New Calculla

New Calculla

What you are now looking at is the new, completely redesigned Calculla.
We call it Calculla v2. ("V" stands for "version")

The old stuff: where is old Calculla v1 ?

The "old" Calculla (v1) is still available through this link: v1.calculla.com
All the old calculators on v1 should still work as they worked before, as we simply don't touch them anymore - they are left as they are for archival purposes. Feel free to use these if v2 is not what you want for some reasons.

The new Calculla: why, when...

Reasons: a bit of history

Calculla v1 was created and published in 2008 with just 2 calculators.

In 2015 we crossed the number of 70 calculators. The old school "menu" style way of finding calculators was good for 10-20 of them, but for 70+ it was just hard to find anything. We needed to re-design the layout and introduce the "search" functionality based on keywords.

We also wanted to add more "life" to the calculators: allow users to comment on them, make some form of discussions (chat) next to them. We wanted to create calculators that are bit more advanced: working on large data sets (connecting to databases), showing stuff realtime (weather, stock exchange, currencies) and sharable (permalinks to calculators with filled in inputs).

Another reason was that Calculla v1 was designed for desktops. In 2008 the mobile browsing wasn't that important thing. In 2015 it is a must. We needed to redesign the site to be mobile friendly.

Reasons: some technical stuff

Maintaining all the existing code was becoming hard, as the engine was written in PHP, but the calculators themselves was JavaScript code. We wanted to implement more advanced features where the code was written twice (for server and for browser) and the client-server interaction was harder to maintain. The node.js in 2015 was mature enough to just go for it, and have shared code between server and browser.

The Calculla V2 features and qualities

Obvious: The new calculla should be better than V1 :)

The V2 goals: completed

  • All calculators from old Calculla have been ported to v2.
  • It loads a lot faster.
  • It is Single Page Application (SPA), so browsing experience is a lot better.
  • It looks good on mobiles/tablets.
  • It has pleasant navigation:
    • top navigation belt - to allow quick jump "up" in hierarchy of sub-pages
    • keyword based search - to find calculators easily
    • easy switch between "current calculator" and "calculator search" - the yellow part is for searching and switching calculators, while the black part is for the calculator itself
  • All calculator inputs show errors (like "incorrect number") in unified way (which simply looks good and practical)
  • It uses modern technologies: websockets, webGL, node.js, JavaScript ES6

The V2 goals: near future

  • Still some of the calculators look less tidy than it was on Calculla v1 - we need more work on the look and feel
  • Even better navigation (especially on mobiles), we crossed 100 calculators - this needs good "find me what I want" features
  • User comments, discussions, forum
  • Permalinks (partially working now !) and "remember" features - to allow sharing or storing data inside calculators
  • Switchable "Pro view" mode - with smaller fonts and more dense layout. This is to be used by pro desktop users - those who care for efficient use of the screen pixels
  • Symbolic math - many calculators don't make much sense when done just on numbers. We need to add symbols (like pi, 1/3 etc.) to allow full math on them.
  • Charts, graphs etc. - we are working to utilize SVG and webGL features to show users cool visuals
  • More and more calculators !
  • More charts, visulalisations, better graphics

The V2 goals: far plans

  • In far future, we would like to allow more "democracy" in the process of creating calculators. Maybe some voting system to prioritize features (somehow based on "trust point" - like on Stack-Overflow). Possibly allow users to implement their own code, either private or public. Wikipedia and github are our inspirations.
  • Please tell us if you have some good ideas !
JavaScript failed !
So this is static version of this website.
This website works a lot better in JavaScript enabled browser.
Please enable JavaScript.