SpeedCrunch 1.1
- ID
- 39283
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 25 Oct 2026, 3:19 AM
- Fetched
- 26 Oct 2026, 12:02 AM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://www.speedcrunch.org/
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 4.0
- Created
- 26 Oct 2026, 12:03 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developers
What happened
SpeedCrunch 1.1 is a free, open-source desktop scientific calculator for Windows, macOS and Linux, offering up to 50 digits of precision, complex number support, 140+ functions, and units and constants. It also supports user-defined variables, functions and units, vector and matrix operations, history rewriting, tabbed or multi-pane sessions, 40+ translations and 40+ color schemes. The linked page is the product site; it does not include a changelog, so what specifically changed in 1.1 is not stated in the text.
Why it matters
The concrete use case is scratchpad math that a normal float can't hold: 50-digit precision, complex numbers and unit-aware arithmetic in an offline app, instead of pasting expressions into a browser calculator or trusting IEEE-754 doubles in your own code. Before you switch or recommend it, note the page lists features but no 1.1 release notes, so there is no stated reason to upgrade from an older install beyond the feature list itself.
Discussion angle
Live check: open a REPL and run 0.1 + 0.2, then the same sum in a 50-digit calculator — use that to talk about where you actually need arbitrary precision (money, unit conversions, matrix work) versus where doubles are fine.