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."
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 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
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'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.
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
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.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
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
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
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.
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!
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.
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?
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.
The only killer with using a PDA as a calculator is the appalling battery-life, This seems to have done a dive since the days of the Psion. I also have an HP 16C running off three button cells that lasts a couple of years (even with intensive use).
except maybe the random number generator (I can live with any mental bias when making up a number).
Not me. I wouldn't be able to order a pizza without my EC-4017's RAN# key.
0.000-0.199: Pizza Hut
0.200-0.399: Papa John's
0.400-0.599: Domino's
0.600-0.799: Pagliacci
0.800-0.999: Pizza Time
Fifteen years or so ago, I gave my father this very EC-4017 for Christmas. He died in '98, but it was only last month that I discovered the calculator, brand new and untouched in its original box from Radio Shack, in a neglected bureau drawer at home. The OEM lithium battery hadn't even leaked.
One of the most annoying things about Dad was his steadfast refusal to actually use anything you gave him as a present. At this point, though, having reached the same conclusion that all calculators today suck complete and total ass, I'm very grateful for that little character quirk of his. Like the original poster, I'd probably have paid a couple hundred bucks for this calculator on eBay... if one could be found there, which it can't.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
Yeah, in our case, the competition always centered around whose calculator could do 69! the fastest. (69 being the largest number whose factorial is less than the calculator's numeric limit of 10^100).
I don't remember who won, but the slowest calculator took several seconds to run the benchmark. Needless to say the cheerleaders were not impressed.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
Mr Z> 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.
Yeah, I noticed the same prob. Just write a custom CST and a few programs, and you're all set.