ANNOUNCE: gcalctool - v4.2.77

[Rich Burridge <Rich Burridge Sun COM>]

Application
===========

gcalctool


Description
===========

gcalctool is the desktop calculator that has been proposed for GNOME 2.4.
It has Basic, Financial and Scientific modes. Internally it uses multiple
precision arithmetic to produce results to a high degree of accuracy.

We recently asked for testers on the desktop-devel mailing list, and have
fixed the bugs that users have found, and made all the changes that were 
suggested.

We now believe that gcalctool is close to being equivalent to the version we
would like to include with GNOME 2.4, so we are looking for more testers to
give it a good workover.


Enhancements
============

Since the last announcement (to the desktop-devel), the following
enhancements have been made:

* The menu items in the Acc menu are now "tickable", so you know what the
  current accuracy selection is. Setting one of these clears the previous one.

* A new "Show Trailing Zeroes" menu item is added to the Acc menu (last
  item, with a separator just above), that is "tickable". This tick doesn't
  affect the accuracy ticks. It's either on or off.

* The default setting for accuracy now becomes 9 numeric places and "Show
  Trailing Zeroes" is not enabled. This is a more familiar look for users
  who are looking for a simple calculator.

* The Acc button is moved to the Scientific mode (slot in the top right 
  corner, above the Rand).

* The Base radio button group and the display type radio button group in
  the mode panel in Scientific mode are now moved to the right side to be
  close in proximity to the Acc button. The other mode items move to the
  left side.


Fixes
=====

Since the last announcement (to the desktop-devel), the following
fixes have been made:

* Bug 108219 (http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=108219)
  When you go from Scientific mode to either Basic or Financial mode,
  the calculator will revert to "Dec" base in "Fix" notation.
 
  Any number in the display (and the memory registers if shown) will be
  converted accordingly.
 
  When you are in a mode (Basic, Financial, or Scientific) you will only
  be able to do the functionality that that mode shows. For example, you
  will not be able to do base changes if you are in Basic or Financial mode.
 
* Bug 108209 (http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=108209)
  When the user uses the keyboard to enter data, the associated gcalctool
  button will be animated.

* Bug 108210 (http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=108210)
  Main gcalctool window is no longer resizable.


Download
========

  http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/gcalctool/4.2/

  [although some of the ftp mirrors may take a little while to sync].


Known Problems
==============

The online help doesn't reflect the changes listed above. This work will
hopefully be integrated next week. At that time, we will be looking for
folks to do alternative language translations. Look for an entry in the
ChangeLog to this affect.



Acknowledgements
================

Calum Benson for HCI wizardry.
Dennis Cranston for help fixing the bugs and adding in the enhancements.
Glynn Foster for help with making this 4.2.77 release sane.
Breda McColgan for work with the online help documentation


Thanks

--
Rich Burridge                       Email: rich burridge Sun COM
Sun Microsystems Inc. (MPK29-202),  Phone: +1.650.786.5188
4150 Network Circle,                AIM/YAHOO: RicBurridge
Santa Clara, CA 95054               WWW: http://java.sun.com/people/richb/