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Timely thing - I actually dusted off my TI-89 over the weekend doing taxes. There was something about a focused tool with a physical number that I was really de

Timely thing - I actually dusted off my TI-89 over the weekend doing taxes. There was something about a focused tool with a physical number that I was really desiring. I have fond memories of tapping around on it in high school. Turns out it sucks, and I wound up just buying one of the $5 solar basic calculators and was way happier. I can't wait for this monopoly to get blown up.

mindcrime 7y ago
Opposite story here... I still use my TI-89 (or my even older TI-86) from time to time, even when sitting in front of a PC that has R, Maxima, Gnuplot, Axiom, Sage, etc. installed. There is something about the format of those old TI calculators that I find oddly appealing for whatever reason. That said, when I don't have a hand-held calculator handy, I usually just fire up bc or R when I need to do some quick calculations.
- fireattack 7y ago
  What is bc?
  - mindcrime 7y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bc_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bc_(programming_language)
  - zosterops 7y ago
    An arbitrary precision calculator language. It can be used as a scripting language or from an interactive shell. It is part of POSIX so you are running Linux you probably have it installed.
  - jumelles 7y ago
    If you're using bc for the first time, be aware that you almost certainly want to run bc -l -- otherwise no decimals will be displayed and you'll get whole number answers to everything. The -l flag changes that behavior to instead use 20 decimal points.
- bscphil 7y ago
  > I usually just fire up bc Those who prefer RPN should check out dc! It's my preferred calculator for simple calculations.
the_pwner224 7y ago
I had a TI nSpire CX CAS in high school (like the 89 but with a color LCD screen and hackable with Lua and C - it runs Doom and GBA/NES emulators). In the final year of high school I was taking a class that did not require a graphing calculator, so I bought a TI 36X Pro, an advanced scientific calculator. It has excellent 'UI', tons of functionality, and the buttons feel great to type on (though after a long time they will still start to get mushy). I actually used to carry both of my calculators with me, the CAS for when I needed it and the 36X for normal usage since it felt better to use. It's not a school monopolozer like the 84/89 so it's priced well, at <$20. I bought another one in college after I lost the first one. I'm doing CS so I don't need it often, but I find it to be worth keeping around.
- Baeocystin 7y ago
  The 36X Pro is my surprise modern favorite of the non-graphing 'cheap' sci calcs I use. The keys really do feel good to use. (I still consider my HP 48SX My Precious, though. Yay RPN and all that.)
  - unsignedint 7y ago
    Thanks to this thread I bought TI-36X Pro myself. While I don't have constant needs to calculate thing, I was looking for a good calculator that I can keep in my bag. This seems to be a perfect calculator for that purpose, price and feature wise.

mindcrime 7y ago

Opposite story here... I still use my TI-89 (or my even older TI-86) from time to time, even when sitting in front of a PC that has R, Maxima, Gnuplot, Axiom, Sage, etc. installed. There is something about the format of those old TI calculators that I find oddly appealing for whatever reason. That said, when I don't have a hand-held calculator handy, I usually just fire up bc or R when I need to do some quick calculations.

fireattack 7y ago
What is bc?
- mindcrime 7y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bc_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bc_(programming_language)
- zosterops 7y ago
  An arbitrary precision calculator language. It can be used as a scripting language or from an interactive shell. It is part of POSIX so you are running Linux you probably have it installed.
- jumelles 7y ago
  If you're using bc for the first time, be aware that you almost certainly want to run bc -l -- otherwise no decimals will be displayed and you'll get whole number answers to everything. The -l flag changes that behavior to instead use 20 decimal points.
bscphil 7y ago
> I usually just fire up bc Those who prefer RPN should check out dc! It's my preferred calculator for simple calculations.

the_pwner224 7y ago

I had a TI nSpire CX CAS in high school (like the 89 but with a color LCD screen and hackable with Lua and C - it runs Doom and GBA/NES emulators). In the final year of high school I was taking a class that did not require a graphing calculator, so I bought a TI 36X Pro, an advanced scientific calculator. It has excellent 'UI', tons of functionality, and the buttons feel great to type on (though after a long time they will still start to get mushy). I actually used to carry both of my calculators with me, the CAS for when I needed it and the 36X for normal usage since it felt better to use. It's not a school monopolozer like the 84/89 so it's priced well, at <$20. I bought another one in college after I lost the first one. I'm doing CS so I don't need it often, but I find it to be worth keeping around.

Baeocystin 7y ago
The 36X Pro is my surprise modern favorite of the non-graphing 'cheap' sci calcs I use. The keys really do feel good to use. (I still consider my HP 48SX My Precious, though. Yay RPN and all that.)
- unsignedint 7y ago
  Thanks to this thread I bought TI-36X Pro myself. While I don't have constant needs to calculate thing, I was looking for a good calculator that I can keep in my bag. This seems to be a perfect calculator for that purpose, price and feature wise.