What does HackerNews think of calculator?

Windows Calculator: A simple yet powerful calculator that ships with Windows

Language: C++

#18 in C++
#11 in C#
#34 in Windows
#6 in Windows
> "despite not significantly changing in functionality since Windows 3.11."

Here you can run Win 3.1 in a VM in your browser with a click: https://copy.sh/v86/?profile=windows31 and Calculator is in accessories. Make sure to put it in View -> Scientific mode for a full comparison.

Now launch Windows 10 Calculator, you'll see that it is resizable, Win 3.1 calulator can only be minimised. Win 10 shows Unicode characters like Pi, square root, superscript exponentials, Win 3.1 shows them as "x^y" and the letters "PI".

Win 3.1 has a memory. Win 10 has a history log of calculations done, a scrollable editable copyable history and clicking on the entries brings them back to do again.

Win 3.1 has a bug where (2.01 - 2 == 0), Win 10 has that fixed.

Win 3.1 has normal and scientific mode, Win 10 has normal, scientific, date calculation, multiple unit converters, equation graphing with customisable theme, zoomable scrollable live updating high quality, themeable graph.

Win 10 integrates with the Windows contacts in some way to let you share graphed equations with other people. Currency conversion pulls currencies and live rates from the internet.

Win 10 has Programmer mode which does base conversion, logic gates, bit shifting, bitwise number representation with click-to-toggle-bits for entry and viewing.

Win 3.1 calculator is a binary blob, Win 10 calculator is open source MIT licensed on GitHub https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator

I didn't get a chance to use the new calculator yet (I usually use Linux. Windows 11 changes make it unlikely I'll 'upgrade' a VM). Is it this one?

https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator

I could see how someone would get that impression If they've only worked at companies who only exist solely to light VC cash on fire.

It's an incorrect impression, obviously.

For >20 year old code, Calc.exe is just one example off the top of my head - https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator

The majority of the products I've personally worked on over my 15 year career in software development are still doing useful things and contain code written more than 20 years ago.

I am not sure if it is what you are looking for, but the calculator is now open source under the MIT license https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator

As a recall, making notepad is like a homework assignment for a visual basic class. You just drag the text editor window and add the menus, there isn't a whole lot there!

Paint would probably be a bit more work, but there are a few clones out there already

It meant that simple and useful utility like calc became a visually bloated app with sluggish UX.

That's an excellent example. A calculator does not need a loading screen, nor should it take over a second to start on any remotely modern machine. Fortunately MS have released the source, so you can see for yourself just how much bloat there is:

https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator

To compare, you can also see the source of the old "classic" calculator from Windows 2000 here:

https://github.com/pustladi/Windows-2000/tree/661d000d50637e...

That said, Windows CE was an attempt "to unify the UX", being basically a subset of Win32, and that didn't cause anywhere near the same level of disgust, so I'd attribute the bloat more to the cruft of "modern practices" than anything else.