How do you calculate?

[Dov Grobgeld]

Here are methods I've used during the years:

   - perldl in a shell
   - ipython in a shell
   - type in an arithmetic expression into google
   - Use (/ 199.0 2.0)[control u][control x][control e] in emacs
   - command line with "perl -e 'print 199/2,"\n"'
   - created several (because I forgot where I put the old one) readline
   print eval loops for perl
   - Used easycalc on my palm pilot
   - Written a script in /tmp that I continously edit and run

But I have never got around to using programs that look like a calculator in
a window on the screen.

Cheers,
Dov

2010/5/20 Ely Levy <elylevy at cs.huji.ac.il>

> 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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>>
>
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