Slashdot Mirror
Seeking a Simple Programmer's Calculator?
"The CM-100 was solar powered, it was cheap at the time - maybe 20 bucks, and most importantly, it's simple. It does what I want (mostly hex/bin/oct/dec conversions and the occasional shift or rotate) it doesn't do what I don't want (scientific calculations and trig). It makes good assumptions about operator precedence - it does the right thing if you type 1+2*3, but you can also use parens if you choose. It doesn't try to be clever with the display (such as displaying the input in a tiny font on a different line) or pack in a whole lot of extra functionality I don't need.
Every calculator I have bought since the early 90s has been much, much worse, primarily because they are trying to be too general purpose. They pack too much functionality in, they have sucky interfaces, they add the hex conversion as an afterthought and make me use a shift key to get to it. They don't put A,B,C,D,E,F on separate buttons as they should be and so on.
Last month on a business-trip I had my briefcase stolen. It contained my passport and some other important documents. But I went crazy thinking that I had lost my calculator. When I returned from the trip, I found I had absent-mindedly left it buried on my desk and was hugely relieved. The passport is replaceable, but the calculator may not be. If I had lost the calculator, I probably would have been prepared to pay $400 to replace it, but probably wouldn't have been able to find one. According to e-Bay, no one has ever sold one there.
Nonetheless, the time will come when I will lose my trusty little calculator for good. Then I'll have to replace it. Plus, I'd like another calculator to keep at home."
.. hates this calculator. Every time she picks up its in hex or binary mode and she can't figure it out.
ha.
Wonder if there's an emulation?
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
example doing a base conversion:
I have an older Handspring Visor, the advanced version of the built in calculator seems like it would do what you want it to. Under the "Logic" setting you can do all sorts of base conversions, as well as Logical Right and Left shifts.
Granted getting a Palm just for use as a calculator is a bit much, but I figure most geeks have one anyway.
Those who don't know me, probably shouldn't trust me. Those that do know me, DEFINITELY shouldn't trust me.
I see Slashdot now has a "want ads" section. Since we're here, I'm wondering if anyone has an 8" floppy drive they'd be willing to part with.
I couldn't find one that did everything I wanted (mostly hex and binary in a sane fashion) so I wrote one. Its written in JavaScript, so it runs in your web browser (I always have mine open anyway). It has a bookmarklet so you can open it in a window that is sized nicely. It makes my life a lot easier.
I will probably be modded "-1, Troll" for this, but here goes...
I set my Windows Calculator to "Scientific" mode and then I can easily do calculations in hex or binary, easy to convert between bases, etc. Probably doesn't do everything you want, but it's useful for me when I'm figuring out subnets and such.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
The CFX-9850G is one I use all te time. The batteries last for years even thoug they are rechargeable. It has a nice BASIC like programming language, a serial port for communicating with a pc or other calcs. And there are millions of programs available on the intraweb to try out.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
There are a couple (old model) HP 16C calculators being sold on ebay right now. Other than "RPN ain't my style" and "long since discontinued", I've never heard anything bad about the 16C. But old HP's have their fans, and they don't sell cheap.
There's more info on 16C's at www.hpmuseum.org, supposedly including a MS Windows simulation of one.
It's easy to make up & spread cool- and credible-sounding stuff. Finding & checking hard facts is hard work.
As some else suggested, an older HP calculator. Found here. So far, no bids!
Let me, since the first handful of posters seem to have forgotten, reiterate that the person asking the question wanted something simple! Not an app on a desktop that he can't fit in a briefcase, not a graphing calculator but an available calculator that is just like the one he has.
Yes, I like my TI-89, but that's not what this dude is asking for!
I LOVE my hp48gx sitting next to me right now. It takes some getting used to the "Reverse Polish Notation" but now I find 'normal' calcs very dificult to use. It is my understanding that the line got updated to the hp49 and the HP gave up on further development of its calculator line, which is a shame since they are so much better (IMNSHO) than the TI's.
... sometimes a calculator is just much easier to use.
