[openbeos] Re: Calculator still needed?
- From: "DarkWyrm" <darkwyrm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2006 21:00:21 -0400 EDT
> As the guy who made the initial request of bundling a calculator with
> Haiku--yes, it was I who suggested an MS Windows-type calculator), I
> personally
> hate DeskCalc.
>
> It may be great for you coders, but for the ordinary desktop user
> it's not a
> good choice for the bundled calculator IMO. The interface is non-
> standard
> (meaning it has blue atypical buttons instead of the typical gray
> BeOS-like
> buttons). It doesn't support converting to & from different bases
> (hex, oct,
> dec, etc.). Yes, it is very powerful--I'll give it that. But it seems
> to be a
> black sheep when compared to the rest of the included apps.
>
> Again, you devs are the ultimate decision makers, but please just
> consider this
> end-user's point of view.
>
> (As far as the Calculator app, I either haven't tried it or it's been
> so long
> I've forgotten its nature... so I can't give you my opinion on that
> one. Didn't
> mean to go off-topic with this.)
They both don't fit in with the rest of the bundled apps when it comes
to look. I originally was the one who checked in Calculator because
discussions in the forums seemed to be going around in circles and
someone needed to make a decision, which I did, for right or wrong. I
also was not aware of DeskCalc at the time. To be honest, *both* apps
would need work to fit in with the rest of Haiku's bundled apps, but I
think that DeskCalc has the capacity to be both powerful and usable for
a variety of people. Someone's just going to need to put in some
careful thought on the design changes to make it worthwhile to the
developer and still quite understandable for Joe User. I might do some
of this once I get a little time sometime soon.
Personally speaking, I don't like the look. The blue is hard on my eyes
after a short period of time. The small bevel at the borders of the
buttons don't visually give them enough contrast with their neighbors.
However, I still think that it should be the bundled calculator app.
One of the main reasons that I really like DeskCalc because it lets you
see the entire expression before you hit = -- you don't have to
remember what it is you've entered and you easily see if you've made a
typing mistake. DeskCalc has the capacity to be really good; it will
just take some tweaking to get where it needs to be.
--DarkWyrm
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