calc(1) calc(1) CALC calc - BASIC-style expression evaluator SYNOPSIS calc [-?] [-h] [-s] [-v] [expression[,expression]] DESCRIPTION calc is an interactive or command-line expression evaluator using algebraic notation similar to most BASIC languages. If an expression is omitted on the command- line then an interactive mode is entered. During normal command-line use, you may wish to delimit the expression with single quotes (e.g. '~(2*2+$F4)/4') to avoid shell problems. The interactive mode has no such problems. USING ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES IN EXPRESSIONS It is possible to read and write environmental variables from within calc, using the syntax 'symbol=expression' to write to a variable and just 'symbol' to read from it. For example, 'A=2,B=3,A*B' will result in 6 being displayed and it makes calc extremely useful for floating point calculations in shell scripts of course. However, a limitation of UNIX is that you cannot change a parent's environment, so an expression like answer=`calc 'A=2,B=3,A*B'` would have to be used in a script. As you may have noticed, you can comma-separate expressions on one line too. OPTIONS There are only four options with calc: -? Display a syntax usage message. -h Display the interactive help, explaining about expression syntax. -s Read from standard input, but don't enter the interactive mode. Useful for feeding in large files via stdin (either manually or in a shell script). -v Display the version number of calc. BUGS Need to trap overflow errors better (e.g. try 1000^1000). SEE ALSO (I WOULDN'T BOTHER) bc(1), bs(1), dc(1) AUTHOR Richard K. Lloyd <richard.lloyd@connectinternetsolutions.com> - 1 - Formatted: November 9, 2024