Allow user to choose last command history operation mode

[Joseph Doucette]

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 374

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. type 123+456 and press enter
2. type 246+468 and press enter
3. press up

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

You should see the last input.
Instead you see the 2nd to last input.
Think of how a command line like DOS works.  Pressing up retrieves the last command.
 By placing it already there with no effort, pressing up retrieves the 2nd to last
command.  Pressing up is not a hard thing, and it is an intuitive thing to do for retrieval.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?

v0.10.1
Windows Vista

Please provide any additional information below.

You may contact me:
Jason Doucette
[e-mail]

Reported by jdoucette on 2011-03-22 19:25:23

[Former user]

``` Jason, I don't really qualify this as a bug. The reason is that when you press Enter, you get the last expression already in the edit line, all selected, so that when you type il will be totally erased. Thus, the right thing to do when you press Up is to show the 2nd last expression. ```

Reported by `helder.pereira.correia` on 2011-03-25 06:58:47

[Joseph Doucette]

``` Hi there. Thanks for replying.

I understand that it's implemented in this way, and isn't viewed as a bug, since it's "by design". But it's a user interface issue, about intuitive design, and in that sense, because the product doesn't act as expected, it is a (UI) bug. And UI is a tricky thing, since the developer uses the product as he programmed it, so it works as expected, but the user uses it as it is expected based on other programs, and that can be two different things... My standpoint is that for command lines (which includes all other calculators I have ever used), you don't automatically get the last line, you get an empty line. So pressing up gives you the most recent line typed. I do this so often, and your product doesn't give me what I expect. And to be honest, this gets me every single time I use this.

(In fact, seeing the most recent line after I already am finished it seems a little awkward, as though there was something wrong. Not everyone is used to seeing a form already fill and highlighted such that typing erases it. I get that it is done for convenience, but it's trying to guess that you intend to do something with the line you just typed, and this is not the case in the vast majority of cases.)

Thus my argument is not that the program acts differently than its intended programming. My argument is that the program doesn't act in the same manner as every other command line and every other calculator available, and thus responds in a way other than expected for everyone other than the programmer. ```

Reported by `jdoucette` on 2011-03-25 13:55:14

[Former user]

``` I would like to join this discussion.

I very much like the history as it is implemented in SpeedCrunch. This is one of the things that makes it so fast to use.

I regularly use a Unix shell as well as windows cmd prompt and this implementation doesn't trip me up (am I strange that I can make the context switch in my mind?). I can understand how this can be a confusion for people who are well acquainted with a shell environment, but my opinion is that this is a well-justified deviation from what is normal.

Just 2 cents from another user to add balance to the discussion. ```

Reported by `ryjobil` on 2011-12-16 18:02:51

[Former user]

``` I'm always up for giving the user the choice, and as such I think I will add a preference that the user can customize to his taste. ```

Reported by `helder.pereira.correia` on 2011-12-17 04:16:34 - Status changed: `Accepted` - Labels added: Type-Enhancement, Priority-High, OpSys-All, Milestone-0.11, Component-UI, Usability

[Joseph Doucette]

``` Just a quick note:

I'm not sure if this is a cross platform product or not, but the Windows version of it should conform to the now intuitive standards of Windows/DOS user interface. The different OS's are different, and they cannot be built in the same manner. One thing that works well on MacOS doesn't work well in Windows, and likely looks silly in Linux. I recommend, strongly, that on the platform the product is built on, that it should use the user interface standards of that platform.

Jason Doucette ```

Reported by `jdoucette` on 2011-12-17 08:13:06

[Former user]

Implemented in e109f5b3c9.

Reported by helder.pereira.correia on 2012-12-14 02:35:53 - Status changed: Fixed