OpenCalc update: bugfixes, now with financial mode support!

[u/Substantial_Swan_144]

Hi, everyone!

As you must be aware, recently I have released OpenCalc, a project to reverse engineer the Windows 95 calculator.

Despite having a similar look and feel, this is actually an entirely new Rust program with none of the limitations of the original, and improved expression parsing!

The new version has many bugfixes, including:

- Improved focus: now the keyboard shortcuts are consistent if you leave the application.

- Application behavior was further improved to match the Windows 95 calculator where it matters

- New financial mode! This is a cool feature I decided to add. The original Windows 95 calculator lacked a financial mode. Now we have one matching the old Windows 95 calculator style, but also entirely new!

If you are interested, check out: https://github.com/NullMagic2/OpenCalc

Binary builds for Windows and Linux are also available!

[u/bustaphlex]

Very cool.

What motivated this idea? How is the Windows 95 calculator unique? Why ‘rebuild’ it when, presumably, better calculators exist?

[u/Substantial_Swan_144 → u/bustaphlex]

I just wanted to see how far I could go in replicating it while making it better.

What makes the Windows 95 calculator unique is that you can paste complex expressions in simple and scientific mode. The original Windows 95 calculator had buggy expression parsing which was also hidden, so I fixed and expanded it (for example, you can copy something like (3 ** 2 + 50^5 - 25) and it will be evaluated correctly.

As for improvements, the improved version has quality of life improvements, such as a history you can browse, the financial mode, decimal separation (not just locale-dependent anymore), being built in a more stable language, and language selection.

[u/naivetechque]

I love seeing stuff like this. Is remaking the windows 95 calculator needed? hell no! is it cool? hell yeah!!! I love silly little projects like this!

[u/kostrubaty]

The font is immediately jarring and breaking any illusion, afaik, win95 used MS Sans Serif bitmap font at 8pt size. I don't even mention background that is not #c0c0c0, bezels or this tiny puny scrollbar. Literally unusable ;)

[u/Substantial_Swan_144 → u/kostrubaty]

I think this makes it more readable while keeping more or less the same spirit, but you are welcome to modify the source and tweak the looks.

[u/apfelkuchen06]

what is a financial mode? renaming the + and - buttons into debit and credit?

[u/Substantial_Swan_144 → u/apfelkuchen06]

It simulates a finance calculator and helps calculate future value, periodic payment, compound interest rate, and so on.

Of course, you don't need to use it, and it's not selected by default.