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> iOS apps tend to be more stable, better polished It's been a while since I was last using Android, but first-party Apple apps no longer meet my standards for
by ben_w 10mo ago
> iOS apps tend to be more stable, better polished
It's been a while since I was last using Android, but first-party Apple apps no longer meet my standards for "polished".
e.g. type this sequence into the calculator:
[2] [-] [4] [=] [x²] [=]
The answer should not be negative, but the app says "-4".
The desktop Contacts app has been putting invisible LTR and RTL codes around phone numbers for years now, breaking web forms when auto-entered. The mobile version refreshes specific contacts several times in a row to add no new content, preventing copy from working while it does so.
The MacOS Safari translation button appears on the left of the omni-bar, until you click it, at which point it instantly moves to the right and your click turns out to have been on the button that the left-side translation button had hidden. Deleting a selection of items from browsing history is limited to about 5 items per second, as it deletes one then rebuilds the entire list before deleting the next.
If I'm listening to a podcast on headpones and an alarm goes off, it doesn't play the alarm through my headphones, it plays on device speakers only.
Podcast app's "Up Next" is a magical mystery list that can't be disabled or guided.
The "Do Not Disturb" mode can be activated unexpectedly, leading to missed calls, and cannot be deleted.
Localisation is inconsistent at every level, including system share sheet and behaviour of decimal separators.
I could go on, but you get the point. Apple's quality control just isn't visible in the software at this point.
- criddell 10mo ago> The answer should not be negative, but the app says "-4". When I do those exact keypresses I get the correct answer.
- ben_w 10mo agoGood for you? The fact this happens on my versions of both MacOS and iOS means they didn't have automated tests covering this from day one. Famously, "it works for me" is not how high quality software happens.
- akerl_ 10mo agoIt seems basically impossible that math works differently on your calculator app than somebody else’s. Can you post a recording of what you’re seeing?
- burnerthrow008 10mo agoGood for me too? I get the correct answer when I type the keys, exactly as you specified. On both macOS and iOS
- vbezhenar 10mo agoWhen I do those exact keypresses I also get "-4".
- akerl_ 10mo agohttps://vimeo.com/1158134310?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci https://vimeo.com/1158134310?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci Can you show what you’re seeing?
- akerl_ 10mo ago> e.g. type this sequence into the calculator Works perfectly for me.
- toxik 10mo ago-4 makes sense if you understand that the input -2 is a unary minus operation. So typing -2 then hitting square only squares 2, not (-2). This is the same in eg Python so I'm not sure it's very controversial. I agree it's unexpected, though.
- well_ackshually 10mo ago"-4 makes sense if you consider that the calculator is so damn stupid it ignores every convention every single calculator has made in the past hundred years and instead copies behavior of a dumbass language" isn't exactly the praise you think it is.
- AshamedCaptain 10mo agoAt no point in the current expression you wrote "-", though. It may make sense that if you type [-] [2] [x^2] [=] then you get -(2²) = -4, but if your current answer is already -2, then tapping x² should result in (ans)^2 = (-2)^2 = 4. Splitting your current answer into a separate unary [-] as in - (2²) makes absolutely no sense. Most calculators, even CAS ones, simply get this always right. But sadly this is not the first "desktop" calculator that I see getting this completely wrong. And it makes some results outright wrong!
- ben_w 10mo agoI didn't enter -2, I calculated -2. The x² should have been taking x = (-2).
- ndriscoll 10mo agoPython gets it right: >>> 2-4 -2 >>> _**2 4
- bigstrat2003 10mo agoWhat? The person you're replying to isn't typing -2. He said explicitly what he is typing, and the result is unambiguously incorrect.
- quantum_magpie 10mo agoRegarding the calculator, I get the same -4 in Android, just checked. So they all suck..