The benefit of doubt Message #10 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 16 Oct 2007, 11:09 p.m., in response to message #9 by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr.
Hi, Palmer; me, again. Quote: I do recognize that in this forum it is not a popular thing to say that TI has done anything right.
Yes, you are correct; I did push too hard against TI, and I actually did not mean to. I have a TI55 (gift), a TI57, a TI58C (gift, with memory issues), a TI59, a PC100A and a TI82 (gift). I also have an interesting Casio FX7000GA, one of the first graphic pocket calculators.
About a year after having a TI82 as a gift, among others (the CX MB is still here, M.B.; will send it back soon, promise), I bought an HP39G+ (three, in fact). These are all algebraic-based, high-school students addressed, and they have the same helping-aid appealing. TI started earlier, and HP followed it as close as possible (HP38G; is it a coincidence the reversed numbering against the TI83?). One of the HP39G+ I actually bought for my daughter, but I gave up the idea of leaving it with her. I first tried to show her some single stuff, like the 2nd. degree curve changing with the change of parameters 'a', 'b' and 'c', but she did not feel as if it would help her. My approach failed, I guess.
I apply the same considerations to the calculators HP developed with the same purpose. Please, understand that I am not against the tools themselves, instead their primary purpose. I would like to have anyone of those when I was in the brazillian equivalent to the high-school (at the time I was there it was our 2nd. degree school), but I´d surely know what to do with them. Maybe this is the actual punchline: developers idealize tools they'd need, with the customer in mind. A hammer is a hammer anytime, anywhere, and it can be used by anyone who knows what is it for. One cannot apply the same reasoning for a calculator or a computer, their use is not based on a standard circumstance. Either the user or the usage may vary, and under the same circumstance, two users with the same expertise and need may or may not use a calculator to solve a particular problem. Opposedly, if they need a hammer, there is no way to get rid of it.
I'm afraid I did not make myself understood. Going further may not give me the true benefit of doubt...
Cheers.
Luiz (Brazil)
Edited: 17 Oct 2007, 5:09 a.m.
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