Re: Request feedback for gcalctool feature request.

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004, Rich Burridge wrote:

> Date: Tue, 09 Nov 2004 15:24:43 -0800 (PST)
> From: Rich Burridge <Rich Burridge Sun COM>
> To: horkana maths tcd ie
> Cc: desktop-devel-list gnome org
> Subject: Re: Request feedback for gcalctool feature request.

> Hi Alan,
>
> > I'd say yes because when I use a calculator it is usually for fairly
> > simple task which would be covered by the light mode (for more complicated


> > The only downside I see to this new mode is that it makes impractical my
> > suggestion of having an oversized (easier to hit) button for = like on a
> > physical calculator :(
> > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=155099
>
> Yup. I'm probably going to close this off at some point as WILLNOTFIX.

I figured that might happen but I decided it was better to at least
suggest it, close it now if you want I'm not hugely attached to the idea.

> > Equals is not on the bottom right where Gnome has successfully conditioned
> > me to expect the action button, it would be nice if things could be
> > adjusted so that the equals button was on the bottom right.
>
> Let me talk that over with the HCI folks. No promises at the moment.

I was thinking about physical real life calculators some of which organise
themselves that way, but I can see it might be difficult to do this for
all modes.

Lots of variation in the layout of calculators, this one is has equals on
the bottom right (I think perhaps I have owned one with similar layout)
http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/eto/calculator/calculator.gif

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&c2coff=1&q=calculator

This simple calculator matches the Light Mode layout
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/DecimoVatmanMiniII_1.JPG

> I'd like to hope that the user understands what a menu bar is and that
> the View item might give them other views.
>
> > Personally I would have used Ctrl+1 2 3 4 as bindings for the modes, as
> > the current keybindings wont make any sense in other langauges.  I
> > probably wouldn't call this new mode Light either, I'd rename it to
> > Basic/Simple and call the current Basic mode "Normal".
> > But that is just me.
>
> Sorry, I don't understand why users would intuitively grok that
> Control-[1,2,3] would automatically change modes for them.

It is not really any better than keys you choose it just gives it more of
a pattern so that when you know one you can predict the others, not any
worse either just different.  (I think I got this habit from various media
players which use numbers to changes modes if not Zoom levels).

> Currently there is Control-[b,f,s] to do this, but you have to
> have visited the View menu to realize what they are, or read the
> online help (but who does that?)

Agreed.  If I need to read the help chances are I'd rather be using an
easier application.

> > Other minor points:
> > the horizonal scrollbar seems odd.
>
> See:  http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=157757

Exactly.  Bye, bye scrollbar.

> > Would it be possible to have a proper division symbol?
> > I mean a horizontal bar with a dot above and below because when I first
> > started using computers I had to learn to use / for division and * for
> > multiplication rather than symbols I had previously learnt as a child.  It
> > is all to easy to forget how confusing this was at the time.
>
> See: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=157701

You seem to be a whole day ahead of me.
Gcacltool looks good, I'll be using the light mode soon I hope.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
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