Show HN: A Vaadin Algebra and Calculus Solver Built with AI Assistance https://ift.tt/6r3RD24

Show HN: A Vaadin Algebra and Calculus Solver Built with AI Assistance Hi HN, I’d like to share a side project that has gradually become my main creative outlet: The Algebrator, a web-based algebra and calculus solver I built using Java, Spring Boot, Vaadin 24, and a symbolic math engine under the hood. It started as a personal attempt to revisit the math I loved in middle/high school, but it evolved into a multi-year design experiment in AI-augmented software engineering. I built and iterated on this app using a paired-programming workflow with LLMs (ChatGPT + GitHub Copilot), and the project ended up teaching me more about agentic AI development than anything else I’ve worked on. What it does Lets users type equations, inequalities, and expressions in a calculator-like UI Solves algebraic equations, systems, trigonometry, calculus operations, and iterative “problem templates” Supports fraction/decimal modes, radians/degrees, comparison operators, user-defined functions, and multi-character variables Includes utility “extras” like prime generation, Fibonacci, random integers, etc. All built in a Vaadin UI designed to feel like a pocket calculator Why I built it I wanted a tool that makes algebra feel like it did on my old TI calculator, but with the flexibility of a symbolic engine. I also wanted to explore how far I could push “AI-paired development” in a real project — not just code generation, but architecture, UI/UX reasoning, and rapid iteration. What might interest HN It’s a full Java/Vaadin project, not JavaScript It demonstrates a real, sustained AI-augmented workflow It blends symbolic math (Symja) with custom arithmetic logic in Java The UI is dynamic: variables appear as buttons as you type them It’s deployed live (Spring Boot on Railway) It’s fully open-source Looking for feedback on: Architecture and code clarity Ideas for additional math features or real-world templates Best practices for symbolic math in a Java environment How to present AI-augmented workflows professionally Repo: [ https://ift.tt/u5WVybq ] Live demo: [ https://ift.tt/TyfMwDQ ] Thanks for taking a look — feedback and critique are welcome. February 22, 2026 at 09:04PM