Soulver – Notepad, meet calculator • Hacker News Board

Re: Soulver – Notepad, meet calculator

#11

Post by immigrantsheep » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:20 PM UTC

indentit wrote: post #4

A paid, Mac only app which could fairly easily be implemented as a plugin to any popular text editor... I'm not sure I understand the appeal - what am I missing here, please? :)

When I need something like that I prefer the crossplatform and open source http://speedcrunch.org

Re: Soulver – Notepad, meet calculator

#12

Post by ken » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:21 PM UTC

fourier_mode wrote: post #5

UI is impressive! But, how is the functionality provided better than tons of free spreadsheet apps out there?

Don't you mean dc(1)? If user interfaces don't matter to you, you don't even need a spreadsheet.

Re: Soulver – Notepad, meet calculator

#13

Post by RodgerTheGreat » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:21 PM UTC

indentit wrote: post #4

A paid, Mac only app which could fairly easily be implemented as a plugin to any popular text editor... I'm not sure I understand the appeal - what am I missing here, please? :)

I think you're missing the gap between "could fairly easily be" and "has been".

As a programmer, the REPL and/or notebook interfaces for my favorite languages provide what Soulver offers already, so it isn't as valuable to me. To a non-programmer, Soulver seems like a very pleasant, user-friendly tool.

Re: Soulver – Notepad, meet calculator

#14

Post by vjeux » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:21 PM UTC

I reimplemented a simplified version of it 7 years ago (wow, time flies) and open sourced it, if people are interested. https://github.com/vjeux/soulver.js

Re: Soulver – Notepad, meet calculator

#15

Post by daturkel » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:21 PM UTC

I personally use Numi, which is very similar. I like the ability to assign variables and reuse them (and change the value of the variable on the fly, instantly redoing all other calculations).

https://numi.io/

Re: Soulver – Notepad, meet calculator

#16

Post by dotmanish » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

I've been a Soulver user since 2012, and it's been an integral part of my works, even acting as a scratch pad for ideas with numbers.

The UX is the plus here - I am aware that there have been several other apps that have offered a polished UX since then, but the convenience and my learned affinity to Soulver makes me keep it.

Re: Soulver – Notepad, meet calculator

#17

Post by zarathustraa » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

fourier_mode wrote: post #5

UI is impressive! But, how is the functionality provided better than tons of free spreadsheet apps out there?

Spreadsheets force you to pick cells, and the formulas are hidden. They are non-linear, this is linear. They also take a lot of screen space, this is tiny.

Re: Soulver – Notepad, meet calculator

#18

Post by degenerate » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

fourier_mode wrote: post #5

UI is impressive! But, how is the functionality provided better than tons of free spreadsheet apps out there?

I haven't used it, but not having to type your data points into separate columns seems to be the benefit here. Instead of forcing rigid entry you can type human-like numeric notes and it will perform the calculations on the fly.

Re: Soulver – Notepad, meet calculator

#19

Post by badatshipping » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

The funny thing is that Excel would basically meet this need perfectly if it didn’t take 5 seconds to open.

Re: Soulver – Notepad, meet calculator

#20

Post by traderjane » Wed, Jul 10, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

petepete wrote: post #7

indentit wrote: post #4

A paid, Mac only app which could fairly easily be implemented as a plugin to any popular text editor... I'm not sure I understand the appeal - what am I missing here, please? :)

This is like comparing Dropbox to "having an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem". Yes, you could. Or you could use something that's polished and works, with a clean UI and years of real world testing.

The part that sticks out to me is that it only runs on Apple stuff. I imagine lots of Apple users are multi-device households.