Numerical Input Fields Display Non-Accuracy Indication

[GarryP]

I was going to post this as a Feature Request but I thought I see what people thought about it first.

We often get questions about problems that are eventually grounded in the fact that the numerical input fields don’t always show a totally accurate value, sometimes because the Preferences have been set to show too few decimal places. For example, a rotation field may show 10 degrees when the actual value is 10.3.
What I suggest is that the numerical input fields have some kind of indication to show that the value displayed in the field is not the same as the (internal) actual value.

There are probably a few ways to do this and some are more obtrusive than others.
* One way could be to display values that were not shown accurately in a different colour, but that might not be good for people who want an uncoloured UI.
* Another way could be to have an extra coloured ‘flag’ at the end of the field to show where the full value was not being shown but, again, that’s probably not good for an uncoloured UI.
* My personal favourite, at the moment, is having a line at the top or bottom of the field (maybe all the way along, or just part-way) that shows whether the value in the field is actually higher (line at top) or lower (line at bottom) than the actual value.

My attached image shows these three options, all showing that the Y value is actually higher than the displayed value.

What does anyone think?

[Pšenda]

My personal favourite, at the moment, is set decimal places to maximum. I think that the setting option allows each user to set what he needs - if he is not interested in accuracy, he will get zero, if he is interested in accuracy, he will get max.

[Pšenda]

On 4/27/2020 at 2:43 PM, GarryP said:

There are probably a few ways to do this and some are more obtrusive than others.

The problem with the visual indication is that there are six different values, some of which may be accurate, some of which may not be, so a colorful and overly visible indication is distracting. A slight change in the background color of the editing field, or a small/bland triangle behind the number/outside the field (something like the Histogram, when the exact values are not displayed) would probably suit me.
Anyway, it would be interesting if the Hint/Tooltip of the editing field always displayed the "exact" value, i.e. to the full 20 decimal places, which could possibly be copied and used in the calculation..

Edited May 11, 2023 by Pšenda