If you're using OS X, try using Spotlight or Alfred directly (Keypirinha[0] is a reasonable Windows alternative) - just type in `1 + 2` and you get the answer without launching a special app. There are plugins for conversions as well.

[0]. https://keypirinha.com/

Windows also has Powertoys Run https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/run

There are of course a bunch of third party apps and I've used many of them across multiple OS.

Spotlight correctly interprets numerical expressions, but it also treats them as search queries for the entire filesystem, resulting in an expensive retrieval process after every keystroke. It's the most convenient, so I use it anyways, but the end result is that cpu starts to overheat for a query as simple as 1 + 2.

I turn everything except calculator (and settings menu) off, so this problem goes away.

I never really want to use spotlight to browse to some random directory or file on my filesystem, for me it's strictly for calculator and opening the Bluetooth settings...

Think Alfred may be more efficient here, since I've never noticed that issue at all.

Using Alfred (with powerpack) is like having gills while living underwater. It's hard to get the scuba divers of the world to switch since they are so invested in their myriad gear and it's so difficult to convey the value prop when you haven't experienced it.

I keep hearing about Alfred, and frankly I don't know why but I'm missing the reasons why so many people rave about it. I've tried it only once, a while ago, and perhaps I wasn't in the right mood to appreciate it.

Does anyone here uses it, and can ELI5 to me why Alfred is so good?

My personal highlights from using it:

- you can control your whole machine with it, so I don't have to use mouse anymore for - sleep/shut down/volume/

- extra indexing for folders/documents/images

- web search in different sites (gmail/wiki/amazon,....)

- clipboard history

- snippets (ascii art for luls ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, but most importantly I use this for script snippets I need to use in some UIs/ when I'm remote in some vim session in some server

- workflow - MS ToDo implementation, quick little things like switch off wifi, set dns to 1.1.1.1/unset, ...

- least but not last, never had a problem with db update beeing stuck on indexing and taking 150% CPU like with spotlight

Interesting. Thanks for sharing it. You just re-ignited my desire to try it out again :)

Mainly the fact it's extensible. If you have something you do commonly do you can set up a shortcut for it. I use it a lot at work for quickly jumping to specific pages of internal websites, or converting hex codes to decimal. It also replaces spotlight.

Some examples that you can just install without writing your own: https://www.alfredapp.com/workflows/

I love Alfred, also for this reason.

These days, DuckDuckGo is my go to calculator. I can type math and conversions and get the answer. And if I don’t, I do the !wa bang and let Wolfram Alpha handle it.

Note well that in the default config, it transmits everything you type into this box across the network to Apple, keystroke by keystroke.

I wish you could paste from history when doing math with alfred (where the pasting is also fro alfred). That's my only complaint with alfred's calculation capabilities.

I always use spotlight this way (it's almost the only way I use spotlight), but it unfortunately covers up a ton of the screen while you use it.

Chrome will do math in the URL bar.

Only if your default search engine is Google and with autocomplete turned on I think.

I've found programs such as SpeedCrunch[0] to be extremely more comfortable to use than calculators imitating "classic" designs.

[0] https://speedcrunch.org/

Speedcrunch is one of the apps that I always keep open. I just alt+ab to it when I need something and do some quick operations with the numerical keyboard and it's able to handle stuff for programming and CS in general.

Looks like improved version of CCalc

Excel is the secret calculator app that you’ve been dreaming about.

There's always a REPL close by for users that are technical enough.

I used `bc` for years and years

On the Commodore 64 the OS was a REPL and ? was shorthand for PRINT, therefore you could type `? 2+2` and you would get the result printed.

This felt so intuitive to me that ever since, I’ve ensured my machines had ? do calculations in the shell (by aliasing it to whatever could do math).

I didn’t even know there’s a calculator app on macOS. I simply write formulas into Spotlight, and if I need history or variables or anything serious I launch an Octave prompt.

The built-in macOS calculator also has scientific and progamming modes, and even RPN.

There's also Grapher, macOS built-in equation plotter.

The calculator also has clickable bits in programming mode. Can be handy.

I used to have an amazing calculator in Windows XP/7 called powertoy calc. It was so simple to use and had amazing powerful features too. Huge help while I was in engineering college.

This is why I still use bc