New KAlgebra and Material Design on KDE Android apps

[Aleix Pol]

On Sun, Nov 1, 2015 at 1:13 AM, Thomas Pfeiffer <thomas.pfeiffer at kde.org> wrote:
> On Sunday 01 November 2015 00:58:20 you wrote:
>> > Related to KAlgebra in particular:
>> > - The field where the formula is entered is much too small. It the most
>> > important element in the console screen, but it's tiny and hard to hit.
>>
>> Fair enough, I'll look into fixing it. Do you think it's the same
>> problem for 2D and 3D plots?
>
> Well, they do /look/ a bit bigger there, but yes, they should be quite a bit
> bigger there as well, since they're equally important there.
They aren't. OTOH I'm thinking about adding a global button that shows
a dialog to add a plot, rather than having the icon embedded. What do
you think?

>
>> > - There is a "Go" button in Value Table, whereas in all other screens, the
>> > return button starts the calculation/drawing
>>
>> I guess the question here is "where should I press enter to run the
>> value table?".
>
> Indeed. I must admit I haven't found a good solution yet, just wanted to point
> out the inconsistency.
>
>> > - When Graph 2D or Graph3D are opened, the edit field is filled with a
>> > formula, but the graph is not drawn until one goes into the edit field and
>> > presses return. This is confusing.
>>
>> I see, the idea there
>
> Could you just have the function in the box drawn when opening the screen,
> even though it was not submitted by the user?
I'm unsure I follow here.

>
>> > - The "Variables" screen has several problems:
>> >   - All I can see there are constants, no variables
>> >   - I have no idea what this screen is for
>>
>> Yeah, needs some work I guess. The idea is that there's global
>> variables that are available throughout the application and this view
>> can present it.
>
> They're still constants, though ;)
Until you change them.

>
>> >   - I ave no idea what some of those constants (e.g. f457) are for
>>
>> Functions are also global variables.
>
> What benefit is there in entering f457 instead of 2*x ?
The undeveloped idea is that you should be able to even rename them
(and save them between sessions). So if you have an f:=x**2+y**2, you
can plot it both in 2d and 3d as well as operate it from the console.

>
>> >   - As far as I know, ":=" is not correct mathematical notation, it would
>> >   just>
>> > be "="
>> :
>> := is assignation, = is boolean equality.
>
> I know that's the case in programming, but is it also the case in maths? I may
> be wrong here, in which case you can simply ignore this. I just have never
> seen := in any math book, only in programming books.

Yes, there's a fundamental difference. x=2 will return a boolean, x:=2
is just a top-level-statement.

>
>> > I hope this if helpful!
>> >
>> > Apart from these issues, both the Material Design components and KAlgebra
>> > are already quite impressive. Great work you guys!
>> :
>> :D Thanks to you for spending the time!
>
> Sure, it's what I do :)
>
>