I’ve read up on the calculator issue because I was wondering why Ubuntu Mate 15.04 comes with galculator instead of mate-calc.
So the MATE Desktop Team decided to discontinue mate-calc in favor of galculator for MATE 1.10, but that just doesn’t do it. On one hand galculator is broken (see here), on the other hand it hasn’t been updated since March 2014.
I’m also just too used to the way mate-calc / gnome-calculator displays what you enter (which is NOT the same as “Paper-Mode”!) and which galculator just does not offer (I wanted to provide a picture showing what I mean, but obviously I can’t add images here as a new user).
So my best bet it so replace galculator with gnome-calculator, or is there any other suitable alternative?
Galculator isn’t broken, it just implements that functionality differently. 112.5%1295 ; or using a more algebraic approach: 1295+(12.5%1295)
Galculator does have a notation mode that shows forumula entry so that it displays what you enter but if you prefer the way gnome-calculator displays what you enter, it is probably your best bet.
Otherwise, check out the other calculators available to Ubuntu to see what you like. Or just use the Google calculator - surely their privacy policy is rock-solid
Qualculate! comes closest in terms of performance ( it's GTK based, contrary to what name might suggest ), and it also displays what you enter, with history available ( like Galc paper mode ), but behaves almost the same as Mate/Gnome-calc:
However it works with percentage the same way Galculator does (y+x%y).
So if that is annoying to you, then, AFAIK, there is no (GTK) alternative to Mate/Gnome-calc.
I have tried gnome-calculator, but it’s GTK3-based now, and draws a strange rectangular border around the window. Is that a known problem with GTK3-bases apps in Ubuntu Mate?
I have just reinstalled Ubuntu Mate 15.04 and will try if I can accustom myself to galculator, simply because I don’t want to have more than one calculator installed (and trying to remove galculator also wants to remove the ubuntu-mate-desktop meta package).
Without seeing, I guess that's likelly a theme issue. Looks pretty normal over here, using Ambiant-MATE theme:
@galculator:
You can freely remove ubuntu-mate-desktop, it want cause any problems ( no packages marked for autoremoval afterwards etc. ).
[filip@vervet][~]$ apt-cache policy ubuntu-mate-desktop
ubuntu-mate-desktop: Installed: (none)
Candidate: 1.124
Version table:
1.124 0
500 Index of /ubuntu vivid/universe amd64 Packages
[filip@vervet][~]$
[filip@vervet][~]$ sudo apt-get autoremove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
[filip@vervet][~]$
Also, same is said in it's description:
[filip@vervet][~]$ apt-cache show ubuntu-mate-desktop
Package: ubuntu-mate-desktop
[snip]
Description-en: Ubuntu MATE - full desktop
This package is the Ubuntu MATE desktop environment.
. It is safe to remove this package if some of these packages are not desired.
Description-md5: 5591bb8caf8894d36b5f7458d5c8d1d1
[snip]
@Filip, I’m also using the Ambiant-MATE theme, but on a fresh Ubuntu Mate 15.04 installation with gnome-calculator (and it’s dependencies) added, there was a rectangular frame around it. Do you use compositing? Because I use Marco without any compositing, can that be the reason?
I know that removing the ubuntu-mate-desktop meta package does not remove anything else, but isn’t it the case that it’s responsible for incorporating application changes when upgrading to the next version of Ubuntu Mate?
Might be, although shouldn’t. Yes, I do use it.
I’m not on Ubuntu right now, but will try it later with composting off. [quote=“MasterOne, post:6, topic:1418”]
but isn’t it the case that it’s responsible for incorporating application changes when upgrading to the next version of Ubuntu Mate?
[/quote]
Amm, yes, I guess. However, you can always:
Install it back before upgrading to next Ubuntu,
Apply changes manually post upgrade ( install/remove what has changed ). Since it’s likelly that @Wimpy or other dev will inform users about dependency changes to “ubuntu-mate-desktop”, if there is to be any.
Well, thanks for the info, but too much hassle. It’s not a gnome-calculator specific problem, but affects all GTK3 apps (like deja-dup, same ugly border).
Interestingly that problem does not exist in Xubuntu 15.04, where I have disabled any compositing as well but all GTK3 apps (tested with gnome-calculator again) are shown correctly.
I don't want to use a compositor because my good old underpowered Acer Aspire One 753 just can't handle it.
In my ( Debian Jessie ) expirience, XFCE without compositing also “suffers”, albeit in a slightly less ugly way. You just get double window controls, that is, regular xfwm borders around CSD.
See here: http://i.imgur.com/nyOtGcwl.png
@Compositing
Quick google hit shows that it’s Intel HD Graphics ( arrandale ) & Celeron U3400 inside that Acer.
If that’s correct, then I’d say, that atleast on the graphics side, it shold not be underpowered at all.
Did you try Compton, using GL backend?
Some info here.
@Filip, I don’t know, it always felt like if the Intel GMA i915 was not powerful enough, causing sluggish window movement and such. I have connected a second screen (1920x1200) to that little netbook and use both screens. Before I started looking for something lighter (and without compositing) I had Ubuntu 14.04 running on that machine, but it simply was not up to the task (and I don’t really like Unity).
