PCalc - A well-done calculator app ... and widget

Oct 27, '05 06:52:00AM

Contributed by: robg

PCalc imageThe macosxhints Rating:
9 of 10
[Score: 9 out of 10]

PCalc is a shareware calculator, written by James Thomson, author of another long-time fave of mine, DragThing. And yes, there are many, many calculator apps out there, including a couple freebies from Apple, but PCalc is one of my favorites -- especially in its new Version 3 release. It does everything you'd expect of a high-end calculator, including tapes, scientific functions, and even includes an RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) mode, first popularized on HP calculators. I've used HPs for so long that I find it hard to work in anything but RPN, so that's a big selling point for me. For those who don't grok RPN, there are now parentheses buttons, as well, so that you can control the order of operations. PCalc even tells you how many parentheses are presently open, which makes entering complex formulas much easier.

But beyond the feature set, PCalc is also the nicest-looking calculator app I've ever seen. The interface is very nice, and a 'nicer digits' option creates (in my opinion) a better looking display. PCalc even includes a super useful Widget version (for 10.4 users) that contains most of the features of the full-blown app, and hides itself quite nicely when not in use.

But don't take my word for it -- Dan Frakes likes it, too, and covered it in this week's MacGems, with lots of additional details...

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20051027065258653