Question

I have made a simple calculator for iPhone.

Now I’m trying to create a scientific one. I have searched a lot over the internet and here on how to go about it. But could find anything substantial. Most of them are about making a simple calculator.

It will be of great help if you guys could direct me in the right direction like:

1. what approach should i take?
2. is there any helpful tutorial/blog?
3. things i should be learning in obj-c for making scientific calculator?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

It depends on what you want to achieve. A “simple” scientific calculator, like Apple’s could be done by expanding what you already have. Just add additional functions, like sine, cosine, square root, power. Look at how Apple’s calculator works.

If you want to develop something that can interpret longer terms like sin(123)+sqrt(log(12)) you have to take an other approach. You have to transform the term to RPN (aka. postfix notation) first and then solve it step by step.