I don’t know about Compton, but I am currently playing around with Compiz. Window movement is not that bad, but resizing is. Keeping an eye on the system monitor I can see no impact on CPU. Compiz surely is way more advanced than Marco, and the Compiz config manager offers quite some possibilities. Curious why the Compiz config manager is not installed by default.
Oposite here, I don’t know much about Compiz, since I haven’t really used it, but it definitely is much heavier then Compton.
However I do know first hand that Compton can do a great job on low-end hardware.
I’m happily using it with LXDE on an ancient Athlon XP @2GHz & Radeon 9600Pro. At worst, your Intel HD is about the same as that Radeon in terms of performance.
Anyway, you can try it without extensive configuration and stuff. Just install it, make sure that Compiz/Compositing is disabled in Mate Settings/Tweaks, and run it from terminal. Then try moving windows, min/max, fullscreen, play videos etc…
Repeat with both backends to see which is faster ( monitor the CPU as well ):
compton
compton --backend glx
For me, on the Radeon mentioned above, it’s about as quick with XRender (default) as it is with GLX. However, GLX causes a much lower CPU usage ( almost none at all to be precise ).
All in all, silky smooth, proper transparency, proper CSD = me happy.
On the other hand, Unity (compiz) is having a hard time on that machine. Chokes on the CPU side mostly, so maybe GPU is sufficient, but like you, I don’t like unity, so didn’t bother to try and tweak/optimize…
@Filip, I just tried compton with both backends on plain Marco but window movement was very jolting, way worse than with compiz. This is very strange, because I just recently gave Crunchbang Plus Plus a test run, which also uses compton, and everything was super smooth with it, way better than with compiz.
But I really like to keep it simple, best overall results are still without any compositing, so I’m back to plain Marco now. I even kicked the idea of using gnome-calculator in favor of galculator in paper mode. Currently I have no GTK3 apps in use that use client side decorations, except deja-dup, which I will look into when I have some time.
Are there any plans to fix that issue in Marco, or will using a compositor stay the only solution for that problem?
I agree with MasterOne: galculator is crappy compared to gnome-calculator.
I was using gnome-calculator in an older Ubuntu distribution, which despite having a very simple and intuitive layout proved to be very powerful, and allowed me to carry out extremely fast and flexible calculations of serious stuff. But I’ve been struggling trying to make something out of galculator since I decided to change to Ubuntu Mate (16.04 LTS).
I’ve now just decided to give up and install gnome-calculator but I’d like to make the point anyway, because I think it’s a pity that users feel they end up with worse default applications when they change to Mate.
It’s not only the fact of seeing the formula that you write on the screen by default that is missing, but it’s also that with gnome-calculator I could “undo” and indefinite number of times to go back to the previous formulas I entered, then just change a little something using the keyboard or copy/paste commands from my own text files, and then enter again to compute the result with the new variation of the formula.
I’ve checked galculator’s “Formula Entry” notation mode as suggested in this post, but it has nothing to do:
Ok, I can see the formula I entered, but there’s no easy way to modify it to make the calculation again. I cannot use the keyboard to enter numbers or signs in the middle of the formula, I have to use the number buttons (forcing me to use the mouse) or paste things.*
After a long time fiddling with the thing, I accidentally realised that pressing “Bloq Num” a few (a non-consistent number of) times, often unblocked the inability of entering numbers either from the Main Keypad or from the Number Keypad (sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes both, and sometimes the numbers would be activated but not the signs). However, galculator goes back to blocking keyboard entry again when it’s started the next time. After discovering this I’ve assumed that is possibly a bug, but still the reality in this moment is that I can’t count on being able to easily modify the formulas and that new users will probably assume that this is just not possible with this application.
I cannot copy and paste the formula somewhere else.
It doesn’t allow me to access the formulas of previous calculations. With gnome-calculator I can either Ctrl+Z or double clic from the list on top, and I instantly get them on the main window ready to be changed and computed again.
There’s no 1/x button, which means that I haven’t been able to do this operation easily since then (I’m sure/hope that there is indeed a way to do this fast with galculator, but it’s certainly not intuitive which is not good either).
I cannot modify in any notation mode a digit of a long result to then use this new number and continue operating with it subsequently. I have to reenter the whole result manually in order to do so.
You cannot write words into the calculator. This may seem stupid but it is in fact very useful because I could write in the calculator the name of whatever magnitude was missing and just change it afterwards before the actual calculation. For short calculations this doesn’t matter, but for complicated formulas which I pasted from text documents into the calculator this was extremely useful because I could have the generic formula stored and then I could simply paste it and change one particular parameter.
The result number is “whited out” when is selected to copy it somewhere else, which makes it harder to just select the digits you’re interested on, because you only see the part you don’t want.
I’ve just read in this thread that Mate Calc is now available, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find the package in the repositories through synaptic (gcalctool points to gnome-calculator). Is gnome-calculator the same thing as Mate Calc or how can I install it?
MATE Calculator has made a come back in MATE 1.18 and is included in Ubuntu MATE 17.04 ️ I missed the built-in live currency conversion, glad to have it back.
[quote=“MasterOne, post:6, topic:1418”]
️ I missed the built-in live currency conversion, glad to have it back.