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The iPad (and other tablets) can have arbitrary keys. I see great potential in tablets for replacing graphing calculators. They have all the right specs, they a

by ugh 16y ago

The iPad (and other tablets) can have arbitrary keys. I see great potential in tablets for replacing graphing calculators. They have all the right specs, they are portable and their UIs can very much surpass that of traditional graphing calculators, especially when it comes to data entry. (My only problem is that I despise all the existing apps because they are so damn ugly. They offend my sensibilities. That's probably just me, though.)

wtallis 16y ago
Tactile feedback actually tends to matter for data entry. Back when people actually cared about the quality of their calculators and there was real competition, the quality and durability of the keyboards was one of the most important features of a calculator. The flexibility of an iPad's screen might be able to offset the lack of tactile feedback, but it would have to be a very well-designed piece of software. I know of no such app, though I would love to hear about one. Unfortunately, given the poor and stagnant user interfaces for both desktop applications like Mathematica and MATLAB, and TI's graphing calculators, I doubt that anyone with significant resources is doing the necessary UI research.
- ugh 16y ago
  The UI is the big problem. It's currently only the same old stuff with minor modifications. If only Apple were into calculators … (A calculator made with the same dedication to the medium as GaageBand for the iPad would be awesome.) I don't think that tactile feedback matters all that much. The keys on the iPad screen can be much larger, that alone helps a lot. And, again, arbitrary keys offer great potential for making data entry easier.
  - wtallis 16y ago
    If you have no haptic feedback and dynamically shifting context-sensitive layouts, touch-typing is very hard. You simply won't be able to achieve the efficiency of a scientific calculator like the HP 15C or 32S, and even approaching the usability of a graphing calculator for the simpler operations will be hard. The potential usability gains for more complicated operations might be worth it for higher-level classes (and a good port of Geometer's Sketchpad would be invaluable), but I don't think it would help for a typical homework problem set unless it also had a good way to help you typeset the solutions you computed.
    - Derbasti 16y ago
      Have you ever used the iPad keyboard for a few days? After a while I found that I could touch-type on my iPad with relative ease. Not as good as a real keyboard, but certainly in the same ballpark. Also, I tried some of the calculator iPad apps out there that utilize custom keyboards. Quite frankly, the simple fact that they have the screen space to lay out keys in a sensible way made up for the shiftiness. Contrast that with dozens of tiny keys, half of which are always unrelated to any one task. Personally, I prefer the iPad as a calculator. Please note that this is my very personal experience as an engineer and programmer and it might not apply to you.

by ugh 16y ago

wtallis 16y ago

Tactile feedback actually tends to matter for data entry. Back when people actually cared about the quality of their calculators and there was real competition, the quality and durability of the keyboards was one of the most important features of a calculator. The flexibility of an iPad's screen might be able to offset the lack of tactile feedback, but it would have to be a very well-designed piece of software. I know of no such app, though I would love to hear about one. Unfortunately, given the poor and stagnant user interfaces for both desktop applications like Mathematica and MATLAB, and TI's graphing calculators, I doubt that anyone with significant resources is doing the necessary UI research.

ugh 16y ago
The UI is the big problem. It's currently only the same old stuff with minor modifications. If only Apple were into calculators … (A calculator made with the same dedication to the medium as GaageBand for the iPad would be awesome.) I don't think that tactile feedback matters all that much. The keys on the iPad screen can be much larger, that alone helps a lot. And, again, arbitrary keys offer great potential for making data entry easier.
- wtallis 16y ago
  If you have no haptic feedback and dynamically shifting context-sensitive layouts, touch-typing is very hard. You simply won't be able to achieve the efficiency of a scientific calculator like the HP 15C or 32S, and even approaching the usability of a graphing calculator for the simpler operations will be hard. The potential usability gains for more complicated operations might be worth it for higher-level classes (and a good port of Geometer's Sketchpad would be invaluable), but I don't think it would help for a typical homework problem set unless it also had a good way to help you typeset the solutions you computed.
  - Derbasti 16y ago
    Have you ever used the iPad keyboard for a few days? After a while I found that I could touch-type on my iPad with relative ease. Not as good as a real keyboard, but certainly in the same ballpark. Also, I tried some of the calculator iPad apps out there that utilize custom keyboards. Quite frankly, the simple fact that they have the screen space to lay out keys in a sensible way made up for the shiftiness. Contrast that with dozens of tiny keys, half of which are always unrelated to any one task. Personally, I prefer the iPad as a calculator. Please note that this is my very personal experience as an engineer and programmer and it might not apply to you.