finally a graphing calculator?

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failedmathematicianfailedmathematician
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Emails went out today from Arizona Software saying that another company has bought Curvus Pro from them.



[For those that don't know, this is an excellent graphing calculator program. I used it a lot back in os 9. I only messed around with the alpha of the OS X version but even then it seemed very close to the perfect mac graphing calculator.]



Maybe it is Apple? The graphing calculator was one of the few things that never made it over from os 9, and I do miss it. Maybe I'm just not being creative enough, but I can't think of why any other company would be interested in buying this product.



Curvus Pro web site

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    cooopcooop Posts: 390member
    Why do you naturally assume Apple acquired it? I don't understand.... I would think a more likely acquirer would be Wolfram Research or The MathWorks. Most of Apple's recent acquisitions have been video-based applications. In the past, Apple has worked with scientific developers to fine-tune their apps for OS X, but I see no reason why Apple would choose to acquire such an application forthright.
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  • Reply 2 of 11
    failedmathematicianfailedmathematician Posts: 95member
    Well, I can't understand why someone like Wolfram would purchase a graphing calculator when Mathematica already has robust graphing capabilities, already hooked into their engine and their syntax. And if they were going to buy one, why choose a OS X only Cocoa one? I mean, that was just my thinking on the matter. I am not at all convinced that Apple is the buyer, but (to me at least) they make a lot more likely candidate than one of the math heavy hitters.
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  • Reply 3 of 11
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by failedmathematician

    Emails went out today from Arizona Software saying that another company has bought Curvus Pro from them.



    [For those that don't know, this is an excellent graphing calculator program. I used it a lot back in os 9. I only messed around with the alpha of the OS X version but even then it seemed very close to the perfect mac graphing calculator.]



    Maybe it is Apple? The graphing calculator was one of the few things that never made it over from os 9, and I do miss it. Maybe I'm just not being creative enough, but I can't think of why any other company would be interested in buying this product.



    Curvus Pro web site



    Speaking as someone who loves Graphing Calculator and who is disappointed and confused that it has not been ported to MacOS X, your speculation makes no sense. Graphing Calculator is not an Apple product. It is a product of Pacific Tech of Berkeley, CA. Why would Apple buy one third-party product to replace another third-party product? Curvus Pro is nowhere near a replacement for Graphing Calculator. Graphing Calculaor is a calculator that allows textbook entry of numbers. It is a graphing calculator that allows textbook entry of mathematical expressions in either 2-D or 3-D. It is also a symbolic math program. Curvus Pro allows the visualization of surfaces and vector fields in 2-D and 3-D. Although not terribly difficult to use, its ease of use pales in comparison to Graphing Calculator. From where I sit, it would make much more sense for Apple to buy Pacific Tech. Afterall, Apple ships Graphing Calculator with every new Mac. If Apple brought it inhouse, it would port the application to MacOS X.
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  • Reply 4 of 11
    failedmathematicianfailedmathematician Posts: 95member
    Mr. Me,



    I liked the graphing calc a lot too, but its 2004 and it is still a ->classic<- app. I wasn't even aware that it still shipped on new Macs. In fact, I was surprised to find it on my PBook. Now the question is: how do you think Apple feels about relying on a 3rd party developer that just refuses to get with the program? For that matter, are there ANY other classic apps that ship with a new Mac?



    It is true that Curvus doesn't completely replace the Graphing Calculator, but an idiot-proofed Curvus and the regular calculator get real close.
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  • Reply 5 of 11
    skipjackskipjack Posts: 263member
    Now the question is: how do you think Apple feels about relying on a 3rd party developer that just refuses to get with the program?[/B][/QUOTE]



    I wouldn't say he refuses to get with the program. For the longest time it was just one person writing and updating the program in his spare time.



    See the full explanation here:





    Why hasn't Graphing Calculator been ported to OS X?



    Here's the bottom line:



    "June 2004 Update



    This page was originally posted in September, 2002. Since then, development work on Graphing Calculator has continued, albeit slowly. Currently, it uses OpenGL for 3D rendering and no longer depends on the unsupported RAVE API. A native Mac_OS_X release is under active development. Although we do not have a schedule for its release, we have made sufficient progress that I would revise the pessimistic outlook above. There will probably be an OS X native release in the future. We are still unable, however, to make any commitments or schedule predictions. If you would like to support our efforts, you can offer to contribute to funding the development as described above."
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  • Reply 6 of 11
    gavrielgavriel Posts: 175member
    It was mentioned during the Philnote that a graphing calculator was coming to OS X. Could that be Curvus Pro X or some other software? I haven't been able to view the shaky stream yet so forgive me if Phil mentioned what app he was referring to.
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  • Reply 7 of 11
    majormattmajormatt Posts: 1,077member
    Very interesting.



    The current OSX calculator has a built graphing calculator - if you enable it. You must open the package contents find the graphing calculator plugin and put it into the plugins folder. The Apple Graphing calc is very rudimentary and messes up very easily.



    Now Apple has bought CurvusProX and PacificTech is upgrading their calculator for OSX?



    Interesting.
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  • Reply 8 of 11
    skipjackskipjack Posts: 263member
    This e-mail speaks for itself (especially for those "obvioiusly" expert and proficient programmers who could not understand why the author had not ported the program yet):



    Hello,



    We've begun testing Graphing Calculator 3.5 native on OS X.



    Thank you for your offer to help support development. It has taken us

    a long time to port this software to run natively on OS X. We apologize

    for the delay, and hope that you like the results.



    If you would like to participate in beta testing the software, we are

    now accepting advance orders. This requires that you are running

    Mac OS X 10.3.4 or newer.



    To place an advance order for Graphing Calculator on OS X at the

    full price of $100:



    https://orders.evocative.com/pacific...m?sku=gc3xfull





    To place an advance order for Graphing Calculator on OS X at the

    educational discount for teachers, students, schools, and parents

    price of $60:



    https://orders.evocative.com/pacifict/cart.cfm?sku=gc3x





    The software that you download after placing an order is beta software.

    It will expire and we will send you a new version once we finish testing

    and ship the final release.



    We have not yet decided on our upgrade policy or pricing.



    The version currently being tested is Graphing Calculator 3.5b4.



    If you would rather wait until we have completed testing, we will

    notify you when the software is final.



    Best regards,



    Ron Avitzur

    Pacific Tech
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  • Reply 9 of 11
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gavriel

    It was mentioned during the Philnote that a graphing calculator was coming to OS X.



    I don't remember, but, anyway, here are two screenshots of the new Tiger calculator:



    Screenshot 1

    Screenshot 2.



    This topic has been discussed in Mac OS X on these boards. Here is the thread.
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  • Reply 10 of 11
    bnoyhtuawbbnoyhtuawb Posts: 456member
    There is a Graphing Calculator on Mac OS X 10.3.5! You just have to enable it.

    http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/ma...ex.html#chap11

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  • Reply 11 of 11
    skipjackskipjack Posts: 263member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BNOYHTUAWB

    There is a Graphing Calculator on Mac OS X 10.3.5! You just have to enable it.



    While that is nice to know, Graphing Calculator by PacificT does much more than simple graphing.



    That's all I'll say because anyone who is really interested will look for themselves and those who want to debate "graphing calculator" will not.
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