Reply to self: never mind—for calculation of basic trig functions I suppose they are better than carrying books of tables.
It is actually **lighter** and less bulky to have it in printed form than to carry around an expensive calculator.
However....My homeschooled Saxon Math kids used a calculator for Algebra 2 and above. Two went on to graduate from college at the age of 18 with B.S. degrees in ....( drum-roll!).....MATHEMATICS! ( Yeah!) All three finished Calculus 3 at the community college by the age of 15.