Then I read mentions of VPAM and SVPAM. My next calc purchase was a fx-4500PA. The two line display, with the top line dot matrix and the bottom line numeric was a hint. I can evaluate a Sine just like you would write it.
Now the fx-5800P goes a step futher by bringing in the fruits of Casio's hard work to develop BASIC into a specialized version, oriented toward high accuracy number crunching instead of muddying the professional's problems with a limited GUI and low resolution graphics.
These calculators seem to be a specific effort to provide real world engineering tools with long battey life. An app on a phone is subject to running from a battery that has many high powered peripherals and vibrating and ringing to distract from the job at hand. Are modern computer based tools more powerful? Of course. But you don't always have them with you.
Food for tbought: How many major breakthroughs were first scribbled on napkins and spot checked with a slide rule? Think how many more are waiting that can be solved with a few keystrokes. Yes I was an early adopter of smartphones. Yes I carry one everywhere. I don't want to have to find and open an app that uses a touch screen. Why? Because I can feel the physical keys on a calculator. I can operate it with one hand by touch while my eyes and other hand are working on that napkin.
So for the work-a-day engineering folk who don't need limited graphics on a calc, what is next after the fx-5800P?
Edited by Sal, 10 January 2017 - 10:07 PM.
