microsoft / microsoft/calculator
Support floating point when in all radices in Programmer view (dec, octal, hex, bin)
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- Dominant language
- C#
- Stars
- 31.1k
- Forks
- 5.8k
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Description
Problem Statement: Programmer mode does not support IEEE floating point data types as commonly used in programming languages. This limits the applicability of the calculator tool for anyone attempting to debug/investigate/test/perform floating point math using calculator.
Evidence or User Insights: Looking at the source code of this very project reveals floats are very commonly used by the target user audience of the mode (programmers).
Proposal: Add IEEE 754 standard binary float types (32 and 64 bit at minimum 16, 128, 256 bit and IEEE 754 decimal as a stretch) to the existing int data type list.
Goals: The Calculator app be able to perform the full set of operations included in the programmer mode on the proposed IEEE 754 floating point types in the same fashion the various integer types are supported.
Non-Goals: Non-IEEE standard floating point implementations such as float 8, float 24, or non standard variations of the primary float types are not part of the proposal.
Low-Fidelity Concept:

A team member has edited this comment to update the pitch based on discussion below.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the Programmer view and its existing integer data type list, then review how the calculator handles the listed operations across decimal, octal, hexadecimal, and binary modes. Define the IEEE 754 types and operation coverage required by the proposal; done means 32- and 64-bit floating-point types work across the full Programmer mode operation set.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- csharp
- Domain
- desktop
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 30/100