Re: what calculator do you use?

[John Hasler]

Jörg writes:
> But these are all way to heavy programs for doing simple calculations.

I use Octave for exactly that.  I always have it running in one of the
panes of my current desk.  It has all the elementary functions built in
and lets me smoothly transition from doing simple arithmetic to writing
programs.  I use Bc when I need arbitrary precision.
-- 
John Hasler 
jhas...@newsguy.com
Elmwood, WI USA

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Greg Wooledge]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 09:06:17PM -0400, The Wanderer wrote:
> Based on a bit more digging, apparently calc does also have an atan()
> function, which produces the arctangent of its argument; atan(1)*4 gives
> 3.14159265358979323848. Oddly, that last digit is not the same as what
> 'bc -l' gave from '4*a(1)' in Greg's demonstration; it looks like
> atan(1) gives a value which is off in the very last displayed decimal
> place from what Greg gave. I suspect that there is display rounding
> involved on one side or the other.

One doesn't expect the last few digits of precision to be... precise. ;-)

When using bc with its default scale of 20, for most calculations
you'll end up with however much precision you *actually* want (say,
5 or 6 digits) after you round the final value.  It's not intended
to be absolutely correct to 20 digits.  It simply *uses* 20 digits in
all of its intermediate calculations.  As I pointed out earlier, the
rounding errors accumulate.

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Jörg-Volker Peetz]

In this category of computer aided mathematics or computer algebra systems,
there are also the packages sagemath, octave or scilab.
octave and scilab bring there own GUI.
sagemath and also python 3 or R can be used via jupyter notebook which is a kind
of browser based GUI.

But these are all way to heavy programs for doing simple calculations.
For that I also use `bc -l`. It has a line editor: you can write your whole
calculation in one line and scroll back to previous lines to change and repeat 
them.

Regards,
Jörg.

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Eric S Fraga]

On Monday, 13 Jul 2020 at 19:29, Thomas Schmitt wrote:
> My first calculator still works too. It looks much like this, but yellowed
> with minor stains:
>   http://www.stefanv.com/calculators/aristo970/index.html

:-) I remember using such a calculator for Physics in high school!  Then
TI brought out their SR-50 calculator and the rest is history...

And then I found HP (HP-25 first followed by a whole sequence until the
HP-41).

Now Emacs Calc.
-- 
Eric S Fraga via Emacs 28.0.50 & org 9.3.7 on Debian bullseye/sid

Re: what calculator do you use?

[The Wanderer]

On 2020-07-13 at 20:56, David Wright wrote:

> On Mon 13 Jul 2020 at 19:02:38 (-0400), The Wanderer wrote:

>> ; pi(.9)
>> 3.1416
> 
> It appears to use the argument as an integral factor of the answer
> quoted. However, the last example seems wrong. The answer ought to be
> 3.14163, which is 34907 * 0.9. Was that a copy/paste failure?

Yes, apparently so. Sorry about that!


Based on a bit more digging, apparently calc does also have an atan()
function, which produces the arctangent of its argument; atan(1)*4 gives
3.14159265358979323848. Oddly, that last digit is not the same as what
'bc -l' gave from '4*a(1)' in Greg's demonstration; it looks like
atan(1) gives a value which is off in the very last displayed decimal
place from what Greg gave. I suspect that there is display rounding
involved on one side or the other.

atan() is of course more typing than a(), but it's also both arguably
more guessable (without already knowing function names) and definitely
more identifiable (in terms of recognizing what the function does from
the name), so there's a tradeoff.

-- 
   The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

Re: what calculator do you use?

[David Wright]

