About Calcutype

Calcutype, version 0.96
Written 2008-2009 by William Condon, with Dr. Gary Bishop (Email: gb@cs.unc.edu)
Note: JavaScript must be enabled to use this program!
This program is still under development... any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

JavaScript is not properly enabled in your browser!

Getting Started

You should probably begin at the options page, which lets you set certain features before beginning. You only need to visit the options page once - afterwards, you can bookmark that particular version of the typer in your browser's bookmarks list. From the options page, you can proceed to either fill out an existing form or write your own document. Unfortunately, only plain text is supported at the moment - that is, no italics, bold face, or different text sizes.

To proceed directly to the program with default settings, click here to fill out an existing form or write your own document.

SUPPORTED BROWSERS: CalcuType is known to work in Firefox 3.0.4 and Internet Explorer 7. The new document version also seems to work in Epiphany (version not known), and Google Chrome 1.0.154.46. However, we strongly recommend that (if possible) you get the free Firefox web browser.

Typing

Every key on the keyboard works as normal, except for three keys I had to disable to support the virtual keyboard. That is, if you're able to use a keyboard normally, you may. Alternatively, every letter and digit, the normal four operators ("+", "-", "*", "/"), the equals sign, the carriage return, and many other symbols are in the virtual keyboard.

Also, clicking on any key in the virtual keyboard is equivalent to selecting it with the special keys.

Word Completion

Word completion is still in a fairly primitive state right now. We're riding off a list of the 10000 most commonly used words in the Project Gutenberg electronic books, taken from Wiktionary. To this is added a list of the 570 word families which were selected because they appear with great frequency in a broad range of academic texts, also taken from Wictionary. Basically, the program automatically puts into memory the first three words in the list whose first letters match what you're typing.

You can tell CalcuType to automatically suggest a certain word whenever you type an abbreviation. For example, to have CalcuType suggest English whenever you type en, type:
en="English"

Click here to add your own words to the word list. (CalcuType must be downloaded to your local computer to use this feature.)

Math Support

Whenever you type a valid mathematical expression, the program will automatically put into memory the answer. For example, if you type 3+4, the first memory slot will read =7. It supports anything that JavaScript supports:

• The "basic four" operations: addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division.
• Parentheses
• The modulus operator, %.
  • Gives remainder when the first number is divided by the second number.
  • For example, 5%2 yields 1.
• Pi
• Exponents. For example, 2^10 yields 1024.
• The trig functions, sin(θ), cos(θ), tan(θ), asin(x), acos(x), and atan(x)
• Euler's Number, e
• Natural logs (ln(x))
• Common logarithms (log(x)). Note: Due to JavaScript not containing this function, results might not be exact.
• Factorials(x!)
• Square roots (sqrt(x))
• Variables, if explicitly defined before used.
  • For example, X=5 X-3 will bring up =2, but X-3=2 X will NOT bring up =5, because X has not been explicitly defined.
  • Variables can be any word and have any number of letters.
  • Variables are case-sensitive: A is different from a.
• Many other functions, as part of the JavaScript Math library. For example, to get the absolute value of x, type Math.abs(x).
• Actually, you could probably write entire JavaScript programs in this... if you have keyboard access; the virtual keyboard doesn't contain the {} keys required to do functions and loops.

Special Symbols

π	The Greek letter pi. The ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Approximately
	Advance the cursor to the next box in the form.
	Load a new form.
	Backspace. (Deletes the last letter you typed.)
	Backspace through word. (Deletes everything between the cursor and the last space before the cursor.)
	Carriage return. (Equivalent to pressing 'enter' in a normal text editor.)
	Moves the cursor backward one letter.
	Moves the cursor forward one letter.
	Moves the cursor backward one word.
	Moves the cursor forward one word.
	Turns caps lock on or off. When caps lock is on, the virtual keyboard types capital letters; when caps lock is off, it types lowercase letters.
	The 'shift' key, with 'sticky keys' turned on. The next letter pressed on the virtual keyboard after pressing this will be a capital letter.
[store	Stores the last word before the cursor in memory (that is, stores everything between the cursor and the last space before the cursor).
	Copies what you've written into a new file, ready to be saved on your local computer. You must be connected to the Web to use this.

Copying

We'd love for you to use this code, or any part of it, in any way you want. Please help us help people! Of course, we'd appreciate if you let us know and allow other people to do the same with your code, but we aren't forcing you to do that.

To download CalcuType to your computer, including source code, please go to our project's page on Google Code. Have fun!