Live data from Hacker News

SpeedCrunch

speedcrunch.org

61–70 of 138 posts

Re: SpeedCrunch

#61

I used to use this back when I mained Windows. Ever since moving primarily to Linux, and getting familiar with Emacs, Calc mode simply beats every calculator I've ever used in total functionality. However, there are certain cases where I also like to use https://insect.sh if lots of units are involved.

You may like qalc. It's an apt-get away and does all those units.

Re: SpeedCrunch

#62
post #4

I love SpeedCrunch on Windows, but for MacOS I prefer Numi https://numi.app/

How does Numi compare to Soulver 3[0]? [0] https://soulver.app/

I have a single, but major, complaint with Soulver: version 3 for iOS/iPadOS doesn’t exist yet. There are a lot of calculations I’d want to do both at my desk and out on the road, and I’d like them synced. Calca handles that pretty well and I’ve been using it over Soulver lately for that one specific reason. I like Soulver more than Calca, though, and the second Soulver 3 for iOS comes along I’ll switch back.

Re: SpeedCrunch

#63
post #3

I've been using this as my Linux GUI calculator for a while (maybe a decade?). It's a good blend of functionality and simplicity and after I started using it I literally haven't looked for anything else.

I believe it was default in kubuntu at some time. Or at least heavily pushed.

Re: SpeedCrunch

#64
Fun fact about SpeedCrunch history, the software descends from an off-hand blog post by Roberto Alsina, a KDE developer, complaining about KCalc usability [1]. Back then developers were often just unthinkingly cloning 'skeuomorphic' interfaces like Apple used back then, designing user interfaces that resembled physical objects instead of taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by computers.

His blog post elicited several rapid responses from developers taking his PyQt-based mockup and turning it into a 'real' application ([2], [3]). One of those was Ariya Hidayat's "SpeedCrunch", which has been actively maintained up to the present day. I can't find Ariya's original 2004 announcement, I think the original link was http://ariya.pandu.org/blog/archives/2004/10/calculator-feve... but that's dead now.

But it's really neat to see how this all started from a day or two of hacking on a solution to a simple problem.

[1] https://ralsina.me/stories/33.html [2] https://ralsina.me/weblog/posts/P245.html [3] https://ralsina.me/weblog/posts/P247.html

Re: SpeedCrunch

#69

I used to use this back when I mained Windows. Ever since moving primarily to Linux, and getting familiar with Emacs, Calc mode simply beats every calculator I've ever used in total functionality. However, there are certain cases where I also like to use https://insect.sh if lots of units are involved.

Emacs Calc (not unlike much of the rest of Emacs) is a little ... special. By default, it calculates 4/2*2 as 1, because multiplication has a higher precedence than division.

https://orgmode.org/manual/Formula-syntax-for-Calc.html

Re: SpeedCrunch

#70

I used to use this back when I mained Windows. Ever since moving primarily to Linux, and getting familiar with Emacs, Calc mode simply beats every calculator I've ever used in total functionality. However, there are certain cases where I also like to use https://insect.sh if lots of units are involved.

This may be slightly off topic, but what are some other small, lesser known websites like this one that people use regularly? For me, it'd be https://rubular.com and https://crontab.guru. I've used those 2 sites pretty regularly across my entire career.
Post reply on HN