3 ms·

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 sa

by 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.

3 ms·

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 sa

by ugh 16y ago

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.