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In 2017, I wrote: Over the years, I have found numerous four different bugs in Apple's Calculator app. Here is today's wtf. Switch calculator to Scientific mo

In 2017, I wrote: Over the years, I have found numerous four different bugs in Apple's Calculator app. Here is today's wtf. Switch calculator to Scientific mode (⌘-2). Type: 1, 0, ^, 2, 0, enter, command-c (to copy), command-v (to paste) Expected result: an amount in $$$ I wouldn't mind having. Actual result: smallest number to appear 6 times in Pascal's triangle I reported all four and they never acknowledged any of them. They didn't fix any of them either. Doesn't motivate anyone to report more bugs to them. Some of the bugs got auto-closed after a while. Eventually, the bugs did get fixed, except the clipboard thing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

jwilk 4y ago
> smallest number to appear 6 times in Pascal's triangle You mean exacty 6 times or at least 6 times?
- amenghra 4y ago
  Exactly 6 times. What's happening is if the result is 1e<something>, a roundtrip to the clipboard results in 1<something>. I.e. 1e20 becomes 120.
lilyball 4y ago
I just tested right now, ⌘C copies the string "1e20" and ⌘V pastes that same string. So yeah it looks like it was fixed.
- anamexis 4y ago
  I also just tested now and reproduced the bug. The key thing is that you are pasting back into the calculator – which presumably is just stripping letters. The behavior is maybe a bit surprising, but I could also see it being defensible. You can't type "1e20" into the calculator, so why would you be able to paste it in? Outside of plain text, I don't think clipboard operations are necessarily expected to be reversible.
  - amenghra 4y ago
    That’s a good point. Maybe you should be able to type “1e20” in scientific mode? It would make the calculator more feature full and prevent “losing” data if you copy/paste in the middle of a long calculation.
    - lilyball 4y ago
      "e" in scientific mode is a shortcut for the "ln" function. That said, I tested again, and once again copying "1e20" and pasting it into the Calculator works just fine. It's definitely not treating it the same as pressing each key separately. I'm testing on macOS 13.0.1.

jwilk 4y ago

> smallest number to appear 6 times in Pascal's triangle You mean exacty 6 times or at least 6 times?

amenghra 4y ago
Exactly 6 times. What's happening is if the result is 1e<something>, a roundtrip to the clipboard results in 1<something>. I.e. 1e20 becomes 120.

lilyball 4y ago

I just tested right now, ⌘C copies the string "1e20" and ⌘V pastes that same string. So yeah it looks like it was fixed.

anamexis 4y ago
I also just tested now and reproduced the bug. The key thing is that you are pasting back into the calculator – which presumably is just stripping letters. The behavior is maybe a bit surprising, but I could also see it being defensible. You can't type "1e20" into the calculator, so why would you be able to paste it in? Outside of plain text, I don't think clipboard operations are necessarily expected to be reversible.
- amenghra 4y ago
  That’s a good point. Maybe you should be able to type “1e20” in scientific mode? It would make the calculator more feature full and prevent “losing” data if you copy/paste in the middle of a long calculation.
  - lilyball 4y ago
    "e" in scientific mode is a shortcut for the "ln" function. That said, I tested again, and once again copying "1e20" and pasting it into the Calculator works just fine. It's definitely not treating it the same as pressing each key separately. I'm testing on macOS 13.0.1.