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What's Out There for Handheld Math?
PowerVegetable asks: "What's the story with handheld computation? Not address books and schedule reminders; I'm talking about the type of stuff computers were invented for. Anyone who's used Mathematica or Maple knows what desktop computers are capable of these days math-wise, but handheld computation seems to have fallen behind on the innovation front. Cell phones and handheld game systems have certainly enjoyed rapid advancement, so where are the handheld mathematical portable oracles? What's available that doesn't have obscure menu systems, bad displays, underpowered processors and unwieldy programming languages? Pickings are slim in the hard-coded calculator industry, but what about Pocket PC's or other programmable portables? Is there any portable solution out there that's more capable than my old HP49g?"
Ti (Texas Instruments) calculators are quite powerful, especially the Ti-89 and above. 3D graphing, symbolic just about everything, ...
Unless I missed something skimming the post, seems like a good solution...
A Minesweeper clone that doesn't suck
You're pissing in the wind here. As was already said, the TI calculators out now are pretty powerful and can do just about anything you'd want to do in a small package.
If you really want a port of Mathematica to a Pocket PC, then you're going to have to pony up the costs to Wolfram. They aren't going to do it when there isn't any market for it.
I have been pwned because my
i've been using Mathematica on my zaurus for a while know... here is where I learned about it.
I've found Easycalc for Palm OS to be a small-yet-powerful package.
Maxima, a general purpose computer algebra system runs on the zaurus. Yacas, another computer algebra system runs on the zaurus. Axiom is coming shortly (once the glibc issue gets resolved). Octave runs on the zaurus. These are open source, freely available, research quality computer algebra systems. More are on the way.
As other posts are bearing out, you're just plain wrong. There is indeed a happy middle ground. Sorry.
It can't be too dumb... or too smart...
but "just right" to be used in South
Australian school exams.
Here's a list of calculators "approved"
by the State Education Dep't (the one
whose name seems to change more often
than the government...
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=cache:Vx71zHjxf
http://www.gihs.sa.edu.au/Instructions%20for%20St
http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~kissane/gcauthori
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/bulletin/2003/Octo
http://www2.fhs.usyd.edu.au/ess/orr/UG%20Manager/
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/mathstats/maths/current
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/manuals/calc
http://www.curriculum.wa.edu.au/files/pdf/111494_
feels the same way you do
s /wan/wan.pdf
http://www.mathmlconference.org/2002/presentation
Operator, give me the number for 911!
If the HP 49G+ is insufficient for your handheld computation needs, you're in a really unusual position. What exactly are you wanting your calculator to do?
The closest thing to what what he's looking for is the DOS version of Derive running on the Hewlett-Packard HP200LX, a 80186 (not a typo) based DOS handheld. (A bit of searching should turn up a demo.)
Derive for DOS is old and the interface is a bit clunky (compared to Maple or Mathematica), but it beat the tar out of a HP48. Heck, on a 200LX, it's probably still the best and most usable symbolic math package in something approaching the size of a scientific calculator. (Though that may be changing with the availablity of source code for systems like Axiom and Maxmima.)
Good grief, man. Of all the things you said you wanted, what can't be done on a ti-89 or an hp49g (or whatever it is...I'm a ti-89 guy...can't stand postfix notation.)
Having said that, there's a nice open source clone of matlab out there called octave. You might be able to run it on a zaurus running linux or something.
Don't become a regular here, you will become retarded. -- Yoda the Retard
I can add and subtract numbers less than or equal to ten with no problems!
Ouch, should this really be something you post? Somebody should run a trace on you bud.
I don't get it... Don't they make PDAs powered by Linux... and don't they make math programs for Unix....? What's the problem?
Calculon (does 2d&3d charts and also allows you to change variables to see how it affects things, etc. I don't think it integrates, although I may be wrong)
Formulae 1 (for writing formulae and recording 'em; I don't think it does a whole lot of calculations, but I could be wrong. Note that it requires Java)
Finally, there's QPlot, which is essentially a frontend to bc.
--
Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
you have to use:None of your links are useable or cut an pasteable. This looks better too:
http://somewhere.com/
By the way, the space Between http://somwhere.com/ & was put there by slashcode.
Enough said. I have yet to meet math that I need to do that, after suitable prodding, my TI-89 has been unable to calculate for me.
Cue The Sun...
In particular, is there any system for math
handwriting recognition. Something which could
interpret definite integrals, norms of matrices,
and ideally more sophisticated things like
group-theoretical and topological notations.
Why, yes. As a matter of fact, I am an old fart. Why do you ask?
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
Others said EasyCalc which is a very good calculator for Palm's. If you want symbolic capabilities check Meditor. It is portable without losing any symbolic features.
http://www.sf.net/projects/jscl-meditor
Description from the sf project:
java symbolic computing library and mathematical editor, with : polynomial system solving, vectors & matrices, factorization, derivatives, integrals (rational functions), boolean algebra, simplification, MathML output, java code generation
kanenas
Porting Octave to your Palm or equivalent (if it's not already done)
Or, you could try developing something specific to what you are going to do...
I guess the main problem is typing (as opposed to a calculator, with lots of keys)
how long until
http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/
It's a bit like Mathematica, but faster, GPL'ed and amazingly well supported (i.e. bugs get fixed within days of reporting).
YAW.