Disclaimor: My work tends toward the 'scientific computing' end of the spectrum so my calculator needs might be a bit different than the 'average' programmers. In fact I use my calc several times a day, often while I have matlab up and running too
Thoughts on tech, Software Engineering, and stuff
While this doesn't quite fit the bill for what you want, it's not a bad calculator. The TI-34 is solar powered, small, light, and doesn't try to do anything fancy. It was the "recommended" calculator at my high school, and it worked great all the way through college.
Mine actually just died recently, and so I'm looking for a replacement. Unfortunately, TI discontinued this little gem and replaced it with a 2-line dot-matrix display thing. Ugh!! So now, like you, I'm looking for a nice simple calculator. If the TI-34 looks good to you, I'm sure you could find a used one (or maybe even a new one -- they haven't been discontinued for too long).
I'm guessing that a combination of market forces and technology are forcing the calculator manufacturers to make fewer products that do more.
Rather than selling 10,000 each of ten different product lines, they can sell a million each of three different product lines. It doesn't make economic sense to make specialized products for niche markets when for the same cost you can make a single, generalized product that does everything for everybody.
At the same time, it would be awfully nice to get a VCR with just five buttons: Play, Record, FF, RW, and Stop. Dump the clock, dump the timer, dump the prgramming. (Maybe they should just include a piece of black tape for the blinking display?) But, alas, such a thing is a figment of history.
KISS.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
You may want to take a look at some of the calculators produced by Sharp. I found both the EL-506L and the EL-546L models to be quite useful. They do Hex/Bin/Oct conversions, handle parentheses, etc. They are scientific calculators, and so include quite a lot of other features that you may not want, but occassionally come in handy. At the time I bought them, they were about $30 CDN.
Official beta tester of the 21st century... Linux security...to mend and defend. Crusin' around in my modemmobile.
All I can think of is the red stapler from Office Space.
And before people start directing me at toy calculators here is some of what I expect of a calculator in 2002:
-- SIGFPE
This looks like the most copied calculator in the world to me. Every Chinese rip-off calculator here at the discount store has the hex/bin/oct/dec modes.
5$.
Uses batteries, though. But when you can get 5 AG13 batteries for 1$, who cares?
While TI graphing calculators don't have the hex buttons where you want them, they are very programmable. The TI-86 is reasonably priced and very programmable. You could write yourself a simple conversion app with remapped buttons in TI-BASIC, or go all out and integrate it into the TI-OS using an assembly language program. There are many sites with resources to help you and assembly language mailing lists to get help on. You can do so many cool things with these calculators. Remapping the keys and writing a simple conversion app would be simple.
or else buy an abacus.
Heck, I think I have one of these sitting in my father's personal effects. I remember the calculator, because I hated trying to use it for my school work when I was a kid. He passed away a year ago, and was a programmer for 30 years. I'll look around over the weekend and get back to you with an email.
the hp 6s seems to fit your bill... solar powered, not overpowered, does fractions, bit ops, base conversions, parens, etc... according to hp its only $10, and not as bulky as the graphic calculators we're all familiar with.
Considering the simplicity of the desired operations, how hard would be to build one around a super-simple microcontroller yourself? I bet a PIC could do it just fine (or even a PIC packaged up as a Basic Stamp for even easier programming). You just need a driver chip for the keypad rows/columns that will interface as input to the controller, and a very simple LCD display.
11*43+456^2
Easy Calc's Integer mode appears to fit the bill nicely, if you already have a Palm.
And it's GPL'd, so if you wanted to rip out all other modes, and make it an incredibly stripped down integer-math-only calculator, you could.
While it's not strictly a programmer's calculator, the best thing I can think of in your field would be the TI-92. While the TI-89 is newer and in the traditional TI-form factor, the TI-92 has a full qwerty keyboard, large display, and is probably better for doing hexidecimal calculations. The TI-89 has a very sleek GUI and the button layout is excellent, but A-F require hitting the Alpha key.
I recently bought the TI-89 for Precalc through Trigonometry in college, and I've already fallen in love with it. The text buffer is useful, and after hitting return, by default, the previous formula returns to the input field. There you can type over it or edit it, and do iterative calculations as well. All around, there are handy features like that everywhere that never seem to get in the way.
The downside on the TI-92 is that it was discontinued. It has a slightly larger display than the TI-89, which I would have liked. The TI-89 is more powerful, but you're looking at around US$160 retail.
