When updating to KDE 6 the Kcalc application has also be updated to 24.05.0. Now it is back to old school calculator a couple of things I need to address because it is not really useful:
backspace not working when you type something wrong. You need to go with the mouse to the input field en click on it an then edit it
.5 give errors, previous versions I could type .5 and it uses 0.5 without throwing errors
When you do a calculation and enter to get the result and want to do some more operations on the number it just start the new formula. For example 6+5 enter it gives 11 after that I type +5 enter and this give an error because +5 is not a valid operation. It should be 11+ 5 (you need to type the previous result back again to get the result).
Do you guys think it is better to create bugs for this or is this the new way of working because this is a regression?
I think the following was different in former times, too:
I have to press the SQRT button prior entering a number.
Neither a classical calculator nor a HP calculator with reverse polish notation has such way of operating.
And: The classical (non-PC based) calculators never remove a result due to “mal-operation” of the user like the new “Input Error” does, now, with kCalc.
Instead “wrong operations” simply should be ignored, imho …
There are numerous bug reports about kcalc for plasma 6 already, what pains me to say is how is it possible for something so fundamental to be broken (and for so long). I can forgive 99% of all the bugs in Plasma and the apps, but 'cmon, not having a working calculator?
I came across this just now when looking for more information on the dramatic changes to kcalc in recent versions (well probably already in latest versions for a couple of years and I didn’t notice since I have been using kubuntu LTS releases). But modern kcalc is a completely different application than what it used to be. I don’t think it matches, in any way, the description “Simple Calculator with scientific and mathematical functions” that is given to it. It is more like a “formula editor”. A formula editor is certainly a useful application, but it is not a desktop calculator. I used to use it all the time, eg I want to calculate the square root of a number, I middle-click paste it into kcalc and hit the sqrt button. That isn’t really possible anymore. I would need to first press the sqrt button, and then I cannot simply paste the number by middle clicking somewhere on the input window, I need to move the mouse to the exact location to paste the number after the √( characters. If I then wanted to take the log of the result, I don’t even know how to do that in a sensible way.
Is it possible to rename the current version of kcalc to something like kFormulaEditor, and bring back a simple desktop calculator? Alternatively, does anyone know of a good alternative app?