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HP Forum Archive 15

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Not about Cobubba -- Internationalization
Message #1 Posted by John Limpert on 10 Aug 2005, 11:52 p.m.

I've always been curious about non-English or non-European versions of calculators. As far as I can tell, HP just translates their manuals into the local language for major markets. i've seen pictures of calculators with Cyrillic keyboards. Are there calculators out there that are tailored for languages with non-Latin alphabets and/or non-Hindu/Arabic numerals?

      
Re: Not about Cobubba -- Internationalization
Message #2 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 11 Aug 2005, 2:57 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by John Limpert

There are calculators using arabic numbers (widespread in the Middle East) and "Soroban"-calculators, combining an abacus with a traditional LCD-calculator.

            
Re: Not about Cobubba -- Internationalization
Message #3 Posted by Gunnar Degnbol on 11 Aug 2005, 6:00 a.m.,
in response to message #2 by Frank Boehm (Germany)

Are you sure they are widespread? This page says the Al Hassibah 2000 calculator, introduced in 1991 and "not a stellar commercial success" was unique in its support for arabic-indic digits.

My Java RPN calculator Stak supports Arabic, Thai and many other digit shapes if the platform (phone or PC) does. My experience is that it is very easy to learn 10 different symbols for the digits, and I guess that most people in the world know the European digits as well as their own.

I think most websites in Arabic, for example Al Ahram (Egyptian newspaper) and Al Jazeera TV, or in Thai use European digits.

                  
Re: Not about Cobubba -- Internationalization
Message #4 Posted by Frank Boehm on 11 Aug 2005, 8:33 a.m.,
in response to message #3 by Gunnar Degnbol

I have seen a couple of arabic models while visiting Egypt a couple of years ago. China makes it possible, I guess :)


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