Calculator: Support caret when pasting math formula strings. Pasting "2*2" works but pasting "2^32" fails.

[blurbusters]

Calc has long supported the useful ability to paste math expressions.

Success

1. Copy (2 + 2) * 4 to the clipboard
2. Paste into Calculator in Scientific Mode
3. Calculator displays "16"

Success

1. Manually type 2 ^ 8
2. Calculator displays "256"

Fail

1. Copy 2 ^ 8 to the clipboard
2. Calculator says Invalid Input

Expected behaviour of pastes should be same as manually typing the numbers.

[blurbusters]

How I discovered this bug

I was trying to quickly calculate a gamma correction formula which contains a caret.

I pasted this into Calculator, being suprised that it did not work.

((85/255)^(1/2.2))*255

Display gamma correction formulas can be useful for graphics programmers, Adobe Photoshop authors, and some web developers needing to select a precise color. When I worked on certain web graphics at www.testufo.com and needed to do such a calculation, I discovered this bug.

Now that Calculator is open source, I can finally submit a bug report, and even find the exact line number :)

The behaviour appears to be Line 25 of
calculator/src/CalcViewModel/Common/CopyPasteManager.cpp

There's already a separate string for Hex Mode, so there should be a separate string for Scientific Mode that permits the caret.

[rudyhuyn]

Good idea! There is a little more to manage but it's feasible!

[MicrosoftIssueBot]

This is your friendly Microsoft Issue Bot. I've seen this issue come in and have gone to tell a human about it.

[grochocki]

Thanks for the report! This seems related to #294 as well, but in that case, I can see how there is ambiguity between "minus" and "negative" using the same keyboard key.

[rudyhuyn]

@grochocki There are 2 actions in fact not related to #294 (I'm working on it too):

• allow ^ in CopyPasteManager (we should also add binary operators for programmer mode (| & ~^)
• Support ^ in StandardCalculatorViewModel

I will work on it later tonight.

[blurbusters]

I see, that makes a lot of sense!

Thanks for working on this, makes Windows more fun to use!!

P.S.

I love that Microsoft is selectively opensourcing certain parts of Windows like this application.

As Mark Rejhon, Founder of Blur Busters, I hate to distract from this bug report, but is there an open-source component of Windows that is relevant: 512Hz hard-coded limit in Windows ... As a software development, I'll gladly submit a pull request for that one.
You could save a lot of money with peersourced bug fixes submitted by users like me!

[blurbusters]

What version of Windows 10 update will include this change?

Curious mind inquiring how such changes flow upstream.

[grochocki]

Typically, changes made in month _N_ are released in month _N+1_. So this was merged in September, so it would ideally ship as a Store update as part of our 1909 release in October.

@volkcor Did this make the 1909 release?

[volkcor]

@grochocki this would've been in the 1909 and 1910 releases, and 1910 is about to make it to Retail this wee but is available in the WIP flight rings.