App Highlight: Caligator is a Beautiful Calculator & Converter

You will find lots of useful applications for Linux, however, not all of them focus primarily on the user experience.

Sure, the user interface may end up being something nice and simple but not necessarily pleasing to look at.

For the very same reason, I wanted to have a calculator and converter app on Linux similar to Numi (which is available only for macOS). I know we already have a superb calculator app like Qalculate but I am not a fan of its simple looking (read boring) interface.

Recently, I came across something very similar – ‘Caligator‘ made by Team XenoX.

It’s Not Your Typical Calculator

Caligator Screenshot

When compared to traditional calculator apps – this is something different. It lets you calculate or convert by simply typing on it (as you can see in the image above).

Just like you type in to search for something on Google (or on privacy-oriented Google alternatives), the user has to just type the instruction naturally to get the output.

Not just limited to the ability to understand instructions for conversions, it also displays the output as you type. So, you do not have to wait and press another button to get the result.

Caligator Works
How Caligator Works

Feature Overview

Caligator Screenshot 1
Caligator Screenshot

For now, you can perform any kind of arithmetic calculations and convert things like Currency, Length, Weight, and more.

You can choose between a dark or light theme. However, for now, the app might get stuck when you try to change the theme. Atleast, I’m facing this issue right now on Pop!_OS 19.04.

They would fix the issue in the next update probably.

In addition to what’s possible, the developers have planned (as per the official announcement) the following features for the next update:

  • Font size preferences
  • Export options
  • Click to copy
  • More themes

Getting Caligator on Linux

You can directly head on to find its GitHub releases page and download the asset suitable for you.

For Linux, they have three file formats available: AppImage, Deb files and source code.

I suggest downloading the AppImage file. You just have to give it execute permission and then you can run Caligator on any Linux distribution.

In addition to Linux, you can also try it on your Mac/Windows machine.

Wrapping Up

Caligator is still under development so you may encounter bugs. If you do, please open a bug report for the developers on their GitHub repository.

While this may be in its early stage of development now, it is definitely an impressive project which should incorporate interesting features in the near future.

I remember that elementary OS also has a similar application called NaSC. You may want to check it out as well.

What do you think about ‘Caligator’? Also, if you know about some interesting new open source projects for desktop Linux, let us know in the comments below.

About the author
Ankush Das

Ankush Das

A passionate technophile who also happens to be a Computer Science graduate. You will usually see cats dancing to the beautiful tunes sung by him.

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