Octal

[M H Stein]

Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:19:07 -0400
From: Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net>
Subject: Re: Octal

>Lesse, While the calc on my NT4 box has most of the right stuff it 
>doesn't do logic (AND, OR, XOR, NOT) and if I ask for a "tape" the 
>printer is at the other side of the room.  Feh!
--------------------------
No problem; just move the printer! ;->

The Windows Calculator (am I breaking any rules here? :) does indeed
have shortcomings, but there are some pretty useful others out there
with all your logic functions, 4/8/16/32 bit modes, ASCII and unit
conversions, etc.

And for accounting stuff, a printing calc is indeed useful; use one myself for
certain things. I was just musing that in general people seem to be more 
comfortable with calculators (even non-printing ones) than computer versions. 

(And looking for and correcting errors in long columns of figures is a lot more 
convenient in a spreadsheet.)

>Often I need the result when NOT at a PC.

Aw, c'mon Allison (and Tony); someone asked whether anyone still had a TI Programmer
and I replied, yes, I do but generally use the Windows calculator instead (because
of some of the same shortcomings you yourself mentioned); aside from the
obligatory "*I* don't _use_ Winblows" replies there were one or two saying that it
and computer calcs in general were "a pain" ("can't see the point") and I asked why.

I didn't say that they were "better" or that you should throw your pocket calc away 
and use a laptop when you're away from your desk. Just that for the usual 
_programming_ stuff, converting bases & doing hex/octal/binary arithmetic, 
it's convenient to have a calculator right there on the same keyboard that
you're programming on (and perhaps one or two people weren't aware that
the Win Calc has hex & binary (and octal, the thread of this discussion) modes; 
I know that I didn't realize it until well into W98).

Sheesh...

mike