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Physical one, no. Apps, all the time for any napkin math. Unfortunately most calculator apps are no match for dedicated calculators - they can't be trusted and
by orbital-decay 3y ago
Physical one, no. Apps, all the time for any napkin math. Unfortunately most calculator apps are no match for dedicated calculators - they can't be trusted and most devs don't give a shit to the balance between mental load and quick input. Most apps don't even have ultra basic stuff like binary operator repeat, making it pointless to use.
I consider RPN obsolete - yes it's faster for longer calculations but the input clarity is also lost compared to algebraic, and if I need longer calculations I'll just take a proper CAS or scripting language instead of mental juggling.
On Android, I've found HiPER Calc and Segitiga.Pro to be the only non-emulated calculators worth using. Both apps are clearly made by enthusiasts with attention to detail and correctness. On Windows/Linux/MacOS, I haven't found a single app worth using.
Calculators have a razor thin niche, and most "advanced" calculator apps like SpeedCrunch fail to stay in it, due to the feature creep or otherwise. Most often they are trying to reinvent a REPL instead of using proper algebraic calculator input, and overload it with functions that belong in more serious software. All that lowers the input and iteration speed, and makes the calculator too clunky to use for napkin math and/or bloated and slow to start (Qalculate). At this point you can take any scripting/functional REPL instead of this app.
- ClumsyPilot 3y ago> On Windows/Linux/MacOS, I haven't found a single app worth using. This has been my problem, I ended up buying a £20 Casio because all the apps suck. I was shocked how we can fail so badly with so many resources.v
- qwezxcrty 3y agoTry a simulator of a physical calculator. I'm pretty happy with the HP Prime emulator on Windows.
- joshstrange 3y agoNot sure if you need graphing support but if not, for iOS/Mac I often hear people recommending PCalc: https://pcalc.com https://pcalc.com
- copperx 3y agoEmacs's RPN calculator mode is fantastic, but you're not into RPN. If you're computing long formulae, algebraic mode is certainly better. If you're doing mostly sums on a large amount of values (my most common use case), RPN is hard to beat.
- orbital-decay 3y agoMy primary use case is augmenting my napkin math. That doesn't necessarily mean doing all calculations on the calculator, just offloading the parts where my intuition is likely to fail, to help narrow down the result. For anything where precision and correctness matters (long formulae, sums of values) I'm usually using more specialized tools, from math software to spreadsheets. They could be tested and verified, unlike calculators. And that's exactly what I don't want to see in a calculator I use, because it turns it into something more heavyweight. Calculator is a bicycle for me, not an earth moving machine.