CalcPad

[iangm]

CalcPad is a smart notepad that calculates answers based on what you type in. It allows you to type in math expressions, assign variables, define functions, convert units, add units together and much more. There is no enter button, it automatically evaluates everything you type as you type it. You can go back and edit, add, or delete anything you want at any time, just like a notepad.

https://tekagen.com/calcpad

[webfork]

This looks fantastic -- somehow they've mashed together a unit converter, spreadsheet, and notepad. This is like Markdown for spreadsheets.

Thanks for posting. Any idea where it saves settings?

[iangm]

No changes to your computer are made. Everything is self-contained in the CalcPad folder.

The settings are made portable using PortableSettingsProvider:
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/12 ... s-Portable

[webfork]

No changes to your computer are made. Everything is self-contained in the CalcPad folder.

It's like someone basically just stashed a boat load of neat math functions into one program. I especially like how X is used as a multiplication operator as that's a lot easier to type. Every other calculator program gets that wrong.

I think this is a great candidate for the database. I'm assuming based on your username that you're the developer?

Other notes:

* Virustotal lists this as 0/62:
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/086 ... /detection

* Note that this shares a name with two other programs on softpedia. It doesn't really matter, just noting it for anyone researching this in the future.
https://www.softpedia.com/dyn-search.ph ... rm=calcpad

---

Similar program: OpalCalc https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2602 (unlike CalcPad it's liteware and limited to 5 lines)

[webfork]

Wishlist

• When you close the program Notepad++, it doesn't matter if you've saved the file or not, the content you were working on stays in the editor. It would be especialy nice to have that in CalcPad as well, especially since a lot of people will end up using these for converting recipes to/from metric. Some folks would probably not like this functionality so it should probably be optional.
• Prompt to save on close (or use what's described above).
• I know it's hard to make the complex simple so ignore this if it doesn't make sense. But I'd like the ability to put "in <unit name>" at the end of a function would be great. So for example, this is how the readout appears:
  
  7 km in miles = 4.349598 miles
  
  ... but if you want to do math on that, you have to put it in parenthesis:
  
  (7 km in miles) x 7 = 4.349598 miles
  
  But think that would make more "natural language" sense as 79 km x 7 in miles = 4.349598 miles"

[Midas]

@webfork: Sorry to say, your expressions don't make very much sense to me.

What would (I haven't tested the program so can't tell with more certainty) was for the program to always heed the last expressed unit, even if isolated.

E.g., (doing away with "in" which is just redundant):

- 7 km miles = [Enter] 4.349598 miles
- 7 km x 7 = miles [Enter] 4.349598 miles

[iangm]

I think this is a great candidate for the database. I'm assuming based on your username that you're the developer?

Yes, I am. I made it for my school capstone project.

When you close the program Notepad++, it doesn't matter if you've saved the file or not, the content you were working on stays in the editor. It would be especialy nice to have that in CalcPad as well, especially since a lot of people will end up using these for converting recipes to/from metric. Some folks would probably not like this functionality so it should probably be optional.

It does have this option. It's not in the tabbed area in settings, it's beneath it in blue letters. It says "autoload last session". You can also manually load the last session from the file menu. It's good to know that it can be missed, I may need to make it pop more.

Edit: I increased the space at the bottom and added a border around it, so it doesn't looked so tucked away.

[webfork]

I think this is a great candidate for the database. I'm assuming based on your username that you're the developer?

Yes, I am. I made it for my school capstone project.

Wow.

One time at school I wrote like a 50-page paper that even the professor never actually read so ... I think one of us did something useful at school. Anyway, if this is what you do as a student, I'm very interested to see what you do as a professional developer. I hope you put this on your resume.

It does have this option

Missed that, thanks

[vevy]

Yes, I am. I made it for my school capstone project.

Good Here is a couple of suggestions:

• when restoring the session on startup, put the cursor at the end (to continue after the history)
• can you make the splash screen optional?
• when pressing enter and entering an operator, assume last result. e.g.:

  Code: Select all

  1+2			=3
  +2			=5
  

Thanks for the good software!

[iangm]

when restoring the session on startup, put the cursor at the end (to continue after the history)

Done.

can you make the splash screen optional?

