I use python repl as my primary calculator on my computer.
1. I don't have problems like the IOS problem documented here. This requires me to know the difference between an int and a float, but pythons ints have unbounded precision(except if you overflow your entire memory), so that kind of precision loss isn't a big deal.
2. History is a lot better. Being able to scroll back seems like a thing calculators ought to offer you, but they don't.
3. In the 1-in-a-hundred times I need to repeat operations on the calculator, hey, we've already got loops, this is python
4. Every math feature in the windows default calculator is available in the math library.
5. As bad as python's performance reputation is, it's not at all going to be noticeable for simple math.
I was always a little envious of the people that could use bc because they knew how. I know python and its installed on linuxes by default, so now I am no longer envious.
1. I don't have problems like the IOS problem documented here. This requires me to know the difference between an int and a float, but pythons ints have unbounded precision(except if you overflow your entire memory), so that kind of precision loss isn't a big deal. 2. History is a lot better. Being able to scroll back seems like a thing calculators ought to offer you, but they don't. 3. In the 1-in-a-hundred times I need to repeat operations on the calculator, hey, we've already got loops, this is python 4. Every math feature in the windows default calculator is available in the math library. 5. As bad as python's performance reputation is, it's not at all going to be noticeable for simple math.