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Comment by TacticalCoder | Hacker News Reader

It's interesting that looking at all these, the HP calculator apps, mimicking the look of physical HP calculators, don't seem to have aged as much as the others (I mean: the calculators themselves certainly do look oldschool, but the app doesn't).

The one X11 app I still use to troubleshoot issues or when I set up a new Debian system is "xeyes" (just two eyes which look/track the direction of the mouse pointer). As long as it's shipped with Debian, I'll be making sure xeyes is installed.

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What kind of issues does "xeyes" help you troubleshoot?

It's a program with no blocking I/O, so if the eyes stop moving, you know you're looking at a certain kind of connectivity issue. If some more complicated app stops responding, the problem space of where to start troubleshooting is much larger.

If you miiiiight have a flaky network, leaving xeyes open in the corner can be a real headache-saver.

I use xeyes as a kind of "is remote X working" test. Quick way to test that X forwarding through ssh is functional and fast enough.

I use it to check if an app uses xwayland when I use sway

>don't seem to have aged as much as the others

Just an artifact of the whole UI being pixel mapped graphics onto buttons/labels/canvas mimicking the calculator. I imagine Tk, Xaw, or Motif is under there, you just can't see it. The TiEmu one appears to be GTK.

Although Free42 is much better on iPhone, simply because it’s always handy. Also, real HP42 was almost exactly the same size as the phone, and the fake tactile feedback is really nice.

Free42 also on Android.

Actually launches faster for me that some of the "native" calculators, which I find very strange.

I just checked: although I have Free42 on my Kindle Fire tablet, it's via Google Play Store. I don't see it on Amazon's App Store.

Back in my college days, the HP 48sx was an extension of my soul.

I use a GX and feel the same way—something about the HP 48 is just really charming and I wish for a modern alternative. Software emulation isn't enough! Leaves me longing.

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