Hi Robert,

Thanks for your response. Well, it's not March yet, so I obviously
haven't seen version 5.29.92, but even with the mentioned changes, I
remain unsure.

For example, even with the addition of the keyboard shortcuts, I need to
remember to take an extra step when entering non-decimal numbers. I
agree that pressing Ctrl-H is better than having to click on the X_16
button, but it's still an extra step. With the old gcalctool, when the
calculator was in hex mode, all input and output defaulted to hex. The
bug 610759 that you mention sounds like it might restore this
functionality.

Another question is, how are the mentioned keyboard shortcuts
discoverable? For a visual tool like the calculator, it seems that
buttons would be better. I think the best thing to do, along with the
change from bug 610759 that synchronizes input base with output base, is
to have buttons on the main window that allow easy switching between
bases (and corresponding conversion of the already-displayed result). It
could look similar to the mock-up provided by Oliver. This will produce
functionality that replaces the old version of gcalctool.

In response to your question, let me clarify. What I mean is that I
imagine that these recent changes were introduced because users would
change the input base and then forget about it, and be confused later
when they got unexpected answers. Maybe I'm wrong, that just seemed to
me like the impetus for the change. I'm saying there are better ways to
prevent user confusion in that regard than to always default to decimal
input, for example, even as the user is inputting numbers, you could
display the base in subscript as part of the input value, as well as the
output. But of course this depends on the reason for the change in the
first place. I was pretty comfortable with the old system.

Thanks again for your responsiveness.

-- 
gcalctool 5.29 hides switch for display format in its settings window
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/501054
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Desktop Bugs, which is subscribed to gcalctool in ubuntu.

-- 
desktop-bugs mailing list
desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs

Reply via email to