9 ms·

QwikTape: Do calculations, annotate like you would on a paper

108 points by stareatgoats 4y ago

jasonpeacock 4y ago
On OSX, Soulver is great: https://soulver.app/ https://soulver.app/ Very useful for building worksheets and exploring formulas.
- ryanianian 4y ago
  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`).
  - tunesmith 4y ago
    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 4y ago
    > 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/ https://c2.com/doc/expense/) > and good date math (`today + 3 business days`) That’s tricky/impossible in international teams.
    - 4silvertooth 4y ago
      Ohh interesting, 1.6 Gib is the SDK with all the documentation, the final builds are comparatively tiny.
  - 4silvertooth 4y ago
    Can you try the prebuilt from releases for macOS?
    - tunesmith 4y ago
      BTW, I tried downloading this but it didn't have a file extension. I suppose I could have figured it out by looking at the internals, but I wasn't sure if it was a pkg or an app or what.
      - 4silvertooth 4y ago
        It's binary you could `chmod +x qwiktape` and execute it, I've made note in the readme about it.
      - josephcsible 4y ago
        File extensions on everything are a Windows-ism (originally a DOS-ism). Why do you expect them on files specific to other platforms?
- cobrabyte 4y ago
  I use Soulver every day and definitely recommend it
erichurkman 4y ago
A bit like Numi.app for Mac. Neat.
nkcmr 4y ago
I put something like this together: https://solvy.app/ https://solvy.app/ – really fun project. my goal was to make it collaborative and real-time. Might still do that someday.
voiper1 4y ago
Similar/related: https://notepadcalculator.com/ https://notepadcalculator.com/ https://bbodi.github.io/notecalc3/notecalc 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 4y ago
This could be a good transition from a spreadsheet to a report. I wonder how data binding could work for that?
- 4silvertooth 4y ago
  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 https://github.com/handsontable/hyperformula which uses chevrotain to parse spreadsheet formulas and decided to use chevrotain for the parsing.
joe8756438 4y ago
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 https://tatatap.com
4silvertooth 4y ago
Hi everyone, Author here would love to answer any queries.
- stareatgoats 4y ago
  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 4y ago
    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.
- alchemist1e9 4y ago
  Love the app. However on Debian 11 host with xfce desktop the deb package binary manages to crash XOrg when one resizes the window! Just FYI, I might dig into how it accomplishes such a feat as your app is absolutely amazing idea, ver helpful.
  - 4silvertooth 4y ago
    I'll have a look into it.
    - alchemist1e9 4y ago
      I put it inside an xpra session for now. It’s a really useful app. Thank you. The X server crash looks like it’s something related to vulcan. My debian 11 machine is a bit odd as it has 2 gpus, one nvidia one amd and I’m using only free video drivers. If I find time to debug it and get an Xorg stack trace I’ll get it to you.
TheDesolate0 4y ago
[dead]
kholdstayr 4y ago
My favorite calculator is OpalCalc: https://www.skytopia.com/software/opalcalc/ https://www.skytopia.com/software/opalcalc/
funnym0nk3y 4y ago
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.
- tunesmith 4y ago
  In my case, the words help with self-documenting; knowing why I'm doing the calculations I'm doing. I feel like over time, I spend a lot of time going over old Excel spreadsheets exploring the formulas I've put together and wondering what I was thinking, re-learning how they work, wishing I had something there to explain it that is more than just those "Attach notes to cell" things. In some of my spreadsheets, I've actually taken to writing docs in a separate markdown app, and then taking screenshots of the rendered pdf and pasting them into Excel. It's clunky.
smusamashah 4y ago
I made a list of calculators like this which were shared here on HN over time https://gist.github.com/SMUsamaShah/6546011091d53380354484a3bb660ec2 https://gist.github.com/SMUsamaShah/6546011091d53380354484a3... (there aren't many) From these https://bbodi.github.io/notecalc3/ https://bbodi.github.io/notecalc3/ and https://notepadcalculator.com/ https://notepadcalculator.com/ are the most programmer friendly (supporting <<, ^, binary, hex etc)
codemac 4y ago
Emacs has literate-calc-mode which I use with org-mode: https://github.com/sulami/literate-calc-mode.el https://github.com/sulami/literate-calc-mode.el
thirdreplicator 4y ago
Sounds interesting. Can you make a tutorial video on YouTube?
- 4silvertooth 4y ago
  Does it really need a tutorial video? I've made an `Introduction` document that opens on first use ,which is self explanatory.

