4 ms·

Casio makes arguably better calculators, with more features and are cheaper. TI has a monopoly because that's what teachers know.

by nichos 6y ago

Blackthorn 6y ago
Any recommendations? I was thinking of buying one for my shop. That or buying a graphing calculator app for my phone (which I could also use recommendations for).
- randtrain34 6y ago
  Check out https://www.numworks.com/features/ https://www.numworks.com/features/ which seems like a super fresh take on calculators (eg. can program python)
  - boogies 6y ago
    The article mentions Python on TI calculators and a quick web search reveals at least one Casio one ships with micro python (although as the page you linked says numworks was the first to offer it, so maybe there are other innovations that haven't spread).
    - souprock 6y ago
      You could use C with the TI-84 Plus CE. That gave direct hardware access to the memory-mapped display. Python is no substitute for C. Languages like C are far better for getting a feel for how computers truly work.
- mhh__ 6y ago
  The desmos app is better than any graphing calculator I've ever used.
  - nyanpasu64 6y ago
    It doesn't seem to support complex numbers. It might be good enough for lower-level algebra, calculus, and real-number math, but it's highly crippled for DSP which uses complex exponentials heavily.
    - mhh__ 6y ago
      Very few calculators support complex functions in a nice way in my experience. If you want to do complex number arithmetic then a simple Casio scientific calculator is fine. For graphing you basically have to be on Wolfram alpha or similar.
      - dhimes 6y ago
        Back in the early '90s the Sharp 9300 did. Great little machine- totally overrun by TI.
        mhh__ 6y ago
        Bit before my time
- owenversteeg 6y ago
  I have one of the modern, newer color Casio graphing calculators (a Prizm FX-CG10.) I believe it's from 2012, the very newest one (the FX-CG500) is from 2017. GP is right, Casio does have more features for cheaper (compared to TI.) My mini review of the FX-CG10 (I've had it for around 8 years): fun to write little programs for when you have no other computing devices around, various very nifty features, pretty durable, UI is pretty intuitive, color is super nice to graph multiple things at the same time, nicer than a normal calculator for plain calculations (easy to visualize parens/division/etc), spreadsheet is very nice to have. It does not have a CAS (computer algebra system), but it does have a few features that people might associate with one, such as (IIRC) some form of a simplifier, both for equations and numbers (so the result of the calculation 3/9 can be displayed as both 1/3 and 0.333 with the press of a button.) My only gripes are the buttons (which can feel somewhat mushy) and, occasionally, the screen brightness (outside, on very sunny days, can be a little annoying) Apparently the newer FX-CG50 is basically the CG10 with a moderately faster CPU and a smaller form factor, so nothing too revolutionary. The CG500 is a mostly-touchscreen version of the CG50, which seems weird to me. Never used it. I would guess that your two best choices for modern graphing calculators are the CG50 and the TI-NSPIRE. That said, in general I'm not sure if I'd really recommend a graphing calculator to anyone period. It could be a useful tool if you were a math teacher, but most anyone else I think would be better served by a simpler scientific calculator or a laptop. Really, a graphing calculator is for operations like graphing and spreadsheeting and so on that are much, much better on a laptop. If you don't need the more advanced operations, then definitely go for a scientific calculator: you'll save a hundred bucks and get clickier keys, a clearer screen, unlimited battery life... I'm trying to think of a profession that would really benefit from a graphing calculator, and I really can't think of one aside from math teacher/student. Ultimately, if you need frequent complex calculations (such as for a shop), you're probably better off with the improved ergonomics and display of a simple scientific calculator. And if you really do need graphing and spreadsheeting, then a laptop is probably the way to go. Aside from academic use, a graphing calculator is one of those weird bridge devices, like a phablet or a netbook or a 20" laptop (in my opinion.) I would love to be proven wrong though, so anyone reading this, feel free to comment about your own graphing calculator workflow :) As far as modern scientific calculators I know personally, the TI-30XS is decent, with clicky keys, for $15 (but has an annoying scientific notation issue, you always need parens.) The TI-36X is the upgraded beefy version with fixed scientific notation. I used a Sharp EL-531XBGR years ago and enjoyed it, non-clicky keys (which is a bit of a disappointment) but had tons of features and seemed to be built well. Looks like its 2020 replacements are the Sharp EL-W535TGBBL and Sharp EL-W516TBSL, but you can get anything really, make sure it has WriteView though, that's how you get the nicely displayed parens/division/exponents. Special mention goes to the generic Chinese-made scientific calculator that has been taking dollar stores by storm. It's an excellent option, honestly, and it costs around $2 a piece in bulk and $3 in dollar stores. Has all your trig functions, combinatorics, nth roots... runs forever off of two tiny cell batteries, and can take a beating. If you just need something to use occasionally, to lend, or you just think you need one, it's perfect. If you're looking for something for serious use, well, it does not have as good ergonomics as the $20 TI-36X but it is incredible for what it is. (It appears to be a copy of the Casio FX-300MS.) Here's a photo: https://i.imgur.com/x7uB5g8.png https://i.imgur.com/x7uB5g8.png - it has a million rebranded brand names, to find it just go to any dollar store to get it for $3, or type "graphing calculator" into Amazon until you find something that looks like it (will probably be more like $5 on Amazon.) I got mine for €2.99 (normal price) in the Netherlands. One thing I would not recommend is a TI emulator for your phone. 2/10, never again. It's slow and painful and the emulators aren't great. Whoops, wrote a page. Anyway, good luck on your calculator journey - they're fun little machines! And feel free to comment here weeks later once you've ordered something. HN can use more calculator talk :)
nonsapreiche 6y ago
Yes! old memories .. I remember my casio fx501P where I start writing my first software and the TI58c of my nearby mate, much powerful but with a poor battery, havvy, and almost unusless for long time calculactions, my little casio always was winning against the texas!
glxxyz 6y ago
Casio's fx-7000G was the first graphing calculator. I had one and in the late 80s and then the much nicer looking fx-7700g in the early 90s. FX-7000G had 422 bytes of RAM (one BASIC token used a byte) and the 7700 had about ten times as much. I was able to program it to draw decent fractals; Mandelbrot set took about 1/2 an hour, Martin Fractal, Sierpinski Triangle, etc. Much more fun than GCSE and A-Level Maths. I managed a few simple games but there was no way to read keyboard input without pausing execution so they had to be turn based. The best game was probably a simple reaction timer which waited a random time then told you to press AC, and when re-run let you know your approximate time for the last run. I also used the memory for storing my timetable for the week and and notes for tests, but I was always too nervous to use the stored test data. Also the laborious effort of entering in text had embedded the small amount of text into my memory well.
- dhimes 6y ago
  That was an amazing machine for its day. I remember exploring parameters by graphing equations on a plane on the way to an APS meeting with my advisor sitting next to me in awe.