I don't believe so. But as far as I understand, it displays while the program is loading.

when pressing enter and entering an operator, assume last result. e.g.:

Done. But... it doesn't work with subtraction because it would interfere with negation, such as "-2+4 = 2". Although, I could add an option to force this behavior.

The updated version is ready for download.

[vevy]

Thanks a lot!

Done. But... it doesn't work with subtraction because it would interfere with negation, such as "-2+4 = 2". Although, I could add an option to force this behavior.

1. An option seems like a reasonable solution. Also, if that option is on, you can autoinsert the word "ans" if the user begins the new line with an operand. Using the example above

Code: Select all

1+2			=3

if I press -, it becomes

Code: Select all

1+2			=3
ans-			...

2. It would also be useful if this logic applied to any operator (like √ or root2).

3. preventing long press backspace from going into the previous lines.

4. Is there a distinction between "clear screen" and "delete history". I mean I would like to clear the screen visually but preserve the history of my calculations for future reference. Something like auto-save into a file that doesn't get cleared with Ctrl+D

5. Is there a way to assign shorthand or so? For example, set "r" or "r2" to mean "sqrt" or "root2". I tried the options in the Data menu but couldn't get it done.

Sorry if this is too much asking! I only do that when I feel something has a real potential for my usage.

Thanks!

[iangm]

1. An option seems like a reasonable solution. Also, if that option is on, you can autoinsert the word "ans" if the user begins the new line with an operand. Using the example above
2. It would also be useful if this logic applied to any operator (like √ or root2).

Auto-insert would probably be the way. It may be more troublesome than you realize though. You wouldn't be able to start any line without a number, without it using the previous answer. So "sqrt(4)" would automatically pull the answer from the previous expression.

3. preventing long press backspace from going into the previous lines.

That would be a beneficial behavior. I wonder if I can just prevent it from deleting newline characters. Right now, in the context menu, you can also click on "Remove Line", which I added a week or so ago. I added a keyboard shortcut for this (ctrl+r) for this newest release, which I meant to do from the very beginning. *I realize I need to fix this, the cursor appears at the beginning of the textbox when I use this*

4. Is there a distinction between "clear screen" and "delete history". I mean I would like to clear the screen visually but preserve the history of my calculations for future reference. Something like auto-save into a file that doesn't get cleared with Ctrl+D

Hmm... you mean something like an archive option? Something that saves to a new unique file each time you clear it and allows you to browse those archived files? Or do you want to have a single file that is split into pages that you can iterate through? I had something similar to the latter but nixed it because the implementation wasn't great. You had a predefined amount of tabs, 4 or 8. I couldn't do proper tabs because I don't understand WPF/UI very well.

5. Is there a way to assign shorthand or so? For example, set "r" or "r2" to mean "sqrt" or "root2". I tried the options in the Data menu but couldn't get it done.

You just pointed me to a bug! Yes you can do it, you type "r(x)=sqrt(x)" in custom functions. So you can type something like "r2 + r8". However, it wasn't working when part of a larger expression. That has been fixed and ready to download!

[vevy]

Auto-insert would probably be the way. It may be more troublesome than you realize though. You wouldn't be able to start any line without a number, without it using the previous answer. So "sqrt(4)" would automatically pull the answer from the previous expression.

I'm a bit confused. Could you give a more detailed example?

That would be a beneficial behavior. I wonder if I can just prevent it from deleting newline characters. Right now, in the context menu, you can also click on "Remove Line", which I added a week or so ago. I added a keyboard shortcut for this (ctrl+r) for this newest release, which I meant to do from the very beginning. *I realize I need to fix this, the cursor appears at the beginning of the textbox when I use this*

Thanks for the option. Waiting for the backspace behavior and the fix.

Hmm... you mean something like an archive option? Something that saves to a new unique file each time you clear it and allows you to browse those archived files? Or do you want to have a single file that is split into pages that you can iterate through? I had something similar to the latter but nixed it because the implementation wasn't great. You had a predefined amount of tabs, 4 or 8. I couldn't do proper tabs because I don't understand WPF/UI very well.

I don't really have a preference. Think of it like "clear" in a terminal. The screen is cleared but the history is still there. If I want to check something in yesterday's calculations, maybe I can click a button or access a menu item or something.

I am not sure what you mean by tabs, though.

Yes you can do it, you type "r(x)=sqrt(x)" in custom functions.

