# The coolest damn calculator....

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-coolest-damn-calculator/61937>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 14, 2001, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-coolest-damn-calculator/61937 "2001-04-14T09:41:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2001, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-coolest-damn-calculator/61937/21 "2001-04-16T02:20:19Z")

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I’ve never used the TI-89, but I’ve had a TI-92 for the last 6 years, and I love the damn thing. If only it could do complex matrix algebra a little FASTER, it would be perfect. It’s about as close as I’ve seen to Mathmatica Portable.

Jman

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**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2001, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-coolest-damn-calculator/61937/22 "2001-04-16T03:36:29Z")

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I’ll put in a vote for HP’s as well…I find mine pretty damn indispensible, and playing Joust on a calculator ranks pretty high on my coolness meter. I will admit, however, that it’s symbolic integration abilities may not be the best on the market (I don’t use it for calculus work myself…)

Slight hijack: does anyone know enough about both calculators to say how the HP48 line compares with the TI-92 as regards to ease of programmability? I know the HP48 is extremely easy to program…I’ve written an infinite integer arithmetic library myself, as well as a program to evaluate the Lobachevsky function…but I’ve never had a chance to play with a TI calculator.

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