Casio makes arguably better calculators, with more features and are cheaper. TI has a monopoly because that's what teachers know.

by nichos 6y ago

Casio makes arguably better calculators, with more features and are cheaper. TI has a monopoly because that's what teachers know.

Blackthorn 6y ago

Any recommendations? I was thinking of buying one for my shop. That or buying a graphing calculator app for my phone (which I could also use recommendations for).

randtrain34 6y ago
Check out https://www.numworks.com/features/ https://www.numworks.com/features/ which seems like a super fresh take on calculators (eg. can program python)
- boogies 6y ago
  The article mentions Python on TI calculators and a quick web search reveals at least one Casio one ships with micro python (although as the page you linked says numworks was the first to offer it, so maybe there are other innovations that haven't spread).
  - souprock 6y ago
    You could use C with the TI-84 Plus CE. That gave direct hardware access to the memory-mapped display. Python is no substitute for C. Languages like C are far better for getting a feel for how computers truly work.
mhh__ 6y ago
The desmos app is better than any graphing calculator I've ever used.
- nyanpasu64 6y ago
  It doesn't seem to support complex numbers. It might be good enough for lower-level algebra, calculus, and real-number math, but it's highly crippled for DSP which uses complex exponentials heavily.
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    Very few calculators support complex functions in a nice way in my experience. If you want to do complex number arithmetic then a simple Casio scientific calculator is fine. For graphing you basically have to be on Wolfram alpha or similar.
    - dhimes 6y ago
      Back in the early '90s the Sharp 9300 did. Great little machine- totally overrun by TI.
      - mhh__ 6y ago
        Bit before my time
owenversteeg 6y ago
I have one of the modern, newer color Casio graphing calculators (a Prizm FX-CG10.) I believe it's from 2012, the very newest one (the FX-CG500) is from 2017. GP is right, Casio does have more features for cheaper (compared to TI.) My mini review of the FX-CG10 (I've had it for around 8 years): fun to write little programs for when you have no other computing devices around, various very nifty features, pretty durable, UI is pretty intuitive, color is super nice to graph multiple things at the same time, nicer than a normal calculator for plain calculations (easy to visualize parens/division/etc), spreadsheet is very nice to have. It does not have a CAS (computer algebra system), but it does have a few features that people might associate with one, such as (IIRC) some form of a simplifier, both for equations and numbers (so the result of the calculation 3/9 can be displayed as both 1/3 and 0.333 with the press of a button.) My only gripes are the buttons (which can feel somewhat mushy) and, occasionally, the screen brightness (outside, on very sunny days, can be a little annoying) Apparently the newer FX-CG50 is basically the CG10 with a moderately faster CPU and a smaller form factor, so nothing too revolutionary. The CG500 is a mostly-touchscreen version of the CG50, which seems weird to me. Never used it. I would guess that your two best choices for modern graphing calculators are the CG50 and the TI-NSPIRE. That said, in general I'm not sure if I'd really recommend a graphing calculator to anyone period. It could be a useful tool if you were a math teacher, but most anyone else I think would be better served by a simpler scientific calculator or a laptop. Really, a graphing calculator is for operations like graphing and spreadsheeting and so on that are much, much better on a laptop. If you don't need the more advanced operations, then definitely go for a scientific calculator: you'll save a hundred bucks and get clickier keys, a clearer screen, unlimited battery life... I'm trying to think of a profession that would really benefit from a graphing calculator, and I really