Calcpad roadmap recap after 8 months

[Proektsoftbg]

Dear frients,

In Feb this year 2025 we compiled this roadmap together and put it work:
#487
After 8 months of hard work we managed to complete 5 features, as follows:

Completed 2025

1. Reading and writing vector/matrix data from/to Excel and text/CSV files.
2. Custom formatting of numbers in the report: engineering, phasor, comma separator, thousands separator - for a section or even individual values.
3. High performance vectors and matrices (hpVector and hpMatrix).
4. Custom multiline compiled functions (via #block and #inline).
5. Allow for markdown in comments - headings, bold, italic, etc.

The development was privite with limited access - for sponsors and contributors only and delayed pubic release. I think Calcpad is getting a really fantastic piece of calculation software.

However, a lot of features left to be developed. Lets compile them as:

Roadmap 2026

1. Advanced native data visualization/plotting with more chart types (bar, area, scatter, pie, doughnut, 3D, etc.), more options for line types, colors, widths, axis types (linear, log/Bode), labels, title, etc. Similar to what Excel and, say matplotlib includes.
2. Multiple document tabs in one Calcpad window.
3. Native page header/footer support that provides appropriate UI to define and support for Html, Pdf and Word output.
4. Function insertion wizard as in Excel and Mathcad and matrix insertion/editing dialog as table. Image insertion window with sizing and options.
5. "Table" data type that can hold 2D or 1D array of strings in a variable. It will display automatically as a table in the output.
6. List of all defined custom variables (with values) and functions with history.
7. Replace WPF with the multiplatform Avalonia UI to have a Linux GUI version.
8. Implement the fully featured and powerful AvaloniaEdit code editor instead of the current RichTextBox control.
9. Code navigation side menu (TOC).
10. Preferences dialog: font size and color, default image saving folder, page size, margins, header and footer, themes (dark/light...).
11. Add special math functions: gamma, beta, zeta, Bessel, Erf, Fresnel integrals, elliptic, etc.
12. Add functions to access CoolProp library from a Calcpad worksheet.
13. Clearing all custom defined variables, functions, units etc., for example:
    #clear all
    #clear variables functions units

Again, the development will go private for sponsors and contributors only with delayed pubic release. But we will need your support - contribution or sponsorship. What left requires really hard work. So, if you are sponsoring Calcpad currently, please continue. We achieved a lot together, but we can do a lot more than this. If you are not, please consider doing it:

https://github.com/sponsors/Proektsoftbg

Developers who want contribue by coding will be quite welcomed. But we will organize better and maybe even create a little Canban board so everyone can pick a task and run it until completed.

The list is not final and still open for changes and new ideas. So, please fill free to share your opinion below.

[imartincei]

Thank you so much @Proektsoftbg for all your hard work and dedication on Calcpad this year. I am greatly looking forward to what we can accomplish together in the upcoming months and year.

I wanted to also give a progress update on some of my side projects that compliment and extend Calcpad.

The vscode-calcpad project is coming along very well and will solve items 2, part of 3 (with jspdf and Puppeteer, this feature is still in-progress), 6, 7, 8, and most of 10. It also provides some nice QOL features such as more advanced linting, a list of macros and variables available to the file, and the majority of the current features CalcpadWpf has. It needs some finishing touches before the public release, but I will make an alpha version available soon.

The CalcpadS3 project will have a secure cloud storage system that is compatible with include, read, and write. The proof of concept is completed on this, and it just needs finalized and given more features. This also will allow connecting to any web API, including with authentication (although it requires a middleman application for routing, this repo is an example of how this can work).

Another aspect I am working on is extending the JS functionality of Calcpad. This will include JSON reading and passing to JS (including via API calls) and pulling JS variables into Calcpad variables. The proof of concept is completed on this, and it just needs to be finalized. This will be even more powerful once item 5 is completed.

The CSPlugin library is proof of concept for how .dll files could be run by Calcpad, have parameters passed to an external script, and get a result as a Calcpad variable. This would allow connecting Calcpad to any C# API as long as the user knows how to write their own plugin. This is very early in development, and the repo contains only a basic example of how it could work.

I am also working on DXF support for Calcpad using the dxf-parser, dxf-writer, and dxf-viewer JS libraries. This will be an alternative to SVG with native dimension and leader support. I plan to also eventually allow making diagrams in a CAD software and using a script to make it dynamic and tied to Calcpad variable values (although this would require a fairly advanced system that has not been started).

I have also been experimenting with extending Calcpad's UI functionality, and I think I have landed on a very good solution. It will use HTML comments that contain JSON to define UI components that are associated with an input. The advantage to this is the file can be tested with default values, and that exact same file can be used to build dynamic UIs using a parser that reads the comments. This is only in the conceptual phase, but after completing these other items I plan to work on this.

Finally, I am working on creating Claude Code agents for helping generate Calcpad files more accurately, including with context awareness of existing macros in the user's library.

If anyone is not experienced in C# but still wants to help with Calcpad development, feel free to reach out and I could use help with these many features above. A lot of these use Javascript and Typescript.

If you love using Calcpad and are excited for the future of the software, I strongly recommend considering a sponsorship. With enough support, the entire community will get a better product than most paid alternatives for a fraction of the cost of a single person to get that paid software.

[Proektsoftbg]

Marti, Thank you for your kind words and the fantastic work you are doing. I am eager to see the results. Calcpad is becoming a great ecosystem for engineering automation enthusiasts and professional with a bright future. So, keep pushing and together we will change the future.

Calcpad way is the right way and the future for automating engineering "hand" calculations. After 25 years of experience in using literaly anything and designing hundreds of various projects, I am absolutely sure about that.

[imartincei]

I couldn't agree more, the text-based nature of it might have been seen as a downside vs a polished UI like Excel a few years ago, but with coding AI advancing so quickly, the text-based nature is actually a huge advantage for efficiency of developent. With all of the features I am working on, I am trying to double down on the design concept that makes Calcpad so powerful: keeping everything simple and text-based.

I really hope the community continues to grow once people realize that Calcpad is unique in this way. It balances keeping it simple enough that someone with minimal coding experience can use it, but someone with coding experience runs into very few limits (that is the goal with many of my contributions).

[Proektsoftbg]

OK. I will go again to the private repo and continue working on the new version there.

[javila]

Hi, @Proektsoftbg!

Can we have a isdefined(x) function?

[Proektsoftbg]

Yes.