On Mon 13 Jul 2020 at 19:02:38 (-0400), The Wanderer wrote:
> On 2020-07-13 at 08:23, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> > On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 06:47:51AM -0400, The Wanderer wrote:
> > 
> >> In some contexts it could even need fewer; for example, calc (as
> >> shipped in Debian) provides the built-in function 'pi()', which
> >> takes a precision - expressed as a value between zero and one - and
> >> returns pi to that level of precision.
> > 
> > I do not understand this description.  How many decimal places do
> > you get for a precision of, say, 0.5?
> 
> (It turns out I got the specification of what the precision can be
> expressed as wrong, and "precision" may not be the correct term for it
> anyway; see below.)
> 
> I don't understand the full algorithm myself, but the output seems
> coherent:
> 
> $ calc
> C-style arbitrary precision calculator (version 2.12.7.2)
> Calc is open software. For license details type:  help copyright
> [Type "exit" to exit, or "help" for help.]
> 
> ; pi(.5)
> 3
> ; pi(.1)
> 3.1
> ; pi(.9)
> 2.7
> ; pi(.05)
> 3.15
> ; pi(.0005)
> 3.1415
> ; pi(.5)
> 3.1416
> ; pi(.1)
> 3.14159
> ; pi(.9)
> 3.1416
> 

It appears to use the argument as an integral factor of the answer
quoted. However, the last example seems wrong. The answer ought to be
3.14163, which is 34907 * 0.9. Was that a copy/paste failure?

[…]

> Also, it turns out that it accepts values >=1 and <=0 as well:
> 
> ; pi(5)
> 5
> ; pi(10)
> 0
> ; pi(50)
> 0
> ; pi(3)
> 3
> ; pi(4)
> 4
> ; pi(2)
> 4
> ; pi(-1)
> 3
> ; pi(0)
> zero epsilon value for pi
> 
> ; pi(1)
> 3

So it looks like the argument's sign is ignored.

> The results just aren't very useful.

Perhaps it's connected with the facility you mentioned earlier,
the option to present non-integer output in the form of a ratio
of two integers.

Cheers,
David.

Re: what calculator do you use?

[The Wanderer]

On 2020-07-13 at 08:23, Greg Wooledge wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 06:47:51AM -0400, The Wanderer wrote:
> 
>> In some contexts it could even need fewer; for example, calc (as
>> shipped in Debian) provides the built-in function 'pi()', which
>> takes a precision - expressed as a value between zero and one - and
>> returns pi to that level of precision.
> 
> I do not understand this description.  How many decimal places do
> you get for a precision of, say, 0.5?

(It turns out I got the specification of what the precision can be
expressed as wrong, and "precision" may not be the correct term for it
anyway; see below.)

I don't understand the full algorithm myself, but the output seems
coherent:

$ calc
C-style arbitrary precision calculator (version 2.12.7.2)
Calc is open software. For license details type:  help copyright
[Type "exit" to exit, or "help" for help.]

; pi(.5)
3
; pi(.1)
3.1
; pi(.9)
2.7
; pi(.05)
3.15
; pi(.0005)
3.1415
; pi(.5)
3.1416
; pi(.1)
3.14159
; pi(.9)
3.1416

I generally just use something like 'pi(.0001)' (i.e., hold
down the 0 key for a while in between . and 1), and that produces all
the precision I could really care for. The limit that gets printed (at
least with default configuration) appears to be

; pi(.0001)
~3.14159265358979323846

and you can get that same visible result with a much shorter precision
value. I expect that there are configuration settings which will
increase the displayed precision, but I've never needed to find them.

Also, it turns out that it accepts values >=1 and <=0 as well:

; pi(5)
5
; pi(10)
0
; pi(50)
0
; pi(3)
3
; pi(4)
4
; pi(2)
4
; pi(-1)
3
; pi(0)
zero epsilon value for pi

; pi(1)
3

The results just aren't very useful.

>> The list of built-in functions in the bc man page is very short,
>> and doesn't include any such thing, so unless something has added
>> one without the man page getting updated anything that needs to use
>> pi is going to take more typing than with calc.
> 
> True.  But it's not a *huge* amount of typing.
> 
> unicorn:~$ bc -l

Yep - as soon as I saw someone point out what this flag did, I figured
this would be in there somewhere. (I didn't figure it out from looking
the flag up in the man page, but that's me.)

> bc 1.07.1
> Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012-2017 Free 
> Software Foundation, Inc.
> This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
> For details type `warranty'. 
> 4*a(1)
> 3.14159265358979323844

Definitely convenient, but also requires knowing more about math than
I've managed to internalize over the decades to figure out. I would not
have thought of multiplying by the arctangent of 1 (or of anything) to
arrive at pi.

