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Entering Calculations
To perform a calculation in the main window, enter the expression you want evaluated into UltimaCalc's lower window, and press the 'Enter' key. The result will be shown in the window above. If there was a problem with evaluating the expression, a message will appear, explaining what the problem was. To start a new expression, use the 'Delete' or 'Backspace' keys to remove unwanted text, or use the shortcut Ctrl+Delete to clear all the text. You can also simply edit the current expression and calculate again.
The size of the calculator can be changed by dragging its borders or corners. It can not be made smaller in height than its initial size, i.e. the size when it was first opened, at which size the input box shows two lines of text. The width and position of the window are remembered when UltimaCalc is closed.
The window will automatically grow taller if the amount of text entered is large, up until 12 lines of text. The window can be increased in size beyond this limit by dragging its top or bottom edge. The window will not shrink back if the amount of text is reduced. There is no practical limit on the length of the text that can be entered.
Note that when the precision is set to automatic, the displayed precision is adjusted according to the window's width. Changing the precision at which numbers are viewed does not affect the accuracy to which calculations are made.
Expressions
Expressions should be entered in normal mathematical notation. For example, to add together 2 and 3, enter the expression 2+3 and hit 'Enter'. Exponentiation, or raising an item to the power of another item, is indicated by either ^ or **, whichever is convenient. For example, to calculate the cube of 4, enter 4^3 or 4**3.
Multiple Expressions
You can enter several expressions together, to be evaluated one after the other. To do this, separate each expression by either a comma or a semicolon. This technique can be used almost anywhere in any of the dialogs that UltimaCalc opens.
Note that this means that you should not include commas inside numbers. For example,
do not enter one million as 1,000,000 (UltimaCalc will take this expression to be 0).
Instead, either use 1000000 or 1e6. See numbers.
Example:
a=3, b=4, c=5; s=(a+b+c)/2; sqrt(s*(s-a)*(s-b)*(s-c)) will calculate the area of a triangle of sides 3, 4 and 5. To calculate with different sides, simply change the values assigned to a, b ot c and hit 'Enter'.
Scrolling
If you wish, the texts you enter can be scrolled into a history memory, so that you can later look back at earlier calculations and repeat them. To access this facility, right-click on the input edit box. A menu will pop up. Click on the item 'Scroll the entries'.
With scrolling enabled, after entering text and hitting the 'Enter' key, the result is displayed, and the input text remains visible. The next time a key is pressed, the input text is cleared. To scroll back through the previously entered texts, hold down a Shift key and press the Up arrow key. Use Shift+Down arrow to scroll forward.
When scrolling is not enabled, if the logic mode (menu item Options/Logic) is set to Mathematical, the input text remains after the 'Enter' key is pressed. The text can be edited, and the 'Enter' key pressed again to perform a new calculation. To clear the text in this case, use Ctrl+Delete.
When the logic mode is set to Hand-held, after hitting the 'Enter' key, the input text is deleted on the next key press. If scrolling is enabled, each item entered will be remembered.
The pop-up menu contains an item for copying the remembered input texts to the clipboard, and an item for forgetting all the remembered texts.