I would have assumed that cheap (i.e. 4-function, LCD) calculators today have the same internals as cheap calculators from the 1980s. Why reinvent what works, when you can just keep selling it.
Why would you assume iOS, not being the cheap option for a smartphone, would choose to emulate a cheap calculator?
There were non-cheap calculators in the 1980s, too, that did proper evaluation. The ones I remember had keys for parentheses, though, allowing you to enter, for example
(3 + 4) * 7 =
For an example see the TI-25 at http://www.datamath.org/Sci/Slimline/TI-25.htm
The point is, precedence following expression evaluation calculators starting from the 80s have always shown you the expression. No expression and no parentheses buttons (accumulator stack) implies a simple accumulator based design.
loading story #42815874
> Why would you assume iOS, not being the cheap option for a smartphone, would choose to emulate a cheap calculator?
i'd assume that because the ui for the ios calculator app is the same as the ui of a cheap calculator. not sure i would ever consider the platform that app is running on.
loading story #42815860
Well I was responding to a post about "really cheap calculators" not non-cheap ones or iOS ones.