Looking for a good computer science/programmer's calculator

Hi all,

I've been shopping around trying to find a nice calculator to plop on
my desk at work which would be well suited to programming, e.g. lots
of number base and logic calculations. Right now I'm using a 48gx, and
while I think it's a fantastic machine, it's simply not optimized for
this kind of work. My main gripe is having to prefix BINTs with #
every time, combined with hunting around menus for logic and bit
functions. The functionality is all there - the entry efficiency is
not. I suppose I could do a good deal of user keyboard redefinitions,
but without any easy access to blank keyboard templates to label the
keys, I'd be fumbling around worse than before most likely.

The documentation for the 9g that I've read makes it look somewhat
promising, given that it will handle 32 bit binary values. The stat
and graphing functions are a nice inclusion. My hesitation here is
that I've heard a few reports that it's pretty buggy, and the base
selections are in a menu you have to dance through with the cursor
keys.

And while the new 35s is mighty tempting, it looks like all the base
and logic functions are hidden in menus that would require at least
three key presses to access: shift, menu key, item number. Plus,
entries have to be suffixed with the appropriate base designator - h,
b, etc.

Believe me, I'd love to be able to mosey over to the local office
supply store and pick up a 16c, but I simply can't justify spending
$200+ on one of those (used, no less). I'll try to itemize what
specifically I'm looking for:

-All the usual bases: DEC, HEX, BIN, OCT
-Max two keystrokes to select a base
-Logic ops: AND, OR, XOR, NOT
-Max two keystrokes for logic ops
-No prefixing/suffixing of number entries required
-32 bits minimum in all bases
-Other typical scientific functions (trig, logs, powers and roots,
etc.) highly preferable, but I could live without

I'd love to hear suggestions from anyone that does similar work. I'd
even be open to non-HP recommendations if there's something really
great out there. As long as I can get it for a reasonable price - say,
under $60 - at the store, from Amazon, or from ebay, I'm all ears.

-Dave Britten

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Photo gallery of new HP-35s
    ... info on the calculator itself, not to mention photos, I bought one ... the program labels are limited to 26 single letters. ... the new 35s has the 'goto' feature - the ability to branch ... person and I am nowhere near as bothered by the four arrow keys as I ...
    (comp.sys.hp48)
  • Re: Photo gallery of new HP-35s
    ... info on the calculator itself, not to mention photos, I bought one ... the program labels are limited to 26 single letters. ... the new 35s has the 'goto' feature - the ability to branch ... person and I am nowhere near as bothered by the four arrow keys as I ...
    (comp.sys.hp48)
  • Looking for a good computer science/programmers calculator
    ... I've been shopping around trying to find a nice calculator to plop on ... keys, I'd be fumbling around worse than before most likely. ... -Max two keystrokes to select a base ... -Max two keystrokes for logic ops ...
    (comp.sys.hp48)
  • Re: Photo gallery of new HP-35s
    ... info on the calculator itself, not to mention photos, I bought one ... the new 35s has the 'goto' feature - the ability to branch ... person and I am nowhere near as bothered by the four arrow keys as I ...
    (comp.sys.hp48)
  • RE: Sendkeys in Office 2003
    ... In that case the keys are sent and you get nothing. ... Sometimes the first few keystrokes are lost in a transmission. ... SendKeys "Then your important commands", ... Direct commands are always better than SendKeys ...
    (microsoft.public.access.modulesdaovba)
Loading