108 points by stareatgoats 4y ago

On OSX, Soulver is great: https://soulver.app/ https://soulver.app/ Very useful for building worksheets and exploring formulas.

ryanianian 4y ago
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`).
- tunesmith 4y ago
  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 4y ago
  > 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/ https://c2.com/doc/expense/) > and good date math (`today + 3 business days`) That’s tricky/impossible in international teams.
  - 4silvertooth 4y ago
    Ohh interesting, 1.6 Gib is the SDK with all the documentation, the final builds are comparatively tiny.
- 4silvertooth 4y ago
  Can you try the prebuilt from releases for macOS?
  - tunesmith 4y ago
    BTW, I tried downloading this but it didn't have a file extension. I suppose I could have figured it out by looking at the internals, but I wasn't sure if it was a pkg or an app or what.
    - 4silvertooth 4y ago
      It's binary you could `chmod +x qwiktape` and execute it, I've made note in the readme about it.
    - josephcsible 4y ago
      File extensions on everything are a Windows-ism (originally a DOS-ism). Why do you expect them on files specific to other platforms?
cobrabyte 4y ago
I use Soulver every day and definitely recommend it

erichurkman 4y ago

A bit like Numi.app for Mac. Neat.

nkcmr 4y ago

I put something like this together: https://solvy.app/ https://solvy.app/ – really fun project. my goal was to make it collaborative and real-time. Might still do that someday.

voiper1 4y ago

Similar/related: https://notepadcalculator.com/ https://notepadcalculator.com/ https://bbodi.github.io/notecalc3/notecalc 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 4y ago

This could be a good transition from a spreadsheet to a report. I wonder how data binding could work for that?

4silvertooth 4y ago
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 https://github.com/handsontable/hyperformula which uses chevrotain to parse spreadsheet formulas and decided to use chevrotain for the parsing.

joe8756438 4y ago

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 https://tatatap.com

4silvertooth 4y ago

Hi everyone, Author here would love to answer any queries.

stareatgoats 4y ago
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 4y ago
  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.
alchemist1e9 4y ago
Love the app. However on Debian 11 host with xfce desktop the deb package binary manages to crash XOrg when one resizes the window! Just FYI, I might dig into how it accomplishes such a feat as your app is absolutely amazing idea, ver helpful.
- 4silvertooth 4y ago
  I'll have a look into it.
  - alchemist1e9 4y ago
    I put it inside an xpra session for now. It’s a really useful app. Thank you. The X server crash looks like it’s something related to vulcan. My debian 11 machine is a bit odd as it has 2 gpus, one nvidia one amd and I’m using only free video drivers. If I find time to debug it and get an Xorg stack trace I’ll get it to you.

TheDesolate0 4y ago

[dead]

kholdstayr 4y ago

My favorite calculator is OpalCalc: https://www.skytopia.com/software/opalcalc/ https://www.skytopia.com/software/opalcalc/

funnym0nk3y 4y ago

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.

tunesmith 4y ago
In my case, the words help with self-documenting; knowing why I'm doing the calculations I'm doing. I feel like over time, I spend a lot of time going over old Excel spreadsheets exploring the formulas I've put together and wondering what I was thinking, re-learning how they work, wishing I had something there to explain it that is more than just those "Attach notes to cell" things. In some of my spreadsheets, I've actually taken to writing docs in a separate markdown app, and then taking screenshots of the rendered pdf and pasting them into Excel. It's clunky.

smusamashah 4y ago

I made a list of calculators like this which were shared here on HN over time https://gist.github.com/SMUsamaShah/6546011091d53380354484a3bb660ec2 https://gist.github.com/SMUsamaShah/6546011091d53380354484a3... (there aren't many) From these https://bbodi.github.io/notecalc3/ https://bbodi.github.io/notecalc3/ and https://notepadcalculator.com/ https://notepadcalculator.com/ are the most programmer friendly (supporting <<, ^, binary, hex etc)

codemac 4y ago

Emacs has literate-calc-mode which I use with org-mode: https://github.com/sulami/literate-calc-mode.el https://github.com/sulami/literate-calc-mode.el

thirdreplicator 4y ago

Sounds interesting. Can you make a tutorial video on YouTube?

4silvertooth 4y ago
Does it really need a tutorial video? I've made an `Introduction` document that opens on first use ,which is self explanatory.