Sequoia Calculator Paper Tape Gone?

It should be noted that built-in apps on any OS are not typically full blown applications. They have always been considered demonstrations of what you can do as a developer. At the same time these tools can be quite useful. It's shame when such tools are further dumbed down.

There are quite a few posts about the changes made to Calculator in Sequoia. The old paper tape is gone in favor of History. Press ⌃ + ⌘ + S or click the View menu and click Show History. There are a few other 'problems' that users have encountered with the updated calculator. It feels like the iPad Calculator was ported to macOS. That was likely due to the new Apple Math features which were apparently built on iPadOS first. Hopefully, Apple will listen to feedback and add back the paper tape and revert the behavior back. Until that happens many users may wish to seek out alternatives.

Spotlight can perform advanced calculations and Notes added Math capabilities. Worth looking into in my opinion.

Apple Spotlight Math

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHGe7PP_ydE

Apple Math Notes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IPGlt98eOE

⚠︎ RECOMMENDED: There is also the 3rd party PCalc App on the App Store which meets all the same standards as the original Apple macOS Calculator but on steroids with many additional nice to have features. This is what I recommend to those daily users of macOS Calculator unhappy with the changes Apple made to the Calculator App.

If you are a hardcore mathematician you probably aren't using the Calculator app. You'll likely be using a Jupyter notebook, Pluto or Mathematica or Emacs Org-Mode and if you need a quick advanced calculation you might use Emacs Calc.

Emacs Calc was heavily influenced by the HP-28S calculator.

Emacs Calculator screenshot shown below is using the Emacs Casual package to provide the help menu displayed. The author of the Casual packages is building out these transient help screens across several features in Emacs. This is because the keybindings are difficult to remember for infrequently used features. Casual just gives you a quick reference to help you remember.

To be clear, I am not recommending Emacs Calc to novices nor anyone not already versed with Emacs. Emacs is a complicated beast but it is mind-blowing powerful. It is odd and strange because 50 years ago the mouse didn't exist and most keyboards didn't have arrow keys. At the same time, full screen editing was entirely new. Previously you edited line by line on a teletype machine (typewriter connected to mainframe via serial cable). Emacs has continued to evolve and it's been keeping pace with VS Code and other popular editors. The big advantage to Emacs is that you are entirely free to change Emacs behavior yourself. You can change and override EVERYTHING. You make Emacs your own tool to fit your own needs.

History

Emacs used to be built-in on macOS. There are many Emacs keybindings that work all over macOS beyond the Terminal readline interface. This is because macOS Is derived from NeXT and the developers built their next generation OS using Emacs. If you want to try out Emacs, the most favored distribution is Emacs-Plus for macOS. It can be installed via Homebrew. Run through the built-in tutorial a few times as you are learning. Read this beginners guide, consider buying the awesome Mastering Emacs eBook from the same site. Read the built-in Emacs Manual and Introduction to Programming Emacs Lisp. Emacs has some of the best documentation I've ever come across. Elisp is not difficult and MIT department secretaries were doing it 30 years ago and they didn't know it was programming. You don't need to be a programmer nor a math wiz. There are lots of people using Emacs and they are not in a technical field. For example, several authors write all their books in Emacs and have been doing so for decades. Emacs is one heck of a rabbit hole that is worth exploring if one is so inclined. But it does take the commitment of reading and learning and if you can touch type without looking at your hands, you can go extremely fast in Emacs. Emacs is an ongoing continuous learning experience. It's been 40 years and I still discover stuff I didn't know.

RandyCGNW wrote:

I 100% agree with you! Calculator remains open throughout my work day and I've always kept the paper tape open. At first I was thinking I had a stroke and could no longer remember the key command to open the tape... So annoying Apple! #bringbackthetape

Apple doesn't read here in this user-to-user forum for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Not sure if this works on Apple Silicon, but worked flawlessly on 2019 Intel iMac & Sequoia.

Simply dig out the Calculator.app from previous MacOS version, seems any earlier than Calculator Version 11 will work fine.

I tried Calculator versions 10.15.4 from Catalina & 10.16 Ventura, all worked a treat

I have been using the notes app instead e.g type in

'4427.84+29.4+18+189.13+1.55+45.47+58.88+240+28.5 ='

then enter

the total will appear in yellow' 5,038.77'

if you press enter again it will jump to the next line

it is kind of similar to paper tape in calculator but yes I agree I like the paper tape in calculator more than the history that has replaced as the history is too small so you can't see all the numbers you typed in

hope the above helps

This is the most annoying and pointless destruction of a functional app in memory. It is as if Apple had someone with no practical use experience destroy the functionality of the interface for no reason beyond busywork. Now I have to find a usable app that shows a column-format paper tape, SINCE THAT IS WHAT IS NEEDED WHEN ONE IS ADDING FIGURES. Jeez.

Philip_Smith_Books wrote:

This is the most annoying and pointless destruction of a functional app in memory. It is as if Apple had someone with no practical use experience destroy the functionality of the interface for no reason beyond busywork. Now I have to find a usable app that shows a column-format paper tape, SINCE THAT IS WHAT IS NEEDED WHEN ONE IS ADDING FIGURES. Jeez.

Maybe the Apple calculator isn’t the right one for you. That’s why there’s an App Store. It meets my needs perfectly, and for me is an improvement. Believe it or not, there are people in the world who don’t have the same needs or opinions that you do.

You are going to get some kick back here but hold strong. Apple didn’t do right here and when some complain there are a few that will tell you to use the App Store. The point is, it was a good app, now it’s meager. Too bad for us who liked it the way it was. 😉

MattBeef wrote:

Bottom Line: Apple could have implemented "the new user interface" while still leaving the tried & true (and elegant) Paper Tape as an option.

Apple could do a lot of things that they don't do. All you can do is submit feedback letting them know your thoughts:

Product Feedback - Apple

The reality is Apple will never be able to please everyone all the time. That's why there are third-party apps.

m4ry4nnd wrote:

For me, I could 'print' out the Paper Tape (as pdf) and have it accepted by business office, same as a real paper tape on a stack of receipts.

That's nice. Tell Apple it's something you'd like them to put back:

Product Feedback - Apple

Joann Kibbe wrote:

I would not have upgraded had I known they would destroy this simple app! Paper Tape was so needed!!

You can let Apple know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Have you tried going to View>Show History? It's not quite the same but it seems to work for some people.

Also, there are lots of calculator apps in the App Store that have always been better than the built in one. PCalc is frequently recommended. It's not free but good software usually isn't.

You're welcome. If I had to guess I think the Paper Tape function was done away with because of the new Math Notes function. Just a suspicion.

eduard-z wrote:

PLEASE bring back the old calculator!

Click the Feedback link in the post above yours.

Agreed! I need the paper tape. if you try to add up too many numbers, they are not all displayed. I'm going to remove Calculator from my dock and then go straight to the App Store to download PCalc.