NumWorks open source calculator

[Bill (Smithville NJ)]

I bought my Numworks calculator from Amazon back in June. It's Model N0110.

Before buying, I had spent a little time playing with the On-Line Simulator/emulator. I liked that i could download and run the simulator locally on my computer. I bought it mainly to play around with Python on it.

After receiving the calculator, I was very impressed with it's construction. And had some fun playing around with it. I'm not overly fond of having to use their website to download/upload programs to it. I would much prefer an offline option. I never trust on-line to always be there in the future.

I had hopes that I could save and load programs into the the Simulator. Unfortunately, the Simulator has NO OPTION to load or save programs or even maintain the state of the calculator. Each time the simulator is run, it starts with an empty state. So while I could develop on the simulator there is no way to move that to the actual calculator except to re-enter everything.

In retrospect, I wish I had realized that the simulator, for my purpose, is almost useless. If I had know that, I probably would not have bought the calculator.

Another problem is that while there are quite a few python programs developed by users for the calculator, there is no easy way to search or list those programs. I have spent time using Google to find these users programs, but it would be nice if the website had a programs area so that they could easily be referenced.

Even when I find a sample program, quite often it won't run since the program is using a custom version of the calculator OS.

Another problem is that the Forum is on Reddit. I hate Reddit. In my view, it's not a proper forum that I am used to. Plus embedded ads just drive me crazy.

At present, my Numworks calculator makes a very pretty paper weight. I am holding on to it to see if they ever correct the Simulator to Load/Save programs/states. If they do, then I might start playing around with it again.

73
Bill
WD9EQD
Smithville, NJ