A New Calculator and Why it is Necessary
Harold Thimbleby · The Computer Journal · 1995
Conventional calculators are badly designed: they suffer from bad computer science — they are unnecessarily difficult to use and bug ridden. I describe a solution, avoiding the problems caused by conventional calculators that is more powerful and arguably much easier to use. The solution has been implemented, and design issues are discussed. This paper shows an interactive system that is declarative, with the advantages of clarity and power that entails. It frees people from working out how a calculation should be expressed to concentrating on what they want solved. An important contribution is to demonstrate the very serious problems users face when using conventional calculators, and hence what a freedom a declarative design brings.