4 ms·

If you're going to add something, add something better than the old Calc, unless you really need some feature that only exists on that Calc. I use their PowerCa

If you're going to add something, add something better than the old Calc, unless you really need some feature that only exists on that Calc. I use their PowerCalc Powertoy for Windows XP. [1] There's also SpeedCrunch which in some ways is probably better (minus the plotting) but personally I'm used to PowerCalc. [1] https://imgur.com/gi0jmdI https://imgur.com/gi0jmdI

pavelbr 8y ago
I launch apl in my terminal if the calculation I need to do is simple and Wolfram|Alpha otherwise
- mehrdadn 8y ago
  APL as in... the programming language? Or something else? I'm not sure what you're referring to.
  - larkeith 8y ago
    It wouldn't surprise me - I'll often do the same with Python on non-Windows systems rather than bothering with the native calculator; I'm not even sure if Linux has one (or if it's the same across distros), and Python is ubiquitous, fast, and has familiar syntax.
    - deadbunny 8y ago
      Same here, I don't have an actual calculator program so python is generally the quickest way for me.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - cnasc 8y ago
    I've used J (a language in the APL lineage) as an interactive calculator before. It makes some things pretty easy, especially if you need to operate on series of numbers. What's the sum of the numbers from 15 to 20 inclusive? i.6 N.B. Returns an array 0 1 2 3 4 5 15 + i.6 N.B. Returns an array 15 16 17 18 19 20 +/ 15 + i.6 N.B. returns the number 105 edit: Or course, if we're talking about languages helpful for calculation, we simply must include a reference to https://frinklang.org/ https://frinklang.org/
  - jacobolus 8y ago
    Presumably APL the programming language. Personally I used to use Maple for this kind of thing circa 2002. It used to launch on Windows in a fraction of a second (faster than the built in calculator tool!), and was an amazing calculator for pretty much any purpose. Unfortunately some version of Maple around that time switched to a Java-based front end, and thereafter took forever to load, and had a UI littered with glitches.
- na85 8y ago
  I just use an actual calculator.
userbinator 8y ago
I prefer Microsoft Calculator Plus: http://web.archive.org/web/20111213184700/http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/4/f/34fbcc59-d32e-4190-99e7-7d46d1718320/CalcPlus.msi http://web.archive.org/web/20111213184700/http://download.mi... (No, not the new abomination of the same name that comes up when you search for "Calculator Plus", but the original XP-era one that is now only available from archive.org. Irritatingly enough, MS removed the old --- and better --- one when they introduced the new one.) The one from 7 up to 8.1 has its own problems: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10791667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10791667
- mehrdadn 8y ago
  Confused, isn't that just the built-in Calculator with an optional (extremely ugly) skin enabled by default? What do you like about it?
  - userbinator 8y ago
    It's easier to get than finding an XP installation or ISO to extract a calc.exe from. The installer is also signed by MS, which may be a factor in some highly locked-down corporate environments.

pavelbr 8y ago

I launch apl in my terminal if the calculation I need to do is simple and Wolfram|Alpha otherwise

mehrdadn 8y ago
APL as in... the programming language? Or something else? I'm not sure what you're referring to.
- larkeith 8y ago
  It wouldn't surprise me - I'll often do the same with Python on non-Windows systems rather than bothering with the native calculator; I'm not even sure if Linux has one (or if it's the same across distros), and Python is ubiquitous, fast, and has familiar syntax.
  - deadbunny 8y ago
    Same here, I don't have an actual calculator program so python is generally the quickest way for me.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- cnasc 8y ago
  I've used J (a language in the APL lineage) as an interactive calculator before. It makes some things pretty easy, especially if you need to operate on series of numbers. What's the sum of the numbers from 15 to 20 inclusive? i.6 N.B. Returns an array 0 1 2 3 4 5 15 + i.6 N.B. Returns an array 15 16 17 18 19 20 +/ 15 + i.6 N.B. returns the number 105 edit: Or course, if we're talking about languages helpful for calculation, we simply must include a reference to https://frinklang.org/ https://frinklang.org/
- jacobolus 8y ago
  Presumably APL the programming language. Personally I used to use Maple for this kind of thing circa 2002. It used to launch on Windows in a fraction of a second (faster than the built in calculator tool!), and was an amazing calculator for pretty much any purpose. Unfortunately some version of Maple around that time switched to a Java-based front end, and thereafter took forever to load, and had a UI littered with glitches.
na85 8y ago
I just use an actual calculator.

userbinator 8y ago

I prefer Microsoft Calculator Plus: http://web.archive.org/web/20111213184700/http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/4/f/34fbcc59-d32e-4190-99e7-7d46d1718320/CalcPlus.msi http://web.archive.org/web/20111213184700/http://download.mi... (No, not the new abomination of the same name that comes up when you search for "Calculator Plus", but the original XP-era one that is now only available from archive.org. Irritatingly enough, MS removed the old --- and better --- one when they introduced the new one.) The one from 7 up to 8.1 has its own problems: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10791667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10791667

mehrdadn 8y ago
Confused, isn't that just the built-in Calculator with an optional (extremely ugly) skin enabled by default? What do you like about it?
- userbinator 8y ago
  It's easier to get than finding an XP installation or ISO to extract a calc.exe from. The installer is also signed by MS, which may be a factor in some highly locked-down corporate environments.