Calculator input methods: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:55, 20 June 2024

Revision as of 19:45, 22 September 2024

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=={{anchor|RPN}}Reverse Polish notation==

[[File:Screenshot from 2015-09-10 21-56-23.png|thumb|right|Screenshot of an RPN Calculator program on [[Linux]].]]

[[File:HP-10C programmable calculator.jpg|left|thumb|The [[Hewlett-Packard Voyager series]] of calculators all use RPN input. The "Enter" key is used here to push the value on the display onto the stack.]]

{{main|Reverse Polish notation|Reverse Polish Lisp}}

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{{main|BASIC}}

[[File:Heart-on-ti89-parametric.jpg|thumb|The equation entry screen on a [[TI-89 series|TI-89]], showing the brackets after the ln, sin and cos parameters. If these were left out, the equation would be interpreted as <math>\ln(\left\vert t \right\vert+\sin(t+\cos(t)))</math> instead of <math>\ln(\left\vert t \right\vert)+\sin(t)+\cos(t)</math>.]]

'''BASIC notation''' is a particular implementation of infix notation where functions require their [[function argument|parameters]] to be in brackets.

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=={{anchor|Textbook}}Mathematical display==

[[File:CalculatorFractions-5550x.jpg|thumb|200x200px|A Casio ''Natural Display'' scientific calculator displaying mixed fractions and their decimal equivalents in pretty-printing.]]{{See also|Prettyprint}}

[[File:Mathematica dinis surface.png|left|thumb|Pretty-printed commands used to plot [[Dini's surface]] in Mathematica.]]

Modern computer algebra systems, as well as many scientific and graphing calculators, allow for "'''pretty-printing'''", that is, entry of equations such that [[Fraction (mathematics)|fractions]], [[Nth root#Definition and notation|surds]] and [[integral]]s, etc. are displayed in the way they would normally be written. Such calculators are generally similar in appearance to those using infix notation, but feature a full dot-matrix display and templates for entering expressions, which are navigated using arrow keys on the calculator. The templates contain spaces for values or expressions to be entered, and empty values would typically result in a syntax error, making it more cumbersome to navigate than standard infix notation; standard infix notation is often an option on such calculators as well.