The literature about the use of electronic computers in life insurance companies is very extensive. But still there is not much written about the possibility to by-pass commutation functions in making actuarial calculations. Most actuaries seem to use basically the same methods nowadays as they used twenty years ago when they had to do all calculations by hand or with the aid of very simple mechanical devices. But as a consequence of the increasing speed of generally used data processing equipment there will probably be a change in this attitude because of the great flexibility that can be reached by more advanced methods.