GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 108226
More options for accuracy
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
I think the should be more options in the accuricy dropdown. In all modes I think a option should be added that doesn't display trailing zeros after the decimal point (my paocket calculator call this "float"). In Scientific we should have a an option that always forces exponential output. And one that forces engineering(beeing exponential but with exponets dividable through 3) output. Of course the Scientific and the engineering mode have to revert to something different if the user leaves Scientific mode (assuming they are only choosable in Scientific mode). Additionaly it would be nice if the current setting would be displayed somewhere, in the current state the user can only guess.
> I think the should be more options in the accuricy dropdown. > In all modes I think a option should be added that doesn't > display trailing zeros after the decimal point (my paocket > calculator call this "float"). Does setting accuracy (Acc) to "0 radix places" give you want you want here? If not, could you explain it in more detail please? > In Scientific we should have a an option that always forces > exponential output. And one that forces engineering(beeing > exponential but with exponets dividable through 3) output. These are there. The "Eng" and "Sci" radio buttons in the mode panel above the main calculator buttons (in Scientific mode). > Of course the Scientific and the engineering mode have to > revert to something different if the user leaves Scientific > mode (assuming they are only choosable in Scientific mode). I've tagged that as a followon comment to the other bug you raised. Bug #108219. > Additionaly it would be nice if the current setting would > be displayed somewhere, in the current state the user can > only guess. Heh. The original calctool (OpenWindows DeskSet, circa 1992) has this. See: http://calctool.sourceforge.net/Screenshots/calctool_ss.gif Cc:'ing Calum Benson, one of the GNOME HCI engineers, to see if we should try to put some thing like this back.
>Does setting accuracy (Acc) to "0 radix places" give you want >you want here? If not, could you explain it in more detail please? No, Acc=0 truncates the number after the period. What i would like to see is a mode that truncates after the last significant digit if it is after the decimal point or at the dicimal point if it is before. This allows to see, without changing the Accuracy: "755" "6.5" "6.5678" "0.457654" So you don't get distracting trailing zeros while still seeing the fractional part. I think this would of course be limited to a given number of digits after the decimal point. > These are there. The "Eng" and "Sci" radio buttons in the > mode panel above the main calculator buttons (in Scientific mode). Yes, you're right, I missed them. But i think widgets are not in the ideal place. I think this would be easier to see if these wigdets weren't at two totally different locations. Maybe you could move one of them next to the other. Say Acc up to the radioboxes. gcalctool wouldn't be hurt by a bit more grouping (maybe even spacing to make the grouping more explicit). At the moment it is mostly layouted by technical points (all radiogroups in one location, commen part of all modes). But maybe this is for a different bug.
I think the "no trailing zeroes" option is basically what I was asking for in bug #104904.
Yes, you're right. Lucky me filed this bug as enhancement request so maybe this won't be resolved as NOTABUG. I think this feature should really be there. From the documentation of Accuracy I would say it only affects the display and the registers accessed with sto, rcl and exch, so it shouldn't be to hard to implemnt this. If this assumsation is wrong it has to be documented in a more obvious way (and increasing Acc while a value is displayed shoud maybe give a warning).
*** Bug 104904 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Adding Breda to the Cc: line as this is a possible change that will affect the online help. I've been thinking about this, and I believe it's actually a lot simpler than I'd originally thought. I propose the following changes: * The menu items in the Acc menu are now "tickable", so you know what the current accuracy selection is. Setting one of these clears the previous one. * A new "remove trailing zeroes" (better wording please) menu item is added to the Acc menu (first item, with a separator underneath perhaps), that is "tickable". This tick doesn't affect the accuracy ticks. It's either on or off. * The default setting for accuracy now becomes 9 numeric places and "remove trailing zeroes". * The Acc button is moved to the Scientific mode (clear slot in the top right corner, above the Rand. With these changes, and the changes proposed in bug #108219 I think this makes it much more straight forward to the novice user who will be in Basic mode and only sees 9 decimal places with trailing zeroes removed. This being almost the way that most software calculators do it (although they tend to give more numeric places which aren't always accurate). The "power" user can go to the Scientific mode, and tweak this to their hearts content. gcalctool should use gconf resources to save the users prefered accuracy and whether the "remove trailing zeroes" toggle is on or off, and restore accordingly. If the user is returning to Basic mode, then it's automatically set to 9 decimal places with "remove trailing zeroes". Now where I think the debate maybe is going to be is over the Financial mode. I'm proposing the same as the Basic mode. In other words, the user is automatically set to decimal base (as per bug #108219), and their accuracy is 9 numeric places with trailing zeroes removed. Does all this seems reasonable? If yes, Calum/Breda could you please refine/agree to the wording of the "remove trailing zeroes" menu item and the other UI changes I've proposed please? Thanks.