Your head of state is a corrupt weasel, I hope you're happy.
I need to get my hands on a Ti-8x calculator, Algebra II trig/Calc will kill my aging Ti-30.
I like the Ti30, simple scientific calc, single line display though, and with anything higher than algebra 1 type stuff you REALLY need more firepower (I should have gotten one three years ago, I see they haven't dropped in price at all).
I'm all for the TI's.
Logistical Chaos Officer http://www.slagg.org - LAN Gaming in Sarasota FL,USA
For handheld math, I can go all the way up to 31. For handsheld math, I can go all the way up to 1023.
testing out my trending skills
Envy my 5 digit Slashdot User ID!
One I like to use although it is arguable if it is more capable than your 49G is RDCalc. I have downloaded it and played with it a bit. It seemed capable but the demo period simply was not enough to evaluate it properly. Still worth checking out though, as it is one of the most complete calculator apps I was able to find for the pocket pc.
http://ravend.com/
I've been pretty happy with Maxima on Windows CE. In my case, I'm using it on WinCE.NET 4.1 on a device with a real touch-typeable keyboard, which is a dream- but it'd work just as well on a PocketPC. Alongside Maxima, I've got GNUplot working well too. I'm trying to get Xmaxima working, the integrated Maxima environment, but I've run into a couple snags and haven't had the time to look at it. There is an older version of Maple for WinCE, but I've not found any place to grab a copy. There are some other apps, but I try to stick to the free stuff on WinCE when I can. (and that is almost always!)
:P It'd be nice if someone made a front end app, it would increase the usability of this thing a ton.
On the Zaurus I usually use GNU Octave, a Matlab clone. It is a lot crappier to use than Maxima is on my WinCE-based Sigmarion III. You are given a straight up command line, you don't even get readline.
In the end, I usually end up using Maxima on the WinCE box. I've more experience with Matlab/Octave than I do with Maxima, but I'm learning, and it's paying off.
Other options include Formulae 1, a simpler Java math app for WinCE or the Zaurus. There are a couple other Java math apps, but nothing near as good as Maxima or Octave.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Your fingers, duh!
Power One:
Finance, Scientific, Graphing flavors.
Infinity Softworks
Alot like the HP, TI power scientific calcs. Has Pocket PC & Palm versions
CmplxCalcPro:
Has a powerful programming capability, but the UI is a bit rough. Only Palm, I think.
ADACS
It's pretty much roll-your-own, but lispme provides access to a reasonable set of mathematical functions, and lisp in general is well-suited to functional programming (that is, building your own calculations).
--Matthew
http://power48.mobilevoodoo.com/
Power48 runs on palms and palm compatibles and it emulates a HP48 at the hardware level.
It is, however, slow and locks up by sony SJ-33 rather often.
It's not as good as a real HP48 because there is no keyboard so it is very hard to tap and click as fast as you can type on a real HP48
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Portability would seem to be a design goal. I'm downloading the Windows binary as we speak. There are also notes on running it on Mac (both 9 and X).
You seem to have achieved geek nirvana. Inquiring minds want to know all about your hardware, OS, applications, etc.
I used to work for Convergent Technologies, which made 80186 systems running a proprietary OS. This is the first time I've heard of an 80186 DOS system. I've often wondered why the industry basically skipped that processor.
I've been very happy carrying around an HP49G emulator on my Sony Clie. It's free, though it takes a bit of room on an external card. It's not limited to Sony devices. Check it out.
You can try LyME from Calerga. It's a lightweight Matlab clone that runs on the Palm OS.
And the best part: it's free! (as in beer)
but without scripts and a mathematics keypad, it is nothing compared to my 83+, let alone my 89.
Another reply to your post mentioned it; I'll add my two cents: I run LyME on my Palm IIIxe.
I love it. For most stuff, it's perfectly adequate, and it's really great having much of Matlab in your back pocket with everything else that a well-used PDA carries.
I use my little old Palm for everything. Replying to e-mail (Eudora for Palm) on the PDA during downtime somewhere requires a keyboard. As such, I have it available for LyME, and generally whip it out anywhere I need more computing power than my Casio FX-991MS or TI-30XIIB. (Tangent: The Casio has *much* more features than the TI, but the TI feels more like the engineers who designed it actually use it.)
Anyway, there are two flaws I've found with LyME in my daily use, and I'm picky. Big calculations will appear to crash the Palm, but control is eventually returned (unless your function or script is faulty). More pressingly, however, I'm probably missing how to put axis on plots. axis doesn't appear to do it, and it's really hard to look at a graph where the x and y values aren't labelled!
Sometimes it feels slow. But that's the trade-off I make for having an old Palm - long battery life, and I'm not out $300+ if something happens to it.
Otherwise, I love it. Vectorizing data and using your own functions against it makes data entry dead easy in the field even using Graffiti; I can be done a calculation while someone else is still digging a notebook computer out of a briefcase.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
I think that's what math's all about.
I find it interesting that you seem to prefer PDAs with proper keyboards, but still give a system extra points if it runs -- and has a screen big enough to use -- Calligrapher. Have you considered a tablet PC?
Reading through this listing inspired me, I am always searching for toys for my ppc, and am in a math class so hey. Ran across this forum thaht seemed to be talking about essentially the same thing, and specifically this calculator seemed to be perfect. What do you all think?
Derg
I'm a little tea pot.