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Monday November 08, 2004

Gcalctool devolves

Received a great patch for the gcalctool calculator today (thanks Sebastien). It adds in a "Light" mode that is even more basic than the current Basic calculator mode.

Here's a snapshot. As the patch author points out, we would also need to add the Clr/Ce/Bksp buttons. But you have to admit that you can't get much simpler than this, and for quick-n-dirty calculations it might be useful. What do others think? Please comment as that will help us decide whether we should add this in for GNOME 2.9/10.

I also had to chuckle as [g]calctool has now almost devolved back to it's original 1986 form.

Here's a great quote from me:

I still think it's amazing how a little 300 line C program can generate a binary of about 1/2 megabyte :-)

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[Technorati Tag: software]

( Nov 08 2004, 09:14:56 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [11]

Comments:

I posted the first comment on http://blogs.sun.com/roller/comments/richb/Weblog/gcalctool_on_gnomefiles This is exactly what I wanted. Thank you Sebastien. Love to everybody.

Posted by Anonymous on November 08, 2004 at 09:38 AM PST #

I can't help thinking that it's amazing that anno 2004 someone can be really happy he has created a calculator tool. And I'm reading about it too :) (keep up any work you're doing!)

Posted by Bram on November 08, 2004 at 10:35 AM PST #

I think it would be useful as GNU/Linux moves into the mainstream.

Most normal people want exactly that: a basic calculator for normal everyday math such as adding up the monthly bills or making sure the expense check was cut at the correct amount.

Posted by dave on November 08, 2004 at 12:36 PM PST #

I've got gcalctool 5.5.5 installed on my SPARC, and unfortunetly it doesn't handle keyboard input very well. The previous version 4.x worked great with keyboard inputs, and conversions between HEX<->Dec worked very well. The newer versions unfortunetly don't. Take a look at the calculator that comes with Win2K and WinXP for proper keyboard input and conversions.

Posted by Azeem Jiva on November 08, 2004 at 01:01 PM PST #

Hi Azeem,

If you have bugs can you either file them in GNOME bugzilla or let me know about them please?

Which mode are you running in? The default mode (at the moment) for the gcalctool 5.5.X series, is the new arithmetic operator precedence mode which indeed might be buggy. The old 4.4.Y mode can be obtained by unchecking View->Use Arithmetic Mode.

But we'd prefer folks to test the new mode and give us feedback rather than just go back to the old mode.

Posted by Rich Burridge on November 08, 2004 at 01:09 PM PST #

This may seem petty, but since this mode is aimed at total newbies, how about dropping the programmer style division and multiplication symbols (* and /) and replacing them with the real mathematical symbols (× and ÷).

(Also that minus (−) looks like it's actually a hyphen (-), but that really is a nitpick)

Posted by dave on November 08, 2004 at 01:44 PM PST #

Hi Dave. Fair comment. I've submitted an RFE (request for enhancement) against gcalctool for this. See: bug #157701.

Thanks!

Posted by Rich Burridge on November 08, 2004 at 02:51 PM PST #

gcaltool desperately needs mod() I have to revert to other tools occasionally to accomodate its lack of support, which is unfortunate because the latest additions have made it suitable to all manner of calculations. thanks for the great tool.

Posted by Anonymous on November 08, 2004 at 10:05 PM PST #

Please get rid of the scrollbar if it's not needed. From a user experience POV, the redundant scrollbar is very confusing. If you're fiddling with Sci mode, could you make it convert decimal values to hex values when you flip modes (and vice versa)?

Posted by RichB on November 09, 2004 at 01:14 AM PST #

Thankyou all for the comments. This post seems to have become a dumping ground for everybodies favorite new/missing feature. Fair enough. You know, all you have to do is submit a bug/rfe against gcalctool in GNOME Bugzilla.

The mod request is already there. See bug #148104. I've just filed an rfe for the scrollbar removal. See bug #157757. I didn't understand the last Dec/Hex flip modes request. Can you expand on it please? Could it possibly be related to bug #153854?

Posted by Rich Burridge on November 09, 2004 at 06:59 AM PST #

I'd be tempted to say the light mode should be the new default mode. It has most of the features most non-power users need, and would be less confusing. And it looks nice! :)

Posted by Mick on November 14, 2004 at 11:59 AM PST #