Thanks a lot and thanks for the new version!


-----------------

A couple more suggestions:

1. autocomplete while entering units. For example, if you enter:
what is pla..., it should show a list containing Planck units, plastic number, etc.
sqrt ear...: show or suggest-complete earth circumference, etc

A toggle in the settings to enable this automatically or require a shortcut should give the user the choice. I am not sure how easy this is to implement though.


2. The periodic table is a very nice addition (What is the purpose of the little field? Edit: nvm, got it. cool feature! Hint for other users, play with the visual options and drag the scrollbar!), but there should be no popup window when clicking an element. Instead, a click should highlight the item and fix the contents of the box above, so that the contents can be copied.

Right now, if you try to move the cursor to the box, you hover over other elements which changes the content!


3. I understand you may not want to remove the splash screen, which is totally your right, but can you shorten it a bit? I takes half a second or so to fade out once the window has loaded, which (I know this is silly) irritates me a bit . It is just a pet peeve of mine, so I can't help but ask! Sorry if this is a bit presumptuous.

Thanks!

[iangm]

I'm a bit confused. Could you give a more detailed example?

1. An option seems like a reasonable solution. Also, if that option is on, you can auto-insert the word "ans" if the user begins the new line with an operand. Using the example above
2. It would also be useful if this logic applied to any operator (like √ or root2).

Auto-inserting "ans" at the beginning of a line with "+", "-", "*", or "/" is pretty straightforward. But if you start a line with sqrt(4) and auto insert "ans" it would produce "ans sqrt(4)". So if your previous answer was 10, it would evaluate the next line as "(10) sqrt(4)". This should multiply them via implicit multiplication, so it would evaluate as "10 * sqrt(4)". It seems like it would be better to only auto-insert "ans" for the basic binary operators, instead of all functions? So instead of starting a line with "sqrt" you would start with "+ sqrt", "- sqrt", "/ sqrt", or "* sqrt".

I don't really have a preference. Think of it like "clear" in a terminal. The screen is cleared but the history is still there. If I want to check something in yesterday's calculations, maybe I can click a button or access a menu item or something.

I've thought about it more, and I have an idea. CalcPad has no enter button, so it doesn't keep track of things like a terminal or normal calculator. CalcPad's input box is what I refer to as a "page". I could add a button that adds additional pages. So if you want to clear the screen, but save what you typed in without creating a new save file, you click on an "add page" icon next to the eraser icon. This will clear the screen and put you on page number 2. You can keep doing this as much as you like and go back to other pages using a selection box to choose a page number, or use arrow keys to flip through the pages back-and-forth.

This would also be made to work with sessions, so you don't have to save it as a file first. Although eventually, you probably would want to so there aren't too many pages to go through. You would also be able to remove specific pages and remove/clear all pages. You would also be able to choose to save all the pages or a single page to a file.

Thanks a lot and thanks for the new version!

You're welcome, I am happy that you pointed it out.

[iangm]

1. autocomplete while entering units. For example, if you enter:
what is pla..., it should show a list containing Planck units, plastic number, etc.
sqrt ear...: show or suggest-complete earth circumference, etc

I have been wanting this for so long! But unfortunately, I don't know enough about UI/WPF to implement it. And the code I am using from someone else for syntax coloring doesn't support this feature. Occasionally I spend some time looking into finding a better textbox, but there isn't much out there that can do what I need. But you may see it in the future.

2. The periodic table is a very nice addition (What is the purpose of the little field? Edit: nvm, got it. cool feature! Hint for other users, play with the visual options and drag the scrollbar!), but there should be no popup window when clicking an element. Instead, a click should highlight the item and fix the contents of the box above, so that the contents can be copied.

This is actually how my online version of this periodic table works. Honestly, I don't know why I made this one different. I'll get that changed.

3. I understand you may not want to remove the splash screen, which is totally your right, but can you shorten it a bit? I takes half a second or so to fade out once the window has loaded, which (I know this is silly) irritates me a bit . It is just a pet peeve of mine, so I can't help but ask! Sorry if this is a bit presumptuous.

I'll look into it. I am not sure if it's possible to change it, but maybe. I did figure out a way to get tooltips to stay up longer, so people could actually read them, the code for it was really bizarre.