-- 
   The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Ben Caradoc-Davies]

On 14/07/2020 03:39, Wolf Halton wrote:

I know you are looking for a GUI calculator app, however I would like to entice 
you with a CLI app that is easy to use, but will make your coworkers think you 
are secretly a computer expert.
I tend to use python3 in the terminal window. I open a terminal, type python or 
python3 in the command line. It lets me do relatively complex calculations, and 
makes easy copy/paste of the entire calculation where required
I use powershell in Windows the same way. Can just use the up-arrow to repeat 
similar calculations.
Python is a programming language and it’s pretty simple to set up all kinds of 
repetitive math quite easily, but you probably won’t need all the capability 
(at least at first).
4/5 (enter) gets you 0 which is good for estimating
but 4.0/5 gets you 0.8 like you probably expect


"Floor division" is the default in Python 2 (without "from __future__ 
import division"), but in Python 3, "true division" is the  default and 
there is a new "floor division" operator.


Python 2:

4 / 5 == 0
4.0 / 5 == 0.8

Python 3:

4 / 5 == 0.8
4 // 5 == 0

Project Jupyter  provides 
a rich set of tools and supports Python.


Kind regards,

--
Ben Caradoc-Davies 
Director
Transient Software Limited 
New Zealand

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Ben Caradoc-Davies]

On 13/07/2020 19:31, kaye n wrote:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.
What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.


Python 3 with the contents of the math module imported. I have this in 
my ~/.bashrc:


alias pyc="python3 -i -c \"from math import *\""

Kind regards,

--
Ben Caradoc-Davies 
Director
Transient Software Limited 
New Zealand

Re: what calculator do you use?

[David Wright]

On Mon 13 Jul 2020 at 11:39:40 (-0400), Wolf Halton wrote:
> I know you are looking for a GUI calculator app, however I would like to 
> entice you with a CLI app that is easy to use, but will make your coworkers 
> think you are secretly a computer expert. 
> I tend to use python3 in the terminal window. I open a terminal, type python 
> or python3 in the command line. It lets me do relatively complex 
> calculations, and makes easy copy/paste of the entire calculation where 
> required 
> I use powershell in Windows the same way. Can just use the up-arrow to repeat 
> similar calculations. 
> Python is a programming language and it’s pretty simple to set up all kinds 
> of repetitive math quite easily, but you probably won’t need all the 
> capability (at least at first).
> 4/5 (enter) gets you 0 which is good for estimating 
> but 4.0/5 gets you 0.8 like you probably expect

That looks to me like damning with faint praise.

I would say that python2 should never be used as an interactive
calculator precisely because most people will be using literals
most of the time, rather than variables.

Cheers,
David.

Re: what calculator do you use?

[ghe2001]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA256

HP-16C

Small, RPN, does base 2/8/10/16, floats, mildly programmable, bit shifts, etc.

There are, I'm told, clones available for Android and iOS.

--
Glenn English
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Version: ProtonMail

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ugatachLX0r9PYOZjPzK6E29kXmYUKvI5dqFvgf7UHhb+gGQci9iYq7ASeRv
qwLK2MkIsDg3UUrv6VxgSoA=
=xeCn
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Re: what calculator do you use?

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

Ed Redd wrote:
>   1+

We seem not to have any Turing machine emulator in Debian.


Eric S Fraga wrote:
> I should say that, if I really want a proper calculator experience, I'll
> pull out my HP-41C which is, incredibly, more than 40 years old and still
> working!  It's the last calculator I bought.

My first calculator still works too. It looks much like this, but yellowed
with minor stains:
  http://www.stefanv.com/calculators/aristo970/index.html


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Nate Bargmann]

* On 2020 13 Jul 02:32 -0500, kaye n wrote:
> Hello Friends,
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.
> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.

I use the gnome-calculator as it's installed with Gnome.  It even sports
a console version called gcalccmd.

I like that previous results are available in a scrollback window and
can be brought back to the entry box with a click.  Either the result or
the formula can be recalled.  It has several modes and I mostly use it
in Basic mode.

- Nate

-- 

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."

