Abicus unable to calculate some simple functions, such as factorials

[ottopussinenn-spec]

Unless it's done with a roundabout method that I haven't yet figured out (and so neither will people in the matriculation exam figure out) the factorial function which is 100% a part A question (meaning Ti-Nspire will not be available) cannot be done using abicus. for example doing 5! will result in an error.

Even windows default calculator has a built in history, compared to the Abicus's version where you can only see 1 calculation at a time.

[iiropo]

Imagine calling the project a "scientific calculator" and still missing functionality found with the windows calculator

[lumilla]

I mean I don't want to be rude but this is genuinely laziness, this was realistically intended as a replacement for bitbucket.org/heldercorreia/speedcrunch/src because they either didn't know how to, or didn't want to compile it for WASM (because for some reason completely beyond me, Abitti 2 needed to be a glorified WebView window....)

[Nick1625]

Not being able to calculate with percentages is crazy work for a calculator

[ottopussinenn-spec]

Abicus as a calculator to me seems to be attempting to be as minimalistic and simple as possible. This genuenly isn't something you want out of a calculator in any way. I can see the argument, that speedcrunch has an uneccesary amount of functions, and you may be able to "cheat" by using some functions that even TI-Nspire isn't capable of. HOWEVER a calculator not being able to show the past calculations is baffling.

[lumilla]

See #54

[mplattu]

(As stated in the README, we don't generally follow the issues in our GitHub repos. Please send your feedback to Abitti support to get heard!)

Before the Abitti was introduced to the math exam on spring 2019, the exam was carried out using paper, pencil and optinally, CAS calculator. The exam was split into two phases just as it is today. In the phase A the candidates did not have any calculator in their use. When moving to phase B they could utilise CAS calculators, which were those days separate hand-held machines owned by the candidates.

The reason for splitting the exam into two phases was to make it possible to measure basic math skills in phase A without the power of CAS calculators.

When moving to Abitti 1, it was apparent there was no way to prevent candidates using the workstation as calculators. Therefore, we introduced first one and later a few simple calculators to phase A. One of these calculators was SpeedCrunch which quickly became the tool for candidates planning to take the math and/or science exams. The features of SpeedCrunch are comparable to script languages available in Abitti 1, but considerably wider than the initial idea behind the phase A.

When moving to Abitti 2 a possibility to get "back to basics" opened again since the kiosk-like candidate application could e.g. forbid access to the browser console. We wanted the phase A to have a very simple calculator with similair features found in the university exam system Vallu. We hoped this would help candidates to move from matriculation exam to university entrance exams.

Unfortunately, because of several reasons the Vallu calculator was not available for us. Furthermore, we could not find an open-source calculator which would have the desired feature set and be sufficiently technically high-quality. As a last resort we decided to create an open-source calculator with the same feature set.

To clarify the field with lots of rumors flying around and teachers waiting for the definite set of Abitti 2 applications, the board ruled that this calculator would be the only one available in math exam phase A.

TL;DR: the feature set of Abicus calculator is by design and the application does not claim to be a drop-in replacement with any existing calculator application (especially not SpeedCrunch).

I'm leaving the issue open for further comments. However, don't expect me or other MEB staff to participate, since we're just now busy with Abitti 2 rollout.