I'm as mimsy as the next borogove but your mome raths are completely outgrabe.
this calc i found can do all kind sort of bit manipulation functions including bitshift, bitand, bitor etc.. and it can work in unconstrained bases from base 2 to base 69!
Great Atrocit
Failing all else, why not buy a PDA and write an app that mimics the interface of the calculator? (or modify it to be whatever you want).
There are bound to be open source calculator apps for Palm OS out there you can start with and modify.
/..sig file not found - permission denied.
I know you said you dont want one geard toward engineering, however in my opinion the TI-83 does everything you need. It is in my opinion TI's best. It has great functionality with out the ugly interface of the TI-92. And acording to an add from office depot you can get it in multiple colors now. (I thought it sounded studip too.)
-Windchill2001 The One, The Only, The Cold...
Calc98 is a very good calculator for Windows 9x/NT and Pocket PC 2000/2002. It does dec/hex/oct/binary conversions, and does logic operations. I don't know if it does shift, but it wouldn't suprise me. And it has practically every constant known to man, including a periodic table, and does unit conversions for practically anything (Ever want to know the weight of Jupiter in Pennyweights? 1.22237x10^30) I recommend it for any engineering student, or for programming.
1p}{ 1 sp34k |33+ +|-|e|\| p30p13 \/\/il| 8e i/\/\pr3553|)
http://palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm? sid=69996520020904223550&prodID=41610
thats my favorite, but there are plenty of others. If you dont like any of them, write one of your own. Numerical Methods is a good topic for programmers to understand. Would prolly take you a week or so to write and would be a good excercise.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
I haven't used my handheld calculator for years. I just use the interactive shell in Python.
My thermostat is at 66 (and I pay the bills), I use network TV (and only one VCR), most of them understand a double short cappuccino (which is good 1 out of 5 times, just like most places), and finally, mmm... Martha Stewart... cake... or cookies... or cooked food...(and I shop at K-Mart!!!) What me worry?
Thanks,
chris
PS
I'm just waiting for good fusion reactors, true broadband media (any movie, anytime), a good barista, and a butler/maid/chef. Oh, well.
PPS
I broke my old casio.
If I had lost the calculator, I probably would have been prepared to pay $400 to replace it
For $400 I'll sell you my graphics calculator and put some gaffer tape over the buttons you don't want to use.
(Moderators: yes its offtopic, get a sence of humour)
Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
Don't believe what you read is the truth.
You guys and your fancy software, and newfangled electronic contraptions. He is obviously looking for a binary abacus! http://www.jimloy.com/arith/abacus.htm
I'll sell you this one:
Picture of my CM-100
works great.
I would spend the hundres of dollars it would take to acquire a used one in good condition, but I doubt my Dad could read the display anymore. Vive la 80's!
I also have hung onto my ~1988 scientific calculator for dear life. The picture looked very familiar, but by chance I have it here at work, and it is a Radio Shack EC-4014. Unlike the poster's, it does have a few more extras: trig, fraction conversion, degree conversion, degree/rad/grad, statistics. During my years in college and grad school for chemistry, I have found all of the functions quite useful at one time or another, except maybe the random number generator (I can live with any mental bias when making up a number). The keys are pretty grimy and it has a chemical etch on the display, but I still prefer it over any other calculator. Besides the functionality, another nit I have against the newer calculators is that the solar panel is so weak! I always need to put them next to a light source just to turn it on and keep running.
When I was a TA for chemistry, I got a kick out of all the freshmen coming in with their enormous graphing calculators, who never were able to figure out basic stoichiometry or dilution problems. Ooooh, but they could punch in a mean parabola! Really, it's the same bloat problem that's commonplace in software (Cf. Zawinski's Law). The manufacturer can charge a higher price for the added features, and the users will still buy it because they never know when it may come in handy someday.
We'll no doubt here from the slide rule users at some point. And those worked in the dark!
