Calculator is an application in Mac OS X that helps in performing any kind of mathematical calculation, which includes the basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, or the complicated trigonometric calculations, or the programmer level calculations like Binary, ASCII, Unicode included calculations.

There are 3 types of views –

• Basic
• Scientific
• Programmer

Basic view – For the very basic and normal calculations. This opens as default for the first time, and you can open it through (Command + 1) keyboard shortcut, and here is the view of the basic version of calculator –

Scientific view – For the scientific calculations. This includes opening and closing of parenthetical expressions, percentages calculation, raising the value by squares and cubes, reciprocating the values, calculation of sines, cosines, tangents, log bases etc.
This view can be opened by (Command + 2) keyboard shortcut and this is the view of Scientific version of the calculator –

Programmer view – This view helps in programming calculations. This view displays 64 bits of data, and operations are performed in a specific order, like multiplication is preferred first over addition or subtraction.
This view shows the ASCII or Unicode characters to the displayed value, or rotates the value to right or left side, and makes some extra programming features. It can be opened by (Command +3) keyboard shortcut. This is the view of Programmer version of the calculator –

Additional features in the Calculator app –
Speech function – You can set your calculator to talk and speak out the calculations that you are making, which might help the fast typers to confirm whether they are doing it rightly, and it can also speak out the final result when the calculations are finished.
You can set the speech by going to the Speech tab in the Options in the Menu bar. And you see 2 options –
– Speak button pressed
– Speak result
You can select any one or both of the options.

RPN Mode – Calculator supports Reverse Polish Notation (RPN), which lets you enter complex equations without parentheses. You can open this from View > RPN Mode. Or can open it by (Command + R) keyboard shortcut.

Saved calculations – The calculations you have made are all saved in a sheet, and you can use this to recall everything or also can print out any complicated calculations made. This is called the “Paper Tape” and it shows all the recent calculations performed. You can open it through Window > Show Paper Tape, or by (Windows + T) keyboard shortcut.

You can either save the tape, or print it directly.
Go to File > Print Tape = This will help you setup the print page and print the tape.
Go to File > Save Tape as = This would ask you where to save the tape, and go to the next step.
* The paper tape can be seen only for the Basic and Scientific calculators, but not the Programmers calculator view.