The NumWorks graphing calculator [LWN.net]

The NumWorks graphing calculator

Posted Sep 28, 2017 20:10 UTC (Thu) by Lionel_Debroux (subscriber, #30014)
Parent article: The NumWorks graphing calculator

A €80 / $100 calculator with a full-featured CAS engine would indeed blast similarly priced, CAS-less models from the established calculator manufacturers cartel - for instance, the TI-84+CE and TI-83 Premium CE, which are the newest derivatives (the hardware is basically the same, the software differs) of the old 84+, and fare much better than the 84+ in a comparison against the N100.

However, the pristine NumWorks N100 can't be that calculator: 1 MB of Flash, i.e. only half of what e.g. the '1998 TI-89 provides (but accessible at a much faster rate), simply isn't enough to hold a full-featured CAS engine in addition to the other features expected from a graphing calculator, and 256 KB of RAM isn't much either.
Bernard Parisse made an experimental port of his Giac to the NumWorks simulator, which implements no binary size limit on x86/x86_64; according to him, the ARM binary would be much larger than the N100's Flash memory. The discussion in French is at https://ti-pla.net/t20445 (disclaimer: I'm a founding member and still staff member of TI-Planet, but there's no English-speaking reference about NumWorks+Giac at the time of this writing, I explicitly asked him in another thread).

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The NumWorks graphing calculator

Posted Sep 29, 2017 0:17 UTC (Fri) by daney (guest, #24551) [Link] (2 responses)

I think a big reason that "the established calculator manufacturers cartel" is so effective is that The College Board (proprietors of SAT college entrance exams and AP curriculum) as well as ACT (another college entrance exam) only seem to all TI products to be used. Because of this, most US high school students effectively have no choice when it comes to calculator purchases.

CAS or no CAS, unless students are permitted to use the device, I don't think it will be commercially successful.

The NumWorks graphing calculator

Posted Sep 29, 2017 0:23 UTC (Fri) by daney (guest, #24551) [Link] (1 responses)

OK, so I just looked at the NumWorks web site. I guess they are cognizant of the need to get the thing ACT and AP/SAT approved. They claim that you can use it on the ACT, which is a good start.

I wonder though, with the ability to load custom firmware, if it can be certifiable for these tests, as you could in theory add functions to gain an advantage over others who would have only standard firmware.

The NumWorks graphing calculator

Posted Sep 29, 2017 14:10 UTC (Fri) by cpitrat (subscriber, #116459) [Link]

You can load any program on a TI. Back in my days, people were (uselessly) copying their notes in the calculator hoping it would help them. What could you possibly do in a firmware that you can't do in a program and that would bring you some 'advantage' ?!

The NumWorks graphing calculator

Posted Sep 29, 2017 1:16 UTC (Fri) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link] (3 responses)

FWIW, the STM32F412 part in the NumWorks is mid-range; that particular line tops out at 1.5M flash and 320K RAM, but the higher-end F469 (which may or may not be available in a compatible package) has 2M flash and 384K RAM.

They also support external DRAM and Flash, but that could require a bit of SW rework (ie "modules" paged into RAM) and probably hurt performance a bit. Not to mention cost more.

Anyway. I _really_ want to see this MathWorks endeavour succeed.

The NumWorks graphing calculator

Posted Sep 30, 2017 12:20 UTC (Sat) by joib (subscriber, #8541) [Link] (2 responses)

Mathworks? The company behind Matlab? They are somehow behind this?

The NumWorks graphing calculator

Posted Oct 1, 2017 8:11 UTC (Sun) by Lionel_Debroux (subscriber, #30014) [Link] (1 responses)

Although MathWorks does have at least an office in France (or did until recently ?), this "MathWorks" occurrence might have been a thinko.

The NumWorks graphing calculator

Posted Oct 6, 2017 12:02 UTC (Fri) by xav (guest, #18536) [Link]

They still do, a few blocks from here. And they're alive and kicking (employing some friends of mine).

The NumWorks graphing calculator

Posted Sep 29, 2017 13:53 UTC (Fri) by epithumia (subscriber, #23370) [Link] (1 responses)

My problem with this is that at the current pricing it is far closer to something like an HP Prime, which by many measures is a vastly superior calculator. Perhaps the design isn't as pretty or intuitive as the NumWorks but it does have a touch screen. The fact that it has RPN (and thus I can actually use it as a calculator) is a big deal for me but probably not important for most people.

It's true that TI is just exploitative, especially when they price the various editions of TI84 which are explicitly required by certain textbooks at nearly double the price of their highest-end NSpire calculators. (Though even then they charge extra for an NSpire with a CAS.) To displace them from that market (at least the local market with which I am familiar) you would have to provide something amazing at an even more amazing price. Doing simply "a whole lot better" at a slightly lower price just isn't enough, it seems, because TI keeps getting business.

HP gives a free emulator and smartphone application which exactly duplicate the Prime so students can just use their phone most of the time and only use the physical calculator in the classroom setting. They have a complete classroom connectivity solution (though it is unfortunately overpriced). It's simply not enough. You have to both cut costs and push hard against TI in innovative ways. Get these things out to schools as kits. Bundle them with 3D printers (on loan if necessary to keep the costs reasonable) so kids can actually make their calculators from parts. Get them involved and then let them keep the result, so that the learn the value of open design. And if you're going to try to do traditional sales, at least drop the cost by a third if not in half.

As an aside, I do wonder if Bernard Parisse is somehow involved in this effort. My understanding is that he is the author of GIAC and has done the CAS systems for HP calculators since the HP49.

The NumWorks graphing calculator

Posted Sep 29, 2017 15:12 UTC (Fri) by Lionel_Debroux (subscriber, #30014) [Link]

Your understanding is correct.

He made an unofficial mod of the computer version of the NumWorks software, which features Giac integration; at the same time, he started putting some Python compatibility syntactic sugar into Giac. You can see a couple screenshots of NumWorks+Giac in the forum topic where I posted a link to :)
Apart from the HP Prime running an official mod of Giac, the TI-Nspire series has enjoyed his unofficial port of Giac since 2014, named Khicas (good pun, definitely intended), whose binaries are upgraded on a regular basis to follow Giac enhancements.