GNOME Calculator


GNOME Calculator, formerly known as gcalctool, is the software calculator integrated with the GNOME desktop environment. It is programmed in C and Vala and part of the GNOME Core Applications.

Views

The GNOME calculator uses the common infix notation for binary functions, such as the four basic arithmetic operations. Unlike many other calculators, it uses prefix notation, not postfix notation for unary functions. So to calculate e.g. the sine of one, the user must push the keys "sin", "1", "=" - not "1", "sin" as on many other calculators.
The decimal separator on the number pad is based on the general keyboard layout since version 3.12.3.

Variable handling

Advanced, Financial, and Programming modes present features for storing and retrieving values labeled as variables. R is the symbol for variable, used on GUI buttons ←R and →R.
Variable names are case-sensitive alphabetical string without spaces. Variable values are numerical strings.
Values are assigned to variable names by entering in the GUI text input/result field a variable name followed by 0 or more spaces, followed by the = character, followed by 0 or more spaces, followed by either a numeric value or an existing variable name, e.g. "x = 2" or "result = subtotal". A numeric value is assigned to the first variable name. If the value was entered as an existing variable name rather than as a numeric value, the existing variable's value is assigned to the first variable name. Assignment to a variable name that does not exist creates the new variable by name with the assigned value. The →R GUI button shows a popup menu of existing variables, to which selected variable is assigned the current numeric value displayed in the calculator, just as if that variable name were entered in the GUI text field followed by a = followed by the numeric value.
Entering a variable name into the GUI text field substitutes the variable value for the variable name when the expression in the GUI text field is evaluated. The ←R GUI button shows a popup menu of existing variables ; the selected variable name is inserted into the GUI text field.
Two predefined variables are available from the ←R GUI button: ans and rand. ans contains the last "answer" value calculated by the calculator as a result. rand contains a random value between 0.0 and 1.0.
Variable names and values persist between launch and quit of the application.