SUMMARY *** There are no less than 5 diffrerent bug reports of people not being able to find a square root key. This is MY report of BAD UX because this should not over the course of the products lifetime contribute to ANY bug reports of a missing square root key. 75571 kcalc general eteran RESO DUPL There is no square root button 2014-10-15 78052 kcalc general eteran RESO DUPL square root button required 2004-03-20 277674 kcalc general eteran RESO WORK There is no square root button 2018-02-22 435951 kcalc general eteran RESO NOT Square root √ button and function apparrently missing 2021-04-22 253542 kcalc general eteran RESO NOT there is not sqrt button 2010-10-07 *** STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Open kcalc 2. switch to scientific mode 3. expect to see all the useful operations, and not have them be hidden behind an ambiguous "shift" button. OBSERVED RESULT 12 buttons change. The entire left column, and M+ now becomes M- EXPECTED RESULT SHOW ALL THE USEFUL FUNCTIONS AND NOT BEHIND A "SHIFT" BUTTON WHICH IS AMBIGUOUS AND DOES NOT EXPLAIN "EXTRA FEATURES" "EXTRA BUTTON FUNCTIONS" etc. its JUST SHIFT. Why do I need shift? I never have used shift on a calculator before. I've seen "2nd function" on a calculator. "2nd" not "SHIFT". Rename the button "2nd function" to imply there may be something "behind" the visible but not useful to me (trying to find sqrt) buttons present by default. ADD some sort of "extra text" 'around' the buttons, to imply a secondary feature, like Texas Instruments does: https://education.ti.com/en/products/calculators/scientific-calculators/ti-36x-pro Notice how every button with a "2nd function" has BLUE TEXT above it, and THE 2ND FUNCTION BUTTON IS BLUE TOO. THIS is an example of GOOD, INTUITIVE, AND HONESTLY IN 2022 THE EXPECTED WAY UX ON A CALCULATOR SHOULD BE. NOT a button that "can't be found"(missing sqrt by default) NOT a word (shift) that "means very little, and borderline does not mean what it does unless the context of 'buttons can do something else' is enumerated at ANY point, which it ISN'T". SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS This has been a problem since 2004 apparently. It does not matter what version im using, since all bugs to closed as "not a bug/wontfix" so no fixes have ever been committed. But for what its worth, Ubuntu 22.04 Plasma 5.24.6 Frameworks 5.95.0
Yeah this is mimicking a real-world calculator where there's limited physical space, which is not really necessary on a computer.
Evan, can we update the UI? This seems to be a recurrent complaint, certainly sqrt button should not be hidden behind a shift press, not in favor of functions like x^3 for example.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 471088 ***
First of all, I'm not certain why my bug was closed as a duplicate of a much less detailed bug one year later. I believe that one should have been closed instead. Second, the resolution to promote square root still does not address the UX issue of not understanding what 'shift' implies. The shift button should have some special text styling or button background color that is different from every other button. Perhaps Italicized and a different color for example. At the very least a different color. Then, every single button that is affected by the shift should have superscript text, perhaps italicized, But definitely the same color as chosen for the shift button, that displays what the secondary feature of the button is. I linked a descriptive picture of a TI-36 calculator previously in this bug that denotes how its second function key has the different color and the text on the buttons denotes both features, one being the italicized feature. It does however appear that Casio calls their second function button the shift key like K-Calc. I have never owned a Casio calculator and only today decided to start looking at Texas instruments's competition. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Casio_algebra_fx_2.0_plus.PNG shows how Casio has a shift button that is orange and superscript text above every shiftable function button that shows its secondary function. Instead of hiding behind an opaque layer change for the button, or entire text replacement, I don't know how it is done, both values somehow need to be displayed on the button. Concurrently. While it does currently mimic casio's naming, I also still think that the naming of shift is ambiguous even with UX contextual clue improvements, so renaming to 'second function' '2nd func' something like that, might also be very helpful.
Adding small labels on top of every button sounds like polluting the UI way too much, is the Windows calculator doing it? We could change the "Shift" label to "2nd" but is that really better?