[HN Gopher] QwikTape: Do calculations, annotate like you would o...
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       QwikTape: Do calculations, annotate like you would on a paper
        
       Author : stareatgoats
       Score  : 86 points
       Date   : 2023-02-11 13:47 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | TheDesolate0 wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | nkcmr wrote:
       | I put something like this together: https://solvy.app/ - really
       | fun project. my goal was to make it collaborative and real-time.
       | Might still do that someday.
        
       | voiper1 wrote:
       | Similar/related: https://notepadcalculator.com/
       | https://bbodi.github.io/notecalc3/notecalc
       | 
       | Although I see those perform the calculation on the side, instead
       | of inline. Interesting.
       | 
       | In a related note, I love the cross-platform app SpeedCrunch as a
       | "basic" calculator. It has an option to auto-copy the result to
       | the clipboard, and you can also set/use variables. It also cold-
       | opens immidiately.
        
       | irq-1 wrote:
       | This could be a good transition from a spreadsheet to a report. I
       | wonder how data binding could work for that?
        
         | 4silvertooth wrote:
         | My initial thoughts were how does a spreadsheet do it? but it's
         | a different kind of beast.
         | 
         | In search of a parser toolkit I had come across this
         | https://github.com/handsontable/hyperformula which uses
         | chevrotain to parse spreadsheet formulas and decided to use
         | chevrotain for the parsing.
        
       | kholdstayr wrote:
       | My favorite calculator is OpalCalc:
       | 
       | https://www.skytopia.com/software/opalcalc/
        
       | erichurkman wrote:
       | A bit like Numi.app for Mac. Neat.
        
       | joe8756438 wrote:
       | I love seeing all the related apps folks are posting. I built one
       | myself, Tap [1], and can confirm: they are fun to build and
       | useful!
       | 
       | Tap formulas can reference other formulas, so combining discreet
       | calculations in different ways is less repetition. They can also
       | refer to the value of accounts within the Tap system. So if you
       | keep track of spending or other commodities you can refer to the
       | value of those accounts (in total or across specific time ranges)
       | in formulas.
       | 
       | 1. https://tatatap.com
        
       | funnym0nk3y wrote:
       | What's the usecase for apps like this?
       | 
       | It seems like it is made for low complexity stuff, which I
       | usually calculate in the fly. Anything more advanced will go into
       | Excel.
        
       | 4silvertooth wrote:
       | Hi everyone, Author here would love to answer any queries.
        
         | stareatgoats wrote:
         | I really like the app, it's snappy and works great with a small
         | footprint, at least on Windows.
         | 
         | I confess I was also intrigued by the use of Sciter as a
         | platform, so I guess a question could be if you would recommend
         | that for crossplatform apps, or if you came across things that
         | "surprised" you along the way?
        
           | 4silvertooth wrote:
           | Well few of the surprises in sciter SDK were solved by the
           | author of Sciter Andrew,
           | 
           | Sciter development is mostly development-on-demand, so any
           | bugs or feature gets resolved on interest. I've not faced any
           | major issue with it.
        
       | jasonpeacock wrote:
       | On OSX, Soulver is great:
       | 
       | https://soulver.app/
       | 
       | Very useful for building worksheets and exploring formulas.
        
         | ryanianian wrote:
         | I like Soulver, but I've found Calca to be a better fit for my
         | needs. It supports graphing, unbound functions, and more
         | advanced math support. Its UI is more minimal and the rendering
         | isn't as nice as Soulver, but I find I'm able to iterate with
         | it a lot faster.
         | 
         | I'm trying out QuikTape now, but it had to clone 1.6GiB. When I
         | launch on macOS I am not able to actually type into the UI, and
         | the window doesn't show as an app in the dock. Perhaps it's
         | more functional on Linux.
         | 
         | I'm still waiting for an app that can properly do real
         | units/dimensional analysis and good date math (`today + 3
         | business days`).
        
           | 4silvertooth wrote:
           | Can you try the prebuilt from releases for macOS?
        
           | tunesmith wrote:
           | I like Calca too better too. This is one of those crowded
           | spaces that still feels like it has room for something else
           | to come along and truly nail it, though. I find myself
           | reaching for Calca, local Jupyter, ObservableHQ, and local
           | Quarto in VsCode all for slightly different reasons.
        
           | Someone wrote:
           | > I'm trying out QuikTape now, but it had to clone 1.6GiB.
           | 
           | How far we've come from awk scripts that are about 1kiB
           | (https://c2.com/doc/expense/)
           | 
           | > and good date math (`today + 3 business days`)
           | 
           | That's tricky/impossible in international teams.
        
             | 4silvertooth wrote:
             | Ohh interesting,
             | 
             | 1.6 Gib is the SDK with all the documentation, the final
             | builds are comparatively tiny.
        
         | cobrabyte wrote:
         | I use Soulver every day and definitely recommend it
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-13 23:01 UTC)