Introduction
KEuroCalc is an universal pocket currency converter and calculator.
On the 1st of January, 2002, 12 European countries united their national currencies into a single one, the euro (€). The same happens from time to time on a smaller scale with new European countries. KEuroCalc helps:
To verify one's bank account, when paying both in euros and in the old currency (Italian liras, for example).
To verify one's shopping, and compute the change if paying with a banknote labeled in the old currency.
To get an idea of the value of the things in the old currency at any stage of calculations.
To do conversions between the euro and other currencies, like the British Pound, according to the daily exchange rate defined by the European Central Bank (ECB).
To do conversions between any two currencies that are part of the list published the ECB.
To do conversions between the US dollar and other currencies according to the daily exchange rate defined by the New York Federal Reserve Bank (NY FRB).
To do conversions between any two currencies that are part of the list published the NY FRB.
KEuroCalc has the following advantages in term of comfort and usability:
You see every intermediate value and the result in both the reference currency (euro or dollar) and in the other currency.
There is a separate input area where you can type a new value while still having the previous result visible.
The ergonomy is very close to usual pocket calculators, despite the fact that any value you type can be a value in the reference currency (euro or dollar), a value in the other currency, a percentage or an unit-less quantity.
You press the keys in the order you would speak aloud what you're doing.
If you make mistakes, a special correction button enables you to correct your last input data, as long as you didn't validate.
The numbers are displayed according to your locale settings: with either a comma or a dot as a decimal point, according to your KControl settings.
You can decide which reference currency you want to use (euro or dollar), which other currency to start with when you launch KEuroCalc, and which rounding method to use.
KEuroCalc allows the following operations:
Conversions from and to the reference currency (euro or dollar).
Systematic rounding of the displayed result, but computations done internally with the precision of the mathematical libraries.
Usual additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions.
Apply a percentage, add a percentage, or subtract a percentage.
Possibility to store values in an intermediate memory, or use that memory as a running total.
Here are some limitations of KEuroCalc:
No parenthesized or complex expressions.
Some roundings go wrong due to the limitations of the mathematical library.
Inflationist currencies cannot be handled due to limited display size. However, with the change to the new Turkish lira and the removal of six zeroes in that currency, it is not a practical problem anymore.
New York Federal Reserve Bank rates are not available during the non-working days (Christmas, Easter, etc.).
KEuroCalc never guarantees the exactness of the exchange rates nor the accuracy of the result. You are always invited to verify your computations by some other means. As the license agreement states, there's no liability of the authors if the results are not correct or as expected. Also, please notice that the variable exchange rates are downloaded in an unencrypted and therefore insecure manner from the data sources (European Central Bank and New York Federal Reserve Bank). Some “man-in-the-middle” attacker may confuse KEuroCalc by forging exchange rates. More simply, a transmission error is always possible.
