too much for it. In a lab or field environment, I like them better than a phone or computer for many operations (though definitely downsides since they haven't really kept up with generally computing power).

What I'm interested in is something that takes hand drawn input and converts it to expressions that can be evaluated. A dedicated keyboard for math has been immensely helpful to me, as well, because it speeds up the input more than any software only solution I've tried. But there are always things which require some thought about how to enter them in. Not having to do that conversion myself would be pretty nice. I think there's some potential there.

It might just be me, but I read up on the buttons that I didn't understand yet. Some of them were really useful shortcuts that I wasn't supposed to know about.

Indeed. Learning something earlier than planned is a feature, not a bug.

The way to do it would be to have an interactive assessment system that activated features.

Prompts for exploratory learning could be presented in places other than the calculator keyboard.

I would fully support making it relatively easy to unlock those buttens, but, remember, we're educating not just "people who will eventually hang out on Hacker News". It is not reasonable to take the personal experiences of people here as a baseline for all education.

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.

So do I but I find it easier some times to pull out a physical calculator and have it on the desk next to my keyboard

Computers aren't always available. Computers aren't as portable (though phones are as portable as these calculators). The tactile feedback of a calculator beats phones (for me) in the same way that a physical keyboard's feedback better enables touch typing compared to an on-screen keyboard. Computers don't lend themselves to being quickly pulled out in meetings for quick computations.

Phones are a better alternative in many ways, but calculators do still have their benefits.

What I want is a physical HP 48G-alike, with a more capable processor and display, and a better connector (serial/IR on the 48G I had, should be bluetooth and wifi and USB today) paired with an SD card for storage.

Add in RPN id buy on in a flash - time for a kickstarter :-)

If I were a hardware guy I'd seriously consider it. In a couple months I should have the time to prototype it, but that's about as far as I can get. My time is stretched very thin these days.

I do think people are not quite understanding that when I say "niche within a niche", I do that with the understanding that it does in fact exist. Had I meant to say "nobody", I would have said that. But it is a niche within a niche. STEM is certainly way to expansive; I'm STEM and I haven't had a use for a calculator since high schools were mandating them. It's certainly a niche within STEM, which is a niche. And the accountant's desks I've seen lately do not have calculators on them, and if they do, it's 4-function calcs.

Also, this is HN, so of course the people occupying that niche within a niche will pop up and say "But I use a physical calculator all the time!" That doesn't make me wrong, it just means that you're here. I'd also guess, with all due respect, because I know how this sort of thing goes, that at least some of the people who might claim they have a calculator they use all the time actually use it, say, every few months. Only a few people will seriously be using them all the time.

as the standard calculators on pc's are basic 4 function ones do you not have to use any of the scientific functions log sin cos tan et al.

If your working in it having a hex octal / binary conversions can be usfull

Reply on news.ycombinator.com