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I clicked hoping this would be about how old graphing calculators are generally better math companions than a phone. The best way to do math on my phone I know

I clicked hoping this would be about how old graphing calculators are generally better math companions than a phone. The best way to do math on my phone I know of is the HP Prime emulator.

VorpalWay 8mo ago
I run a TI 83+ emulator on my Android phone when I don't have my physical calculator at hand. Same concept, just learned a different brand of calculators.
- varun_ch 8mo ago
  built-in calculator apps are surprisingly underbaked... I'm surprised neither of the big two operating systems have elected to ship something comparable to a real calculator built in. It would be nice if we could preview the whole expression as we type it.. I use the NumWorks emulator app whenever I need something more advanced. It's pretty good https://www.numworks.com/simulator/ https://www.numworks.com/simulator/
  - josephg 8mo ago
    That’s certainly an improvement - but why can’t I modify a previous expression? Or tap to select previous expressions? What I want is something like a repl. I want to be able to return to an earlier expression, modify it, assign it to a variable, use that variable in another expression, modify the variable and rerun and so on.
    - varun_ch 8mo ago
      I think on the numworks you can use the arrow keys to pull up an old expression. I think it would be really cool if someone built out an interpreted, nicely rendered calculator language/repl that could do variables and stuff. Might be an interesting idea
      - josephg 8mo ago
        You can, but it seems to just select & use the results of previous expressions. I often want to modify & iterate on the formulas I've previously entered. Or rerun them. I think there was a calculator like this about a decade ago released for macos, but I can't remember what it was called. Brilliant little piece of software. I assume most people didn't understand it, and it slowly disappeared.
    - gryffyn 8mo ago
      Qalculate <https://qalculate.github.io/ https://qalculate.github.io/> is my favourite REPL-like calculator, although it unfortunately lacks an iOS app. It feels similar to using an HP 48-series calculator. Numbat <https://numbat.dev/ https://numbat.dev/> is similar, but more CLI/REPL-focused, and with more of an emphasis on being a programming language.
xp84 8mo ago
I was pretty delighted to realize I could now delete the lame Calculator.app from my iPhone and replace it with something of my choice. For now I've settled on NumWorks, which is apparently an emulator of a modern upstart physical graphing calc that has made some inroads into schools. And of course, you can make a Control Center button to launch an app, so that's what I did. Honestly, the main beef I have with Calculator.app is that on a screen this big, I ought to be able to see several previous calculations and scroll up if needed. I don't want an exact replica of a 1990s 4-function calculator like the default is (ok, it has more digits and the ability to paste, but besides that, adds almost nothing).
- Buttons840 8mo ago
  I looked at that calculator. But HP Prime and TI-89 have CAS systems that can do symbolic math, so I prefer to emulate them.
- vscode-rest 8mo ago
  Calculator.app does have history now FWIW, it goes back to 2025 on my device. And you can make the default vertical be a scientific calculator now too. Also it does some level of symbolic evaluation: sin^-1(cos^-1(tan^-1(tan(cos(sin(9))))))== 9, which is a better result than many standalone calculators. Also it has a library of built in unit conversations, including live updating currency conversions. You won’t see that on a TI-89! And I just discovered it actually has a built in 2D/3D graphing ability. Now the question is it allows parametric graphing like the MacOS one… All that said, obviously the TI-8X family hold a special place in my heart as TI-BASIC was my first language. I just don’t see a reason to use one any more day to day.
  - xp84 8mo ago
    I haven't reinstalled it to check how it's implemented, but I want that history visible on the screen. So that I can do 3 calculations, then look up and see the calculations and results, for instance, to copy them down somewhere. I'd like multitasking too with multiple apps visible at once so I could copy figures easily from one app to another, like the Android I tried in 2020, but obviously that's asking too much of Apple.
xoa 8mo ago
My personal favorite is iHP48 (previously I used m48+ before it died) running an HP 48GX with metakernal installed as I used through college. Still just so intuitive and fast to me.
- wolvoleo 8mo ago
  I still have mine. Never use it though as I'm not handy with RPN anymore. :'(
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
realityfactchex 8mo ago
GraphNCalc83 is awesome [0]. [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/graphncalc83/id744882019 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/graphncalc83/id744882019
shiroiuma 8mo ago
I use the "RealCalc" app on my phone. It's pretty similar to my old HP48.
nickorlow 8mo ago
Anytime I have to do some serious amount of math, I have to go dig around and find my TI-84, everything is just burned into muscle memory
watersb 8mo ago
PCalc -- because it runs on every Apple platform since the Mac Classic: https://pcalc.com/mac/thirty.html https://pcalc.com/mac/thirty.html My other favorite calculator is free42, or its larger display version plus42 https://thomasokken.com/plus42/ https://thomasokken.com/plus42/ For a CAS tool on a pocket mobile device, I haven't found anything better than MathStudio (formerly SpaceTime): https://mathstud.io https://mathstud.io You can run that in your web browser, but they maintain a mobile app version. It's like a self-hosted Wolfram Alpha.
- Melatonic 8mo ago
  The last one was interesting but both apps haven't been updated in 4 years. Hard to pay for something like that. They do have some new AI math app that's regularly updated
TimByte 8mo ago
HP Prime emulator still wins for actually solving equations

I clicked hoping this would be about how old graphing calculators are generally better math companions than a phone. The best way to do math on my phone I know of is the HP Prime emulator.