It seems reasonable. I don't know about financial mode because i don't know about financial stuff. If you are moving the Acc button, maybe you could get it near the eng/sci/fix radiogroup so users can see these related thing close together. I didn't look at the source, so I'm not sure how easy this would be. The best position would be rigth (or left) of the radiobox, but maybe this would look ugly because of the different height of the controls.
One possible solution (to putting the Acc button near the base and display style radio buttons) would be to move the Bin/Oct/Dec/Hex radio button group and the Eng/Fix/Sci radio button group over to the right side of the mode panel, and put the Degrees/Gradients/Radians radio button group and the Hyp and Inv checkboxes on the left side. The Acc button (if placed above the Rand button) would then be in very close proximity without looking too ugly. Calum/Breda: comments?
Created attachment 15085 [details] Patch to implement required functionality.
I've added a patch to this bug that hopefully implements the functionality described above. Calum/Martin, I'd appreciate it if you can checkout the latest gcalctool, apply this patch, try it out and let me know what you think. Personally I really like it, and wonder why I've never had anybody ask me for this in the 15 years I've been doing this calculator (in its various guises. ;-) Note that I've implemented it so the mantissa for eng/sci numbers is also affected by the "Remove Trailing Zeroes" flag. This seems reasonable, and you simple toggle the menu item (or do Control-R) to reverse the effect. I'm going to give this a bit more testing to see if I've missed anything.
The patch doesn't correctly reset the mode to "remove trailing zeroes" when going from Scientific to Basic or Financial more, so it isn't exactly right. Also it needs to adjust the initial "accuracy" value in the gcalctool schemas file, and add in a section for the new "removezeroes" resource. Hopefully it gives an idea what this will all look like though. Calum can you comment on the UI changes please? Martin, can you indicate whether this is what you were looking for please? Thanks.
Created attachment 15094 [details] Provide required functionality (take 2).
I've added a new patch that hopefully now provides all the required functionality. Please try it out.
Chatted with Calum on IRC this morning, and he's okay with these changes. Fixed in v4.2.74. Martin/Dennis, if you find any strangeness, please reopen the bug and comment, and I'll look at it when I return from the CSUN conference next week. Thanks.
Yeah, all seems reasonably sane to me. I suspect it might make slightly more sense to call the feature "Show Trailing Zeroes" (or similar-- Breda?) and have it turned off by default, though, rather than calling it "Remove Trailing Zeroes" and having it turned on by default... just seems a bit counter-intuitive to have to turn something on to make something disappear :) I think it might also be a good idea to add this option to the View menu, enabling it only in scientific mode of course. Anything that can be accessed by a Ctrl-<blah> shortcut just feels like it ought to be present on the main menubar somewhere.
You're suggestions sound great. I'll probably look at adjusting this after CSUN (i.e. next week), as I don't want to rush it and possibly check in a bad patch. Now that there would be two menu items doing the same thing, I think it makes sense to have a separate function to call for these two items rather than try to generalise in mb_proc and menu_proc.
I agree with Calum's suggestions. I contemplated suggesting the text "Right-pad with Zeroes" instead of "Show Trailing Zeroes", but I think the latter is more accurate. Not sure what "two menu items" Rich is talking about? Calum suggested adding a new option "View > Show Trailing Zeroes"; what is the other item?
Hi Breda, It's now actually the same menu item but in two places. It'll be in the "Acc" menu, but because it has a Control-<blah> shortcut, it should also be in the menubar, so it's going to be added to the View menu there. More in a few days.
Created attachment 15190 [details] Patch file to adjust to "Show Trailing Zeroes" style.
Even though I believe I've now adjusted this to the "Show Trailing Zeroes" style, with the extra equivalent menu item in the View menu in the menubar, I'm attaching the patch of changes because I consider the approach I had to take to fix this a ReallyAwfulKludge(TM). A second pair of eyes on this might come up with a cleaner approach. Anyway, fixed in 4.2.76.