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Comment by saagarjha | Hacker News Reader

It's not even in the same league without a CAS.

If you want algebra, use a computer. I’m talking about doing calculations and I think it is hard to beat the efficiency when entering them into an HP–48-like device

Σ(1/n^2,n,1,∞) is a calculation. That TI-89 evaluates it to π^2/6 makes it good at doing them.

1. That’s not a calculation. It’s a special case you either need to know or have to be clever to compute. A calculation might be, say, compute zeta(2). But I don’t really want to argue about semantics.

2. This can evaluate this correctly on the (slightly later) HP-49G+

So given this new information, will you change your mind or try to find some other silly example?

Maybe did you mean it is not arithmetic?

Transcendental functions are not arithmetic, but they are also not algebra (in the CAS sense of the word)

According to wikipedia:

"arithmetic also includes more advanced operations, such as [...] exponentiation, logarithmic functions, and even trigonometric functions, in the same vein as logarithms (prosthaphaeresis)."

I own hp50g and TI-89, and I keep picking the latter. It is simply that much more slick.

When using hp50g, I find its input<>reaction latency makes me want to throw it at a wall. I used to tolerate it and rely on the input buffer, but that simply isn't good UX. I'm glad I grabbed a used TI-89 at some point.

Still keeping the hp50g for nostalgia reasons. Is what I used back at university; We went a long way together.

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