Reckon
V1.17
Introduction
Thank you for trying
Reckon
. Reckon is a replacement
calculator for real calculators and small devices. Reckon
has been written to be as portable as possible by
limiting dependencies on specific hardware and
subsystem features.
I have written Reckon to be
my
calculator.
Each person wants something slightly
different from a calculator and with any real
calculator there are missing wanted functions and
things which work in an awkward way. Reckon's purpose is to
have all the features [i want] in one easy to use package.
Nevertheless, feature requirements change. The plan is to add features as and when they are needed and
also to move reckon onto different hardware as it becomes possible. I am also hoping the feature set will
be useful for others who might want to use it as their alternative calculator.
I am open to improvement suggestions and bug reports, rather than a huge wish list. I have my own long
wish list too! It's likely that features from your wish list are also on mine. Some things are easy to add (like a
new function and map it to a key), some are hard (e.g. add a CAS). Easy feature requests are likely to get
done.
One of the biggest challenges is getting the right manner of operation. I am trying to avoid modes where
possible, deep menus and prefix key sequences. I am hoping to hear good ideas from people that make for
ease of use through operation rather than boilerplate modes and menus.
In Reckon, there is no complex mode, but there is an
i
key, so this trick is not necessary. Where possible,
the functions automatically support complex operation, although currently you can only have real matrices.
A big area missing from the current release is display formatting. for example, the number of digits, ENG,
SCI, FIX etc. These are usually modal. I am chewing over ideas for display formatting with the view to
expand the concept from number formatting to also include HEX, OCT, BIN display, DMS, DATE calendar
display etc.
There are many, many things to go in, several are half finished. Originally, i wanted to make a release only
when a significant number of these were done. However, due to time constraints, i have decided to make
an early first release because i think the features already implemented can be useful now (I'm already using
reckon as my regular calculator) and other people have good ideas that might influence their
implementation.
So there are things missing, but i have endeavoured to round up and fix bugs and annoyances from my list
rather than chuck in half-finished features. I'm hoping there won't be any embarrassing defects in this
version (like getting its sums wrong), but there are likely to be small misfeatures.
Enjoy,
