How is calc compared with GNU bc?

[ghost]

Github suggested your project to me. I'm currently using GNU bc.

[lcn2]

Calc is a C-like language with a rich command line as well as interactive interface.

Calc competes files internally as rational numbers a/b, or and complex rational values.

So:

; sqrt(2)
	1.4142135623730950488

will give you a few digits of the value of the square root of 2.

If you wish to see more digits, you can extend the number of digits displayed we well an the precision (called epsilon):

; display(100)
; sqrt(2,1e-100)
        1.4142135623730950488016887242096980785696718753769480731766797379907324784621070388503875343276415727

Most functions take an epsilon argument. See:

; help sqrt

You can set the global epsilon, so if you want 1000 digits of precision:

; display(1000)
; epsilon(1e-1000)
; sqrt(2)
; sin(1/3)
; etc.

Calc understands complex numbers, so the log of 3 * sqrt(-1):

; log(3i)

You can set values in your own calc start fille (usually ~/.calcrc). See:

; help environment

Calc as lists, arrays, associative arrays, lists, list, user defined data types, etc.

Calc as a custom facility for people to compile in their own custom functions. A number of supercomputers with special hardware use calc via the custom interface.

You can compile your own C code that can link to and use the calc library. See sample_many.c and sample_rand.c for examples.

Like bc, calc is "free as in beer". Calc is shipped under LGPL v2 so you can use, give away, add, ship, sell or give away calc as you wish as long as others can do the same.

Calc has has been around since 1984. We accept code contributions:

; help contrib

Share and enjoy! :-)

[lcn2]

Calc as a fish set of FILE I/O operations, unlike bc. See:

; man file

One may set the output base to a number of different baes:

; help base

You can configure and customize calc as well:

; man config

Calc comes with lots of bulletin functions:

; man builtin

To find out about a given bulletin functions, such as append or random or ssq:

; man append
; man random
; man ssq

While calc may have inspires of the Unix v7 bc()` command, and there are differences, it is bc and more.