Web: https://www.n0nb.us
Projects: https://github.com/N0NB
GPG fingerprint: 82D6 4F6B 0E67 CD41 F689 BBA6 FB2C 5130 D55A 8819



signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Cindy Sue Causey]

On 7/13/20, Charles Curley  wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 15:31:10 +0800
> kaye n  wrote:
>
>> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my
>> Debian os. What do you guys use?
>
> apt-cache search calculator | sort | less -X


*BAM!* That's how I found galculator. Well, via the simplest part to
the left of the first pipe, anyway. I create my own themes out of
preexisting ones. ALL the keys become "invisible" on some of the other
calculators. I genuinely hate when that happens.

YES, it's fixable. There are some other "priorities" lined up in the
queue ahead of it... unfortunately. Just waiting on a delivery truck
this very second, actually.


> Does anybody read signatures any more?

I do! They're often the #LIFE of the party!

Cindy :)
-- 
Cindy-Sue Causey
Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA

* runs with birdseed (because she's too klutzy to run with sharp objects) *

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Eric S Fraga]

On Monday, 13 Jul 2020 at 14:48, Florent Rougon wrote:
> If you liked doing calculations as in the HP 48, try the orpie program
> in a terminal (Debian package of the same name)... or the x48 emulator
> on Linux (GUI, very impressive). 

Thanks for the suggestions.  I hate using the mouse so I'll skip the GUI
emulator... but orpie looks very interesting and could be quite useful
on my wee Gemini PDA in case I don't want to run Emacs.

I should say that, if I really want a proper calculator experience, I'll
pull out my HP-41C which is, incredibly, more than 40 years old and still
working!  It's the last calculator I bought.

Thanks again,
eric

-- 
Eric S Fraga via Emacs 28.0.50 & org 9.3.7 on Debian bullseye/sid

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

> "CC" == Charles Curley  writes:

CC> On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 09:51:53 +0200 "Gian Uberto Lauri"
CC>  wrote:

>> Either my trusty old HP48 or Emacs Calc. Both RPN machines.

CC> Or perhaps any one of several HP calculator emulators available on
CC> Debian.

I know they are there, but my HP48 does not eat "real estate" on the screen...

-- 
 /\   ___Ubuntu: ancient
/___/\_|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_   African word
  //--\| | \|  |   Integralista GNUslamicomeaning "I can
\/ coltivatore diretto di software   not install
 già sistemista a tempo (altrui) perso...Debian"

Warning: gnome-config-daemon considered more dangerous than GOTO

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Wolf Halton]

I know you are looking for a GUI calculator app, however I would like to entice 
you with a CLI app that is easy to use, but will make your coworkers think you 
are secretly a computer expert. 
I tend to use python3 in the terminal window. I open a terminal, type python or 
python3 in the command line. It lets me do relatively complex calculations, and 
makes easy copy/paste of the entire calculation where required 
I use powershell in Windows the same way. Can just use the up-arrow to repeat 
similar calculations. 
Python is a programming language and it’s pretty simple to set up all kinds of 
repetitive math quite easily, but you probably won’t need all the capability 
(at least at first).
4/5 (enter) gets you 0 which is good for estimating 
but 4.0/5 gets you 0.8 like you probably expect

Wolf Halton 
Strategic Cybersecurity https://AtlantaCloudTech.com

> On Jul 13, 2020, at 03:31, kaye n  wrote:
> 
> 
> Hello Friends, 
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.
> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.
> Thank you!
> 

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Joe Pfeiffer]

kaye n  writes:

> Hello Friends, 
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.
> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.
> Thank you!

M-x calc, from inside emacs.

Re: what calculator do you use?

[rhkramer]

> rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
> > From the command line: bc -l (the -l doesn't something useful (to me) but
> > I forget what ;-)

doesn't ==> does  -- I should learn to proofread all the time ;-)

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Celejar]

On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 15:31:10 +0800
kaye n  wrote:

> Hello Friends,
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.
> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.

What kind of trouble? If bugginess, you should file a bug report. I use
Galculator all the time (albeit for simple things), and it works fine.

Celejar

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Charles Curley]

On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 15:31:10 +0800
kaye n  wrote:

> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my
> Debian os. What do you guys use?

apt-cache search calculator | sort | less -X

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Charles Curley]

On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 09:51:53 +0200
"Gian Uberto Lauri"   wrote:

> Either my trusty old HP48 or Emacs Calc. Both RPN machines.

Or perhaps any one of several HP calculator emulators available on
Debian.

