Programmable calculators
Programmable online calculators are typically used for scientific, financial, engineering and educational applications, with most also being graphing.
What is a programmable calculator
Programmable calculators are calculators that can run programs like a computer, both programs built into the device at the factory and programs added by the user.
Programmable calculators allow the user to create custom programs, typically for scientific, financial calculators, engineering and educational applications, being able to solve equations and perform numerous tasks with variables.
As far as programming languages are concerned, the most commonly used programming language in programmable calculators is BASIC, although models support many other programming languages, such as Fortran, awk, Pascal, Lisp, Python, tcl, COBOL, C, Delphi and Unix shell.
On the software side, there are all kinds of applications for programmable calculators, from scientific and mathematical programs to video games, called demos.
Today, most scientific and financial calculators are programmable, since scientific, mathematical and engineering problem solving, as well as financial applications, require the user to be able to create, store and run their own programs, for applications such as solving algebraic equations or performing complex mathematical calculations.
Before the mass production of low-cost LCD displays, programmable calculators usually had a single or multi-line numeric or alphanumeric display, but since the early 1990s, most programmable calculators have had a large LCD display that can accommodate several lines of text, calculations and graphics at once, so they belong to the category of graphing calculators.
Regarding data storage, the first programmable calculators used punched cards as a program storage medium, but later switched to magnetic tape, read-only memory cartridges or memory cards.
Only a few companies build and develop programmable calculators, the most relevant being Casio, Sharp, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Texas Instruments (TI).
Source: calculable.org
