1/26/2024 0 Comments Pcalc for pcfor instance, you can do things like STO * 2 or RCL / 7. with this app, the one thing i would like to point out to the developer is that most classic RPN calculators allow the user to combine a STO/RCL operation with plus/minus/times/divide. with any program that invites the user to invest this level energy into of customizing their experience, there will always be things i start to notice that i just really wish were present. i love how it allows me to obsess over fine-tuning my layout exactly how i like it. This is by a wide margin the best ‘quick’ calculator software ever developed. The point being, if you don't like what you see in the default layouts, you can make it be anything you want it to be. I'll stop here not because there is not more to say, but because this calculator shines once you start exploring the many options available. All the labels for each key can be set to whatever you want. The layout customization is very sophisticated, allowing you to have keys that are hidden until the 2nd key is pressed. This took me a while but my layout is automatically saved to iCloud where it syncs with my other iOS devices. I was able to duplicate this keyboard layout and, with the appropriate theme, I was able get it looking very nice. Case in point: I love the elegance and simplicity of the original HP35 from 1972. With PCalc, the amount of custimization possibilities is dizzyingly vast but, once the shock of available options wears off, you are rewarded with a true sense of empowerment. As an RPN lover and HP calculator addict, I have searched for and tried most of the offerings in the app store only to be disapointed by the rediculous skeuomorphic designs that abound. The depth and breadth of this app is a true labor of love by the author who has spend decades perfecting it (see his website). It was a joke about App Store policies at the time.I have downloaded (and bought) many iPhone calculators and PCalc is by far the best. When I added a mode where if you wrote a rude ‘calculator word’ and turned your phone upside down, it replaced the display with a ‘censored’ stamp. Many things stand out, but to name three: What have been the high points from PCalc’s iPhone/iPad years? That’s not something Apple would do – and it’s admittedly niche – but many people like to personalize apps and make them exactly the way they want them. Apple is settings-averse – it wants simple, immediate apps, and that laves space for third-party products to operate in with expanded functionality.įor example, you can edit buttons in PCalc, export your layouts and send them to other people. What has always worked is making a deeper app with lots of options. I’ve always competed in busy spaces Apple is already doing something in. What most sets your app apart from Apple’s built-in calculator? You could make the buttons small in the simulator and click them with a mouse, but they were tricky to hit when you were wielding real fingers! That became clear when I had an iPhone in my hands. From a code perspective, it was fine, but there was very limited screen space. The biggest challenge was figuring out how to get all the functionality on to the device. It felt like the most natural place for the app to be, and I think that’s why sales took off after this point. On iPhone, the whole device became a calculator, with you directly tapping buttons. On Mac, PCalc was like an emulation of a physical calculator, with on-screen buttons that you could click. I enjoyed the challenge of squeezing everything in – something I did again with the iPhone widget and Apple Watch versions. People forget the original iPhone was sluggish and had limited memory. So, at the eleventh hour, I rewrote all the interface code to be more efficient. When I got the real device a month before the App Store was due to go live, I realized my approach was slow – it took about ten seconds to launch the app. It was self-contained, so I got it running with almost no changes and then added a simple interface.Īt this point, I didn’t have an iPhone – I did everything in the iPhone Simulator on my Mac. In fact, I ported the code that powered PCalc’s Mac Dashboard Widget. Like the Mac version, it started from a point of learning: I wanted to make my first iPhone app, and I knew it would be relatively easy to move the core logic from Mac to iPhone. What were you trying to achieve with the iPhone version of PCalc? What I enjoy most in software development is coming up with the user interface for an app, and so I drew an initial prototype in SuperPaint and spent the summer of 1992 figuring out how to turn it into a functioning bit of code. I had a physical calculator, but it seemed like I should be able to do everything on my computer. I wanted something that handled hex and binary calculations to help with my university coursework. What you feel Apple’s built-in calculator lacked?
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