Been using an HP-20s for about as long as you've used that one and I think it covers pretty much all your needs from base conversions to shift functions. Unlike alot of the older HP models, it doesn't default to RPN entry, but supports it for those who think that saving an occasional keystroke is worth losing your mind. On top of that, I've always preferred the look and feel of it over anything else out there. It's got some extra bells and whistles, but fewer than most and they're mostly 'behind the scenes'. The aspect you mentioned it lacks is solar power. A single set of batteries will last quite a while, but you won't make it through 2 decades without a switch :)
Hope this helps
http://products.hp-at-home.com/products/detail.php ?high_level_category_id=1&category_id=8&sub_catego ry_id=24&sub_category_id=24&prodnum=20S
Admit it: You've never done any significant calculations in hexadecimal on that calculator, have you?
I say this as an owner of an HP48SX and HP48GX, and a former owner of a Casio w/ dedicated A-F buttons: The HP sucks at the tasks the poster asked about. Not only do you have to hit alpha-lock to get the A-F on the HP (every time you enter a hex number), but you also have to remember to provide the correct prefix. Further, "integers" won't mix at all with "regular numbers" without going through that annoying "B->R" and "R->B" crap.
Do NOT get an HP48 for the tasks the original article was asking about. And I say this as a happy HP48 owner who loves RPN. You get used to the quirks, maybe, but they're frustrating. I'd rather use 'bc'.
--JoeProgram Intellivision!
By far the best programmer's calculator ever made (that I've seen, anyway) was the HP 16C. Not made anymore, but EBay usually has a few you can pick up.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
And if you don't like what's available, you can always roll your own (you are a programmer, aren't you?).
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
TI-34 ... discontinued
I swear by my TI-36x calculator. When in hexadecimal mode, it changes the trig keys into A-F keys.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Any Pocket PC could blow those machines away - and yet we see no good packages for pocket devices. You'd think there'd be a need wouldn't you?
TI-89 calculators run a trimmed down version of the Derive(tm) computer algebra package.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I usually end up using perl for a calculator. Simple statements like "printf("%x", 0x43 + 0x3e)" usually get the job done.
Why? Well, I don't always carry a calculator with me, but I always have a computer handy when I'm programming. And perl uses mostly C/C++/Java like syntax -- 0x for hex constants, printf output formatting. Not only do I not have to relearn a new syntax, but I can actually cut and paste expressions straight from code, too.
Sure, its a little verbose, but I also run it in an emacs shell buffer, so I can cut and paste easily from one line to the next.
I have a TI that has the leeters too. I think it died about 7 years ago. It had LED's and ate batteries for breakfast. I just use the free ones that are on the web now.
Calc98 from www.calculator.org works for me and I do HEX math on it. And, it free and runs on a PocketPC
Hmm, the notion of using a physical calculator seems strange for a programmer in front of a GHz-class workstation.
I have used a calculator the last time several years ago. These days, wouldn't it be better to just fire up a program on a GUI-desktop where you cut&paste operands and results whithout going through a 10-finger interface and the chances for typing errors in either direction?
Here is what I use as a little "sticky" window on my Linux desktop, and it really is quite simple and sufficient:
xterm -fn 6x10 -geometry 38x7-160-120 -title "Calculator" \
-name "bc" +ls \
-e sh -c "mesg n; exec bc -l ${HOME}/.bcrc" &
You can pre-define constants and even functions. Changes in base and precision ("scale") are also possible.
When off-screen, sure, the occasional need for a calculator comes up. Well, $5 check-card size thingies and cell phones are perfectly capable of the basic operations. More serious work, e.g. programming, aught to be done on-screen.
You might still be able to find a Canon F-700. It's not solar powered, but it has the features you are looking for, and it's quite small.
I have had one of these for years and it has served me very well. It appears to be still around (thought the form has been modified from the one I have) and it can be had for under $30. I have had mine since 1990 and it is still going strong.
You have to switch the unit into hex but once switched, it sticks until turned off.
Hope this helps.
I have to use this cause I can't afford a real sig...
The pinnacle of programmer's calculators for many is the HP16C: http://www.hpmuseum.org/16.jpg. RPN may dissuade many, but it isn't a general purpose calculator. Instead it provides access to all the normal radix conversions, dedicated A-F keys, shift, rotate, etc. These are bullet proof and are probably available used in good condition.
hello moderators
did you even bother to read the actual article???
this is exactly the kind of think that the submitter was asking for!!