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Florent Rougon]

Eric S Fraga  wrote:

> Emacs Calc if using the computer, HP-48x simulator on my phone
> otherwise.

If you liked doing calculations as in the HP 48, try the orpie program
in a terminal (Debian package of the same name)... or the x48 emulator
on Linux (GUI, very impressive). More scripting-oriented, dc can be used
to compute in Reverse Polish Notation:

$ echo '3 5 + 2 / p' | dc
4
$

Regards

-- 
Florent

Re: what calculator do you use?

[John Hasler]

I usually have Octave open in a window.  I also often use bc.
-- 
John Hasler 
jhas...@newsguy.com
Elmwood, WI USA

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

> "kn" == kaye n  writes:

kn> Hello Friends, Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any
kn> calculator app in my Debian os.  What do you guys use? I'm having
kn> trouble with Galculator.  Thank you!

Either my trusty old HP48 or Emacs Calc. Both RPN machines.

-- 
 /\   ___Ubuntu: ancient
/___/\_|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_   African word
  //--\| | \|  |   Integralista GNUslamicomeaning "I can
\/ coltivatore diretto di software   not install
 già sistemista a tempo (altrui) perso...Debian"

Warning: gnome-config-daemon considered more dangerous than GOTO

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Greg Wooledge]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 06:47:51AM -0400, The Wanderer wrote:
> In some contexts it could even need fewer; for example, calc (as shipped
> in Debian) provides the built-in function 'pi()', which takes a
> precision - expressed as a value between zero and one - and returns pi
> to that level of precision.

I do not understand this description.  How many decimal places do you
get for a precision of, say, 0.5?

> The list of built-in functions in the bc man
> page is very short, and doesn't include any such thing, so unless
> something has added one without the man page getting updated anything
> that needs to use pi is going to take more typing than with calc.

True.  But it's not a *huge* amount of typing.

unicorn:~$ bc -l
bc 1.07.1
Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012-2017 Free 
Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
For details type `warranty'. 
4*a(1)
3.14159265358979323844
scale=50
4*a(1)
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937508

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Eric S Fraga]

On Monday, 13 Jul 2020 at 07:22, rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
> Maxima sound interesting (maybe because it reminds sounds a little bit like 
> mathmatica (sp?), so I may dig deeper into that and try it out.

Yes, maxima and mathematica are similar in that they are both symbolic
mathematics systems.  I use maxima all the time for solving systems of
algebraic equations and for calculus in teaching engineers.

-- 
Eric S Fraga via Emacs 28.0.50 & org 9.3.7 on Debian bullseye/sid

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Greg Wooledge]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 01:41:39PM +0200, Klaus Singvogel wrote:
> rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
> > 
> > From the command line: bc -l (the -l doesn't something useful (to me) but I 
> > forget what ;-)
> 
> I'm using "bc -l" either.
> 
> "-l" is including the math lib, for functions like exp, sin, cos, etc.

This is correct.  The -l *also* sets the bc "scale" variable to 20,
meaning it calculates non-integer values to 20 decimal places.  Using
such a high precision is extremely important with certain calculations,
where using lower precision values would cause severe rounding errors,
which would accumulate and worsen quite dramatically.

unicorn:~$ echo 'e(1.4*l(500))' | bc -l
6005.62216990715616614180
unicorn:~$ echo 'scale=2; e(1.4*l(500))' | bc -l
5943.18

Never set a low scale value in bc.

If you don't want to see 20 digits after the decimal place, perform
rounding in a separate step.

unicorn:~$ printf '%.2f\n' "$(echo 'e(1.4*l(500))' | bc -l)"
6005.62

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Klaus Singvogel]

rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
> 
> From the command line: bc -l (the -l doesn't something useful (to me) but I 
> forget what ;-)

I'm using "bc -l" either.

"-l" is including the math lib, for functions like exp, sin, cos, etc.

"bc" can calculate with arbitrary precision length.

Ever wanted to calculate with long, long numbers (i.e.: 2^256) or want to
edit a long input line (i.e.: 1.99*12+3*2.49+7*.79*1.16... ), then try it.

