GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 125873
Calculator should separate every three digits
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
Similar to Microsoft Calculator, GNOME Calculator should separate every three digits with a comma, a period, or whatever other symbol the localization uses. Current display: 6201136792 Desired display: 6,201,136,792
This is gcalctool...
Should is too strong. Could is better. In other words it should be an option. I have Windows 98 and 200 here, neither of which seem to give me a comma separator. Which version of Windows Calculator are you using?
Well, you're right -- it's apparently not in Windows Calculator. I know, though, that my HP calculator shows those commas and it's quite helpful. Also, when Microsoft went from MS-DOS 6.2 to 6.22, they added those commas for file sizes and other stuff; it was a noticeable usability change.
Created attachment 21839 [details] Implementation of requested enhancement.
[Adding Calum, my HCI person, as I have one outstanding question on this]. I've checked in the changes to CVS HEAD to implement this. There is a new "Show Thousands Separator" menu item in the View menu to control whether this is displayed or not. The default is not to display it. Note that it will only be displayed for fixed point numbers in the decimal base. My one concern is whether the thousands separator character should be displayed in the display area as the user is entering a fixed point number in the decimal base. Calum, if you think it should (or Mariano, if you can quote a precedent for this), then feel free to reopen this and I'll add it in.
I can't think of any usability reason why you shouldn't, but equally I can't imagine any problems if you don't :) It might be nice to try it, for consistency, just to see how it works.
Created attachment 22075 [details] Diffs to adjust the display (with thousands separator) on user input.
I've added in changes to adjust the display to show thousand separators (if checked) as the user enters input. It seems to work quite nicely and looks useful to me. Checked into CVS HEAD. Version bumped to v4.3.28.
The workflow on this enhancement request blew my mind. To show my appreciation, I donated to the project. Thank you so much! (Now send me my coffee mug.)