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Need advice from Engineers who are also TI users
06-05-2018, 03:23 PM
Post: #13
RE: Need advice from Engineers who are also TI users
Hello!

And yet another view on the subject which of course has intersections with previous posts: I am an engineer by training and during university and post-graduate studies used Ti calculators exclusively (simply because at that time - 1980ies - HP calculators were unaffordable for me as a student). I never found anything wrong with AOS :-) But I also had access to HP calculators and am somewhat familiar with RPN. To this day I have no clear preference. At work in engineering I hardly ever needed a pocket calculator because the problems to be solved required something way more capable. No I work in a different field (aviation) and do not need a calculator at all. But I collect calculators and own about every single model mentioned in that thread.

- HP48 and similar: I you don't like RPN much as wou write, stay well away! They are programmed in RPL which is about the most horrible thing I have come across in computers. And additionally they have an awful display (extremely low contrast LCD) and frequent keyboard issues. When I got my first HP-48 (an SX variant if I remember correctly) I played a little with it and then laid it aside in disgust and didn't ever touch it again.

- If you have a sweet spot for collectible yet usable calculators then you might look at HP classics (especially the "Woodstocks" HP25C, 29C and 19C and their modern "Woodstock low power" conversions and the wonderful HP-67). They have the best keyboards of all calculators ever made - you really do not need to look at the display whilst typing numbers and can perform most mathematical calculations an engineer would do on a pocket calculators. (Show me one single engineer who is paid for doing efficient work for a company and who uses a pocket calculator for matrix operations with complex numbers!!!)

- Ti graphic calculator models: I own many of them for the sake of an extensive collection and have played with them to some degree. I absolutely fail to see why some would be useful more for engineering work whilst others would be for students mainly. With the exception of the latest nSpire models maybe which are really a bit clumsy for being used as "simple" calculators. The Ti86 you mention is a good tool for the job, but personally I prefer the Ti89 or 89 titanium. Simple because their screen is better. Or, if size doesn't matter, a Ti Voyage 200 which is a Ti89 with a larger screen and a proper QWERTY keyboard.

Regards
Max
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RE: Need advice from Engineers who are also TI users - Maximilian Hohmann - 06-05-2018 03:23 PM



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