VorpalWay 8mo ago

I run a TI 83+ emulator on my Android phone when I don't have my physical calculator at hand. Same concept, just learned a different brand of calculators.

varun_ch 8mo ago
built-in calculator apps are surprisingly underbaked... I'm surprised neither of the big two operating systems have elected to ship something comparable to a real calculator built in. It would be nice if we could preview the whole expression as we type it.. I use the NumWorks emulator app whenever I need something more advanced. It's pretty good https://www.numworks.com/simulator/ https://www.numworks.com/simulator/
- josephg 8mo ago
  That’s certainly an improvement - but why can’t I modify a previous expression? Or tap to select previous expressions? What I want is something like a repl. I want to be able to return to an earlier expression, modify it, assign it to a variable, use that variable in another expression, modify the variable and rerun and so on.
  - varun_ch 8mo ago
    I think on the numworks you can use the arrow keys to pull up an old expression. I think it would be really cool if someone built out an interpreted, nicely rendered calculator language/repl that could do variables and stuff. Might be an interesting idea
    - josephg 8mo ago
      You can, but it seems to just select & use the results of previous expressions. I often want to modify & iterate on the formulas I've previously entered. Or rerun them. I think there was a calculator like this about a decade ago released for macos, but I can't remember what it was called. Brilliant little piece of software. I assume most people didn't understand it, and it slowly disappeared.
  - gryffyn 8mo ago
    Qalculate <https://qalculate.github.io/ https://qalculate.github.io/> is my favourite REPL-like calculator, although it unfortunately lacks an iOS app. It feels similar to using an HP 48-series calculator. Numbat <https://numbat.dev/ https://numbat.dev/> is similar, but more CLI/REPL-focused, and with more of an emphasis on being a programming language.

xp84 8mo ago

I was pretty delighted to realize I could now delete the lame Calculator.app from my iPhone and replace it with something of my choice. For now I've settled on NumWorks, which is apparently an emulator of a modern upstart physical graphing calc that has made some inroads into schools. And of course, you can make a Control Center button to launch an app, so that's what I did. Honestly, the main beef I have with Calculator.app is that on a screen this big, I ought to be able to see several previous calculations and scroll up if needed. I don't want an exact replica of a 1990s 4-function calculator like the default is (ok, it has more digits and the ability to paste, but besides that, adds almost nothing).

Buttons840 8mo ago
I looked at that calculator. But HP Prime and TI-89 have CAS systems that can do symbolic math, so I prefer to emulate them.
vscode-rest 8mo ago
Calculator.app does have history now FWIW, it goes back to 2025 on my device. And you can make the default vertical be a scientific calculator now too. Also it does some level of symbolic evaluation: sin^-1(cos^-1(tan^-1(tan(cos(sin(9))))))== 9, which is a better result than many standalone calculators. Also it has a library of built in unit conversations, including live updating currency conversions. You won’t see that on a TI-89! And I just discovered it actually has a built in 2D/3D graphing ability. Now the question is it allows parametric graphing like the MacOS one… All that said, obviously the TI-8X family hold a special place in my heart as TI-BASIC was my first language. I just don’t see a reason to use one any more day to day.
- xp84 8mo ago
  I haven't reinstalled it to check how it's implemented, but I want that history visible on the screen. So that I can do 3 calculations, then look up and see the calculations and results, for instance, to copy them down somewhere. I'd like multitasking too with multiple apps visible at once so I could copy figures easily from one app to another, like the Android I tried in 2020, but obviously that's asking too much of Apple.

xoa 8mo ago

My personal favorite is iHP48 (previously I used m48+ before it died) running an HP 48GX with metakernal installed as I used through college. Still just so intuitive and fast to me.

wolvoleo 8mo ago
I still have mine. Never use it though as I'm not handy with RPN anymore. :'(
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]

realityfactchex 8mo ago

GraphNCalc83 is awesome [0]. [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/graphncalc83/id744882019 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/graphncalc83/id744882019

shiroiuma 8mo ago

I use the "RealCalc" app on my phone. It's pretty similar to my old HP48.

nickorlow 8mo ago

Anytime I have to do some serious amount of math, I have to go dig around and find my TI-84, everything is just burned into muscle memory

watersb 8mo ago

PCalc -- because it runs on every Apple platform since the Mac Classic: https://pcalc.com/mac/thirty.html https://pcalc.com/mac/thirty.html My other favorite calculator is free42, or its larger display version plus42 https://thomasokken.com/plus42/ https://thomasokken.com/plus42/ For a CAS tool on a pocket mobile device, I haven't found anything better than MathStudio (formerly SpaceTime): https://mathstud.io https://mathstud.io You can run that in your web browser, but they maintain a mobile app version. It's like a self-hosted Wolfram Alpha.

Melatonic 8mo ago
The last one was interesting but both apps haven't been updated in 4 years. Hard to pay for something like that. They do have some new AI math app that's regularly updated

TimByte 8mo ago

HP Prime emulator still wins for actually solving equations