I got fed up with all these complicated calculators and re-implemented the original Mac calculator desk accessory at https://CalculatorDA.com.
It does the simple things I need while giving me a nice nostalgia buzz.
Show HN: All desktop software calculators are wrong, so I had to build my own
41–50 of 169 posts
Re: Show HN: All desktop software calculators are wrong, so I had to build my own
#42Looks to be Mac only, any good cross platform alternatives?
Re: Show HN: All desktop software calculators are wrong, so I had to build my own
#43Interesting but I notice that the Emacs calculator (calc.el) isn't in the comparison. It is what I use for quick calculations most of the time. There was also a Mac program called Milo a long time ago that was very cool. I never had a chance to study it though.
A fun story regarding Milo.
Re: Show HN: All desktop software calculators are wrong, so I had to build my own
#44I also noticed that digit keys on keyboard in desktop calculators are useless - why would you type in numbers by clicking? It's very slow.
They're useful to some people for accessibility reasons.
Re: Show HN: All desktop software calculators are wrong, so I had to build my own
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
MacOS is really bad abut this sort of thing. It fails on discoverability. For instance, how do you navigate to a hidden folder in the file-selection dialog? There is no option to show hidden, and there is no place to input the exact path. You must know two things to proceed: That there is a secret hotkey to allow exact path specification, and what that hotkey is. It took me years to learn that there was a hotkey -- I…
Isn't the macos of 2022 just a very shiny thing to browse the web with, plus a linuxy terminal? I always do file operations from the terminal if I can help it (won't save you when you need to select a file in a gui I suppose) 10+ years of owning macs, and Finder still bugs the hell out of me.
I find most of macOS reasonably well designed (at least compared to the competition), but Finder is truly awful. I highly recommend Forklift as Finder replacement.
Re: Show HN: All desktop software calculators are wrong, so I had to build my own
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
We will somewhat disagree, partly because I can't help using calculators as a scientist, so my opinion is particularly biased. However, I don't like the trend to hide everything that looks technical. On the long run, letting people play with advanced features (that won't break things) is a win-win.
MacOS is really bad abut this sort of thing. It fails on discoverability. For instance, how do you navigate to a hidden folder in the file-selection dialog? There is no option to show hidden, and there is no place to input the exact path. You must know two things to proceed: That there is a secret hotkey to allow exact path specification, and what that hotkey is. It took me years to learn that there was a hotkey -- I…
> You must know two things to proceed: That there is a secret hotkey to allow exact path specification, and what that hotkey is. It took me years to learn that there was a hotkey -- I just assumed that it was not possible.
There's also menu item in the Finder menu - you know, that thing on the upper edge of the screen - Go | Go to folder... and it also gives away the secret hotkey.
Re: Show HN: All desktop software calculators are wrong, so I had to build my own
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know what ? I was not even aware that it would work ! (Am I the only one to discover that just now ? I am not using Spotlight very often) It's kind of cool, but I can still find many grievances about the way it's done :-)
I’m sure it’s not ideal, but for my purposes cmd-space (random math) is generally sufficient. But I’m also not a mathematician so I do maths with numbers and not letters :)
Even with numbers only, it can still be useful to know how wrong the result is. Chalk keeps track of every inaccuracy when dealing with decimal numbers.
Re: Show HN: All desktop software calculators are wrong, so I had to build my own
#48The history of the OS calculator is rooted in skeumorphism to look like the pocket calculators of the 90s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator
I doubt any OS calculator got built through a modern software development process.
Re: Show HN: All desktop software calculators are wrong, so I had to build my own
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chrome's developer tools has a device toolbar to help you test usability on mobile devices.
So does firefox if you're using this browser https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Responsive_De...
Thanks, I have added some more "mobile compliant" CSS styles.
Re: Show HN: All desktop software calculators are wrong, so I had to build my own
#50The history of the OS calculator is rooted in skeumorphism to look like the pocket calculators of the 90s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator I doubt any OS calculator got built through a modern software development process.
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