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Dev tools

scientific calculator

SHOW HN2017

354points
195comments
#49of 2,242 in 2017
Top 3%of 2017 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

16 positive, 38 neutral or asking, 10 mixed, 30 critical, out of 94 comments about the project. Thread score -0.16.

Execution: 1 for, 17 againstIdea: 6 for, 8 againstDesign: 5 for, 5 againstDocs: 2 for, 0 againstPerformance: 1 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Units and expressions just work intuitively

    From 2 comments
    • This is pretty cool, it's one of the rare applications I've used where the things I've tried "just work". For example "10 kg to g", "c", "c to km s^(-1)", "c to km/s" all work…
      lol768 on HN
    • Looks really nice! ≫ exp(2*kg/s) ``` exp(2 × (kg / s)) Conversion error: Cannot convert quantity of unit kg/s to a scalar ``` Excellent! Is there any way I can save a list of…
      semi-extrinsic on HN
  • Clean interface and good use of colour

    From 2 comments
    • Well done! Plain and easy to understand interface and excellent use of colour and space. Two suggestions: 1. While I doubt it'll be used very much, consider adding calories for…
      gvkv on HN
    • This is exactly what I've been looking for for years. A fast easy calculator that's as convenient as a physical school calculator but with familiar programming style input since…
      averagewall on HN

Objections

  • Unit parsing and implicit multiplication cause surprising results

    From 3 comments
    • Hmm, I find the auto-associativity to be a bit weird for example: ≫ 1/12 c ``` 1 / (12 × c) = 2.7797e-10 s/m ```
      forgotpwtomain on HN
    • I tried to enter ``` 3 5 ``` which was interpreted as 3 * 5. Seems a bit risky to me :) Otherwise looks neat.
      Quiark on HN
    • First thing I tried: >> 2 min 35 s + 3 min 54 s = 13920 s²
      jkh1 on HN
  • Precision display shows zeros and rounded digits

    From 2 comments
    • ≫ round(pi * 100000000000000000) = 314159265358979324 ≫ round(pi * 1000000000000000000) = 3141590000000000000 (similar comment by @btown down there about e)
      avip on HN
    • > high precision ``` ≫ e*1e15 e × 1000000000000000 = 2718280000000000 ``` Needs a bit of work, I think.
      btown on HN
  • Missing units and functions such as sin, rpm and fluid ounces at first

    From 3 comments
    • Nice, but ``` sin (30 rad) sin × 30 rad Unknown identifier: sin ``` Wouldn't it be great if software evaluated things, and if things didn't made sense, considered what the…
      anigbrowl on HN
    • I tried to convert 1000 rpm (revolutions per minute) to Hertz (periods per second), but I get ``` Unknown identifier: rpm ```
      effie on HN
    • I really like the UI and seeming wealth of different units. It doesn't look like it supports fluid ounces though. I tried "4 tbsp to oz" and it interprets oz as mass instead of…
      wotamRobin on HN

Requests

  • Propagation of uncertainty

    From 1 comment
    • Kudos! I would love to see two more things: 1. Propagation of uncertainty.[1] I often yearned for a calculator that automatically propagated uncertainties for me while writing my…
      boramalper on HN
  • Custom unit definitions

    From 1 comment
    • Really great tool! Thanks for the hard work. It would also be really nice to specify custom units, such as ``` ≫ U = 1e-6/60 * kat U = 1.66667e-8 kat ``` Because now it does this…
      antrion on HN
  • Complex numbers and imaginary numbers

    From 2 comments
    • Too bad it doesn't support complex numbers
      timow1337 on HN
    • Looks really nice! ≫ exp(2*kg/s) ``` exp(2 × (kg / s)) Conversion error: Cannot convert quantity of unit kg/s to a scalar ``` Excellent! Is there any way I can save a list of…
      semi-extrinsic on HN
  • Save and reload variables

    From 1 comment
    • Looks really nice! ≫ exp(2*kg/s) ``` exp(2 × (kg / s)) Conversion error: Cannot convert quantity of unit kg/s to a scalar ``` Excellent! Is there any way I can save a list of…
      semi-extrinsic on HN

Questions

  • How does it compare to GNU Units

    From 2 comments
    • I'm a little confused as to how this improves on GNU units, which seems to support far more: ``` $ cat .units period(len) units=[m;s] 2pi*sqrt(len/gravity) ; (period/2pi)^2 *…
      Hello71 on HN
    • Nice, though I'm still highly partial to GNU Units. In large part as it allows specifying output units, and not just for conversions. Note: if you're on MacOS and are using the…
      dredmorbius on HN
  • Is there an Android app

    From 1 comment
    • Very nice on first try -- added to my quick toolbar. Great to be able to intermix metric and SAE units, as there is (very unfortunate) constant use of both in my field of work.…
      toss1 on HN

Alternatives named

  • GNU Units

    From 2 comments
    • For those interested on a CLI counterpart, GNU units is more or less the same. The units definitions file is enormous
      F_r_k on HN
    • Nice, though I'm still highly partial to GNU Units. In large part as it allows specifying output units, and not just for conversions. Note: if you're on MacOS and are using the…
      dredmorbius on HN
  • Google unit conversion

    From 2 comments
    • hmmm, I'm a little bit skeptical about this. I'd be cool to have this as a python script somewhere but I am not quite sure wether I would visit this site whenever I need to…
      zython on HN
    • This is exactly what I've been looking for for years. A fast easy calculator that's as convenient as a physical school calculator but with familiar programming style input since…
      averagewall on HN
  • Frink

    From 1 comment
    • I have been using Frink for over 7 years. Aside from a calculator with a gazillion units, Frink lets you program in a less verbose Java for other tasks. Graphics are easy too. I…
      eggy on HN
  • Numi

    From 1 comment
    • Nice. This is a lot like (in looks and some functionality) the macOs app, 'Numi' (which I love) : https://numi.io/
      ourcat on HN
  • Python pint

    From 1 comment
    • I use Python with pint [0] for this. It integrates with numpy. It has support for uncertainty. You can do all calculations Python can, Python math reads like ascii math. It also…
      navane on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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