It is also programmable using a special HP language that is sort of like Basic or Pascal. It also has an amazing number of applications including a complete symbolic math system based on xCAS/Giac. However, the HP Prime isn’t just your 1980s vintage calculator. You might wonder why you need a calculator on your computer, and perhaps you don’t. But still, it will run under Wine with no more than the usual amount of coaxing. Of course, that’s free as in no charge, not free as in open source. To start with, HP has a free app that runs on Windows or Mac that works just like the calculator. But if you can’t justify a $150 calculator, there are some cheap and even free options out there to get the experience. It is hard to call it a calculator since the latest variant has a 528 MHz ARM Cortex A7, 256 MB of RAM, and 512 MB of ROM. Today’s students are more likely to have a TI or Casio calculator, but HP is still in there with the HP Prime.

The slide rule sword gave way to calculators hanging from your belt loop, and for many engineers that calculator was from HP. Well, really it was a slide rule hanging from your belt, but it sounds cooler to call it a sword. There was a time when being an engineering student meant you had a sword.

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