A week ago I posted a rant about the lack of innovation in UI design of calculator programs. Turns out my buddy Nik had thought of the same thing a while ago which led him to created Soulver:
[I] was just reading [your blog] and noticed that the latest entry was about calculators, and how much the UI on computers suck. Me and a friend had the same realisation back in high school, and ended up writing a program called Soulver.
In the original version we used to have a way to map any key on the keyboard to be any operator/number just like you describe. We’re planning on bringing this back one day.
Well Nik, I hope you do bring back custom keyboard mappings. Typing maths just feels too awkward on a laptop keyboard without a proper number pad. In fact, if you find a good set of key mappings, consider making it the default (or at least a one click preset). Chances are, most people aren’t going to spend the time customizing key bindings, because it can be very fiddly and time consuming. Then again, learning a new set of key bindings can take some time as well, especially when there doesn’t seem to be a natural way to design a UI for a calculator that just ‘feels right’. At least not in the same way that zooming in and out on a touch screen UI feels on a mac.
From a quick read of the description, Soulver does a far more than the average calculator app.
Clever English functions – Soulver includes some “English” math functions. For instance you can type “10% off $200″ and get $180
Reminds me of google calculator and wolfram alpha. Some of my favorite Google calculator searches:
Once in a blue moon = 1.16699016 × 10-8 hertz
Number of horns on a unicorn = 1
The answer to life the universe and everything = 42
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