How do you calculate?

[Ely Levy]

Just run bc -l
Also python is pretty nice for basic math.

Ely

2010/5/20 Orna Agmon Ben-Yehuda <ladypine at gmail.com>

>
>
> On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 2:55 PM, Nadav Har'El <nyh at math.technion.ac.il>wrote:
>
>> For years, I've been wondering: How do other Unix or Linux users do simple
>> calculations?
>>
>> Do you take out an actual physical calculator (which is of course
>> ridiculous)?
>> Do you use software that looks like a physical calculator (xcalc, kcalc,
>> etc.)?
>>
>> Or do you use bc? Does anyone actually use bc, which returns "0" as a
>> result
>> for the calculation "2/3"? :-) Of course, you can use "scale=10" (or the
>> -l
>> option to bc) to fix that, but how many first-time users would know that?
>> What posessed the person who decided to make scale=0 the default? :-)
>>
>
> Indeed this is why I rarely use bc (and I am sorry when I do). For  most
> purposes (that is, if I do not need a math function, which is not loaded
> when no executable is loaded), I use gdb.
>
>
>> What I have been using myself, is my own version of Kernighan & Pike's
>> "Hoc"
>> (see http://nadav.harel.org.il/homepage/hoc/). But since this didn't
>> catch on,
>> as didn't the original Hoc (which was available in Research Unix and Plan
>> 9,
>> but not anywhere else), unfortunately I'm one of the few who do. All of
>> the
>> rest are missing on the convenience of Hoc ;-)
>>
>> So I was wondering - how come there isn't more pressure on the Linux
>> distributions to include a decent and convenient calculator language?
>> Or do people consider what is available decent enough already?
>>
>> Nadav.
>>
>> --
>> Nadav Har'El                        |      Thursday, May 20 2010, 7 Sivan
>> 5770
>> nyh at math.technion.ac.il
>> |-----------------------------------------
>> Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Despite the cost of living, have you
>> http://nadav.harel.org.il           |noticed how it remains so popular?
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Orna Agmon Ben-Yehuda.
> http://ladypine.org
>
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