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Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator

martin.wojtczyk.de

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Re: Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator

#291

Post by lynndotpy »

jb1991 wrote: post #96

On mobile devices, Apple’s Calculator app has always been one of the most frustrating apps I’ve ever used, and I’m surprised it’s a stock app by the company itself. If you press buttons quickly, like you would a normal calculator, many of the key presses simply don’t register at all. I’m not sure if they’re prioritizing some pretty little visual animation over actual functionality, but it’s incredibly surprising from…

I'm happy this isn't just me. Apple's calculator app is a showcase for some of their most obtuse UX decisions.

IO-blocking animations are everywhere on iOS, and sometimes they result in overlap (e.g. you can activate a widget and open an app if you press an app icon too fast after opening a folder). But having buttons on iOS animate in response to touch but not engage any further is mindblowing and infuriating.

It's also filled with obtuse interactions. (Did you know the iPhone's calculator app has extra buttons? You have to use the control center, unlock your screen rotation, and then rotate your phone to access it.) (Did you know you can erase digits by swiping left or right on them? You can't _access_ the hidden digits of precision this way.)

Re: Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator

#292

Post by lynndotpy »

jb1991 wrote: post #231
bqmjjx0kac wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched to an iPhone a few years ago and I really miss the Android calculator app. It showed the entire expression typed so far and its current value! In desperation, I have resorted to SSHing to my desktop and using `python` as a calculator.

Well, if you really want that on your phone you can get other calculator apps that are quite advanced. Might be easier than doing what you are doing.

Other calculator apps that might have different privacy policies, and who might call home to Google and Facebook despite reporting "no data collected", and which might disappear from the app store because it costs $100/year to have the privilege of providing a free app (e.g. as happened with OpenCalc. https://github.com/breeko/OpenCalc/issues/3 )

Re: Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator

#293

Post by meroes »

artursapek wrote: post #101
jb1991 wrote: post #96

On mobile devices, Apple’s Calculator app has always been one of the most frustrating apps I’ve ever used, and I’m surprised it’s a stock app by the company itself. If you press buttons quickly, like you would a normal calculator, many of the key presses simply don’t register at all. I’m not sure if they’re prioritizing some pretty little visual animation over actual functionality, but it’s incredibly surprising from…

The lock screen is even worse. I have to slow down to input my passcode or button pushes don’t register.

I swear I’ve put in the wrong passcode before hastily and it unlocks. I wonder if it’s because of this lag the display doesn’t match the input so I really did input it correctly but it just didn’t look like it.

Re: Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator

#294

Post by NaOH »

tlhunter wrote: post #284

Here's something that really irks me. On macOS I'll use Spotlight (Cmd+Space) to do some quick math. For example, press Cmd+Space, type "1.2+3.4", and it sort of displays 4.6. Now to copy the results you either have to click the copy option in the dropdown, using your mouse (no thanks), or press enter to get the results in Calculator. Assuming you last left the calculator in "Programmer" mode the calculator displays…

I run an older version of macOS, but it's historically been the case that Command-C copies the result of a calculation entered in Spotlight. They key is that the Copy command must be performed when the calculation is not selected for the result to be copied to the Clipboard. Put another way, type the math to be performed in Spotlight, then press Command-C and the result has been copied.

Re: Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator

#295

Post by bagful »

jodacola wrote: post #217
savanaly wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Everything is dog slow, not because poor performance but because of slow animations. Did you try Accessibility > Motion > Off? >Things are impossible to discover unless you watch tutorials on YouTube There's a pretty useful manual built into the device itself called Hints I think? Did you read that?

Disclaimer: I'm generally fine with iOS and use it and macOS as my daily drivers. > There's a pretty useful manual built into the device itself called Hints I think? Did you read that? I posit that if one needs to load up the Tips app to figure out how to perform desired functions, that's a problem with the UX and not the human trying to use the device/app. The ideas espoused in The Design of Everyday Things[0] pops…

On the contrary I think it’s quite reasonable to gate functionality behind reading the manual. But one wonders why it’s a distinct application and not integrated throughout the system, such as through tooltips or a “question mark cursor”?

Re: Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator

#296

Post by Dylan16807 »

ein0p wrote: post #266
diggan wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple's greatest weakness is that many of it's fans and I'd assume people in house assume they are the epitome of UI design when actually it's not. Which led to people like me making a fool out of themselves. Always been using Android, and listened to iPhone users singing the praise of the amazing UI and UX of iOS. Well, eventually iPhone 12 Mini released so I figured, "why not give it a try, can't be worse than my…

You could disable animations on iOS through accessibility options. As a rule a flagship iPhone is at least 30% faster than flagship Android (by which I basically mean Samsung Galaxy) on realistic workloads.

A phone doesn't spend much time doing "workloads". UI animations in particular should never be close to CPU or GPU bound.

Re: Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator

#297

Post by FabHK »

rgovostes wrote: post #290

A friend doing homework for a university assignment, circa Leopard or Snow Leopard, noticed that Calculator produced negative values when raising a negative number to an even power. The bug turned out to be in CFNumber, in Core Foundation. CFNumber does a lot of fiddly stuff at the bit level for performance, and one of their optimizations for exponentiation was incorrect. Somehow it was never found by tests or due to…

In Excel (and some other languages), unary minus has higher precedence than exponentiation, so that -x^2 = (-x)^2 = x^2. That can bite you (for example when calculating the normal probability density function “manually”).

Re: Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator

#298

Post by Dylan16807 »

moritzwarhier wrote: post #226
tolmasky wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s always been two button modes. “mouseup” is indeed the most common. However, “mousedown” is used in certain cases where the feedback is immediate, for example in the phone app where the number shows up as soon as you tap. However, notice that the lock screen uses neither of these, but rather a strange combination of both: it registers on “mousedown”, just like the phone app, showing a new dot in the field, but…

Yes, but I feel this is totally Ok here? I think it would slow me down even more if it didn't have this behavior, because of typing in extra unintended numbers? I don't have any issues with typing my passcode in quickly, and tbh hadn't noticed the tweak with the immediate feedback on "tapdown" (and the possibility of the number disappearing). Would have to try, but I still feel I prefer the current behavior to what y…

> I think it would slow me down even more if it didn't have this behavior, because of typing in extra unintended numbers?

Can you explain how extra numbers would happen if it simply triggered on press?

Do you often mis-press a number, then drag your finger out to cancel?

Re: Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator

#299

Post by OldGuyInTheClub »

I like Apple's hardware and underlying OS enough to shell out for MacBook Pros but, man, their homebuilt applications are a PITA. The RPN calculator on my high powered new MBP doesn't have a scientific or engineering notation option.

Same on my old MBP as well.

I guess it is a feature.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3527779?sortBy=rank

Re: Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator

#300

Post by jmholla »

brookst wrote: post #178
jb1991 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That might have been true once, but I don't think that's really true any more. Most users are not awed by their iPhone experience as they were ten years ago. Everyone realizes that iOS and Android are essentially identical for most practical purposes and usability, and most are not choosing the platform for that reason any more. I also think plenty of people in-house at Apple are well-aware of these issues. Today, it…

It’s really the cross-device stuff that keeps me in Apple’s ecosystem. Taking phone calls on my mac, having recent browser tabs from all devices on every device, etc. of course each individual thing can be done on windows / android / linux, but the out-of-the-box, no-config-required experience is really very good. Even if it is frequently and frustratingly not perfect.

Android has a lot of those features through KDE Connect now.
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