!rant
Guys need help. I'm currently looking for a new scientific calculator, and do you know any programmable scientific calculator out there with good docs and is open sourced? 😅

Texas Instruments TI Nspire CX CAS ?

@JoshBent sounds nice, I'll look into it

@JoshBent CX CAS is fucking expensive for its miniscule capabilities though
You can get a decent smartphone for its price.

I would honestly stick to older simpler calculators like a TI-84 or and just use a phone for all the fancy stuff.

@RememberMe you clearly haven't been at an university in a science/math heavy related major.

@JoshBent lol, I'm an engineering graduate. I even have a TI Nspire CX CAS. It's crap for its price.

Maybe because I'm Indian and prices are different here? The damn thing cost 14k, my phone costs 9.5k. Indian rupees, that is.

@RememberMe then why would you suggest a phone? I don't think I know any university worldwide that allows to use a phone during tests, so you'd just waste time getting used to some app and be fucked, there's a reason why the nspire is used most often.

@JoshBent that's why I'm suggesting an older TI model for tests, and use a phone or your PC for your own use.

@RememberMe depends which and where you get one from, can range from 120$ to easily 200$, but many universities have also a limited timeframe you can get a special link to buy it cheaper so you'll be closer to the minimum or even below it, depending on what mass they have to register for the delivery.

@JoshBent also, my university had us do most things by hand, and most of the questions were more on the proof side anyway, since I'm a CS graduate. But even the mech and electrical engineers that I know used very basic scientific calculators, the most advanced things they could would would be to solve a system of 3 linear equations with 3 variables lol

@RememberMe I have a TI-84 also and it simply can't hold up to what the nspire can do, especially for graphics and longer formulas (not to mention macros, additional apps, ..), it makes your life much easier, especially because with the 84 you need to do a lot manually if youre e.g. doing electrical engineering.

@RememberMe I guess there's also a clear difference in education, sorry but I simply can't agree with that at all, especially for electrical engineering.

@JoshBent different education systems, I guess, yeah. For us it was simply that if it was too long for the calculator, just do it by hand.

I still say that TI calculators are horribly overpriced especially in the age of smartphones though. Maybe some other company is making decent calculators, OP should probably look for that instead of listening to us old-timers :p

@RememberMe probably there is some new calculator out by now yeah, but I think the nspire is still the standard for getting the discounts etc. and most courses build on it too, so I doubt it's worth it going with something else - except if my knowledge is absolutely outdated lol

@JoshBent course compatibility is a good point, and one that I overlooked. I guess it's because I'm more into the theory side of things, I'd spend hours breaking my head over whether an algorithm optimization was provably correct for every case or not, lol.

I don't hate my CX CAS as a device, I just found it way too overpriced, I guess.

OP, I think you should go with @JoshBent 's suggestion.

@RememberMe OP probably should also look into their course materials that usually are available even before starting any, they mention suggestions, what discounts are available etc. maybe his university doesn't even offer what I am mentioning, which would suck though, because depending on country and availability it could easily spike into 200$ 😅

I'd go for a used HP calculator (personally, I love my HP42SII). RPN is masterrace!

@jAsE it's not like that, I just want to have a sci cal that I can mess around during exams 😅😂
Also kidding aside, I will probably use it for college anyways, so why not find something interesting 😅