can't think of one aside from math teacher/student. Ultimately, if you need frequent complex calculations (such as for a shop), you're probably better off with the improved ergonomics and display of a simple scientific calculator. And if you really do need graphing and spreadsheeting, then a laptop is probably the way to go. Aside from academic use, a graphing calculator is one of those weird bridge devices, like a phablet or a netbook or a 20" laptop (in my opinion.) I would love to be proven wrong though, so anyone reading this, feel free to comment about your own graphing calculator workflow :) As far as modern scientific calculators I know personally, the TI-30XS is decent, with clicky keys, for $15 (but has an annoying scientific notation issue, you always need parens.) The TI-36X is the upgraded beefy version with fixed scientific notation. I used a Sharp EL-531XBGR years ago and enjoyed it, non-clicky keys (which is a bit of a disappointment) but had tons of features and seemed to be built well. Looks like its 2020 replacements are the Sharp EL-W535TGBBL and Sharp EL-W516TBSL, but you can get anything really, make sure it has WriteView though, that's how you get the nicely displayed parens/division/exponents. Special mention goes to the generic Chinese-made scientific calculator that has been taking dollar stores by storm. It's an excellent option, honestly, and it costs around $2 a piece in bulk and $3 in dollar stores. Has all your trig functions, combinatorics, nth roots... runs forever off of two tiny cell batteries, and can take a beating. If you just need something to use occasionally, to lend, or you just think you need one, it's perfect. If you're looking for something for serious use, well, it does not have as good ergonomics as the $20 TI-36X but it is incredible for what it is. (It appears to be a copy of the Casio FX-300MS.) Here's a photo: https://i.imgur.com/x7uB5g8.png https://i.imgur.com/x7uB5g8.png - it has a million rebranded brand names, to find it just go to any dollar store to get it for $3, or type "graphing calculator" into Amazon until you find something that looks like it (will probably be more like $5 on Amazon.) I got mine for €2.99 (normal price) in the Netherlands. One thing I would not recommend is a TI emulator for your phone. 2/10, never again. It's slow and painful and the emulators aren't great. Whoops, wrote a page. Anyway, good luck on your calculator journey - they're fun little machines! And feel free to comment here weeks later once you've ordered something. HN can use more calculator talk :)

nonsapreiche 6y ago

Yes! old memories .. I remember my casio fx501P where I start writing my first software and the TI58c of my nearby mate, much powerful but with a poor battery, havvy, and almost unusless for long time calculactions, my little casio always was winning against the texas!

glxxyz 6y ago

Casio's fx-7000G was the first graphing calculator. I had one and in the late 80s and then the much nicer looking fx-7700g in the early 90s. FX-7000G had 422 bytes of RAM (one BASIC token used a byte) and the 7700 had about ten times as much. I was able to program it to draw decent fractals; Mandelbrot set took about 1/2 an hour, Martin Fractal, Sierpinski Triangle, etc. Much more fun than GCSE and A-Level Maths. I managed a few simple games but there was no way to read keyboard input without pausing execution so they had to be turn based. The best game was probably a simple reaction timer which waited a random time then told you to press AC, and when re-run let you know your approximate time for the last run. I also used the memory for storing my timetable for the week and and notes for tests, but I was always too nervous to use the stored test data. Also the laborious effort of entering in text had embedded the small amount of text into my memory well.

dhimes 6y ago
That was an amazing machine for its day. I remember exploring parameters by graphing equations on a plane on the way to an APS meeting with my advisor sitting next to me in awe.