memes

P.S. I have no idea why you're so skeptical that the Sinclair Executive can execute other than left-to-right, to the point of reading an example where the operations are executed left-to-right as evidence that it can execute in another order. But if you really cannot accept, due to some weird glitch in your programming or whatever, what about:

• The Monroe 20. The example is typed in as 1 + 2 × 4 - 5 ÷ 6 = and the result is given as 1.16 (repeating). That has been executed left-to-right; the result would be 8.16 (repeating) if executed with the usual operator precedence.

• The Montgomery Ward P300. An example is typed in as 8.3 + 2 ÷ 4 - 6.8 =, with the result given being -4.225. That has been executed left-to-right; the result would be 2 if executed with the usual operator precedence.

• The Omron 88. An example is typed in as 98 + 76 - 54 × 32 ÷ 10 =, with the result being given as 384. That has been executed left-to-right; the result would be 1.2 if executed with the usual operator precedence.

And to round it all out here is an issue of Electronic Design with an article (read p41, "Which Arithmetic") that explicitly says that, in 1978, "all scientific calculators" except those of TI and HP used immediate execution. I dunno how many sources for this you need; I'm guessing you'll find some way of deciding that when a magazine says "all scientific calculators except TI and HP" it means something completely different.

I mean, it's just like I said: the basic, four-function calculators are all like this. Scientific Calculators used to all be like this, until technical developments were made that allowed otherwise. Feel free to browse more manuals on that website if you want, it's quite interesting! If you were to, you'd have a better understanding of how these calculators - which I practised with in primary school, but which you, because you didn't, assert don't exist - actually work.

As an extra favour to you, I found the manual of the scientific calculator I had at home when I was growing up - this is what I used whenever I needed a calculator for homework until we were instructed to get a specific calculator, from some specific school year. That calculator was:

• The Casio fx-110. And what do you know, it has an example of typing the keys: 56 × 3 - 89 ÷ 5.2 + 63 = and printing the answer 78.19230769. The answer, if executed with usual operator precedence, would be 213.88461538.

So indeed, it's not just basic calculators. So let's go from here: there were millions and millions of calculators sold on which, if you type 2 + 3 × 5 it would give the answer 25.