Re: Handmade calculator. Message #9 Posted by Ben Salinas on 5 Mar 2004, 5:41 p.m., in response to message #1 by eclectic_echidna
That is a really cool concept... perfect for the 2004 Create a Calculator contest<http://www.hp.com/calculators/contest/>
I notice this year they are not talking about the crazy calculators they were last year (measuring the temperature on mars, painted red, white and blue... etc)
In fact, they even encourage the higher level students not to focus on the form; rather on "technical features, performance factors, and scientific and graphing abilities."
Now if only I was allowed to enter.
That actually sounds like a really practical idea. Calcualtors are definitely on their way out, as computers become smaller and more powerful. I could see that be relevant not only to enthusiasts, but also to educators and students. A teacher could customize a class set of calculators to allow students only to be able to use some features, create a keyboard overlay, and lock the mode in. Perhaps they could mass produce keyboard overlays to be used with inkjet printers.(hey it is HP, the largest printer company).
Furthermore, if simple software was developed (for the computer probably) to allow teachers to "drag and drop" functions to keys, while still allowing the enthusiasts to program their own functions and assign them to keys (much like macros), a calcualtor like this would be widely popular. Teachers would eat it up because it would allow students a calculator to do the simple arithmetic, but not allow them to use the complex features of a calculator. Students would like it because they could place their functions exactly where they want them (i.e., not have to go through 18 menus to get to a specific function), or customize their calcualtor for a specific unit (if they are doing a unit on trig, they could have sin, cos, tan, sec, csc, cot and all the inverse functions on the keyboard). Engineers and those in the business world would like it because you could easily place your specific functions where you want them. Essentially, you would have a scientific, grpahing, engineering, and financial calculator all in one. HP could release one or two bodies, and a library of predefined key setups (graphing, scientific, financial, basic 4 function, heck... even PDA).
That is a great idea, now if only it would be more than that.
-Ben Salinas
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