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> A calculator has no such feedback. That's an interesting thought. There's no reason a calculator has to output only a number - with the computing power and

> A calculator has no such feedback. That's an interesting thought. There's no reason a calculator has to output only a number - with the computing power and displays at our disposal today, we could easily draw and/or animate a virtual slide rule. A virtual slide rule probably wouldn't be the best option, though. It's just a visual metaphor for how the values in the calculation relate to one another, and it's one that's only going to be useful for someone who has learned to use a slide rule. I wonder if there might be an effective, generic way to present calculations visually in a way that requires little or no training to understand. Has anyone done this?

operator-name 4y ago
I think it's not about the final output, but rather how the output changes with the input. Calculators are a terrible tool for this. If the model can be ran at the rate of frames per second, sliders or other non precise inputs are good for this.
- monkpit 4y ago
  What about graphing calculators? Seeing a graph of solutions (and how the output varies with the input) can give you an intuitive reaction of whether it’s in the right ballpark or not.
- 8note 4y ago
  A calculator definitely wins for that too. Eg. You can get an exaggerated deformation view of a part, with animation for different input stress. VS a slide where you only get the one value of output at a time
jacobr1 4y ago
Another paradigm are Notebooks. Jupyter style are pretty popular these days, something like Wolfram Alpha's step-by-step mode or this project recently noted on HN https://bbodi.github.io/notecalc3/ https://bbodi.github.io/notecalc3/ are all good examples. Plenty of people use spreadsheets to explicitly chain operations. A specific operation is much less important than the context, dimensional analysis, getting order-of-magnitude or precision correct. Performing operations narrowly is probably operating on the wrong level.

operator-name 4y ago

I think it's not about the final output, but rather how the output changes with the input. Calculators are a terrible tool for this. If the model can be ran at the rate of frames per second, sliders or other non precise inputs are good for this.

monkpit 4y ago
What about graphing calculators? Seeing a graph of solutions (and how the output varies with the input) can give you an intuitive reaction of whether it’s in the right ballpark or not.
8note 4y ago
A calculator definitely wins for that too. Eg. You can get an exaggerated deformation view of a part, with animation for different input stress. VS a slide where you only get the one value of output at a time

jacobr1 4y ago

Another paradigm are Notebooks. Jupyter style are pretty popular these days, something like Wolfram Alpha's step-by-step mode or this project recently noted on HN https://bbodi.github.io/notecalc3/ https://bbodi.github.io/notecalc3/ are all good examples. Plenty of people use spreadsheets to explicitly chain operations. A specific operation is much less important than the context, dimensional analysis, getting order-of-magnitude or precision correct. Performing operations narrowly is probably operating on the wrong level.