Qalculate! is not your regular software replication of the cheapest available calculator. Qalculate! aims to make full use of the superior interface, power and flexibility of modern computers.
The center of attention in Qalculate! is the expression entry, Instead of entering each number in a mathematical expression separately, you can directly write the whole expression and later modify it. Just enter an expression as you would write it on paper, press Enter and voila!
The interpretation of expressions is flexible and fault tolerant, and if you nevertheless do something wrong, Qalculate! will tell you so. Not fully solvable expressions are however not errors. Qalculate! will simplify as far as it can and answer with an expression.
In addition to numbers and arithmetic operators, an expression may contain any combination of variables, units, and functions. These are immediately accessible from the user interface — the menu bar, the managers, the calculator keypad, and automatic completion.
Qalculate! also has some special tools to increase your efficiency, including a number base conversion dialog and a simple plotting interface.
Although use of Qalculate! for simple calculations should be natural and self-explanatory, reading the rest of the manual can help you maximize your productivity and discover some maybe unexpected features. More advanced users should read on and discover a large number of customization options and the ability to create and modify your own variables, functions and units directly from the user interface.