Best regards,
Klaus.
-- 
Klaus Singvogel
GnuPG-Key-ID: 1024R/5068792D  1994-06-27

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Weaver]

On 13-07-2020 17:31, kaye n wrote:
> Hello Friends, 
> 
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my
> Debian os.
> 
> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.

Just plain `calculator'.
There are a few modes, depending on what you want to do, but part of the
Gnome set-up as far as I can remember, although you don't need to
install Gnome to get it.

-- 
`Religion is regarded by the common people as true,
by the wise as false,
and by the rulers as useful'.

— Lucius Annæus Seneca.

Terrorism, the new religion.

Registered Linux User: 554515

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Anssi Saari]

kaye n  writes:

> Hello Friends, 
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.
> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.
> Thank you!

I used to have a simple alias for tcsh which just evaluated the command
line via awk, awk "BEGIN{ print $* }". But then, I haven't used tsch
since 2002 or so.

But still, with zsh I'm really doing the same thing, except in zsh it's
a combination of an alias and a function.

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Reco]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 06:47:51AM -0400, The Wanderer wrote:
> I've heard recommendation of bc before, but to date I've yet to
> encounter anything that makes it seem preferable over calc, and I'm
> curious what I'm missing.

Most probably you're missing nothing. I picked up bc years ago because
it's a build dependency for the kernel. It solves my needs, and I happen
to remember pi up to 8 digits so the lack of pi() function is not an
issue to me.

On a side note, "calc" is 4 letters, and "bc" is two :)

Reco

Re: what calculator do you use?

[echo test]

Hello,
   This may seems strange but I always use python in interactive mode. Just
type python3 or python without any file path. :D

Le lun. 13 juil. 2020 à 12:48, The Wanderer  a écrit :

> On 2020-07-13 at 06:01, Reco wrote:
>
> >   Hi.
> >
> > On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 03:31:10PM +0800, kaye n wrote:
> >> Hello Friends,
> >> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my
> Debian os.
> >
> > There are plenty, for all tastes. Try "apt search calculator".
> >
> >> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.
> >
> > bc, simple as that. Everything else requires more keystokes or a mouse.
>
> What about calc (currently in the package of that name, formerly in the
> package apcalc)? That being what I've used for over a decade now.
>
> Reading through the bc man page, it looks to me as if using calc it
> should take comparable numbers of keystrokes, aside from typing the name
> of the program itself.
>
> In some contexts it could even need fewer; for example, calc (as shipped
> in Debian) provides the built-in function 'pi()', which takes a
> precision - expressed as a value between zero and one - and returns pi
> to that level of precision. The list of built-in functions in the bc man
> page is very short, and doesn't include any such thing, so unless
> something has added one without the man page getting updated anything
> that needs to use pi is going to take more typing than with calc.
>
> calc also has the option to present non-integer output in the form of a
> ratio of two integers, which means you don't have to figure out manually
> what fraction a given result is; at a skim, I don't see indication that
> bc has comparable functionality.
>
> I've heard recommendation of bc before, but to date I've yet to
> encounter anything that makes it seem preferable over calc, and I'm
> curious what I'm missing.
>
> --
>The Wanderer
>
> The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
> persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
> progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
>
>

Re: what calculator do you use?

[rhkramer]

On Monday, July 13, 2020 06:38:41 AM Linux-Fan wrote:

> > On Lu, 13 iul 20, 15:31:10, kaye n wrote:
> > > Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my
> > > Debian os.
> > > What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.

> I use maxima (Debian package maxima) most of the time. It is easy enough to
> get started although I always fail to remember the syntax for more advanced
> things.

Ahh, a question I can answer (or, at least, express an opinion ;-)

From the command line: bc -l (the -l doesn't something useful (to me) but I 
forget what ;-)

As a gui: kcalc

Maxima sound interesting (maybe because it reminds sounds a little bit like 
mathmatica (sp?), so I may dig deeper into that and try it out.

Re: what calculator do you use?

[The Wanderer]

On 2020-07-13 at 06:01, Reco wrote:

>   Hi.
> 
> On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 03:31:10PM +0800, kaye n wrote:
>> Hello Friends,
>> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.
> 
> There are plenty, for all tastes. Try "apt search calculator".
> 
>> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.
> 
> bc, simple as that. Everything else requires more keystokes or a mouse.

What about calc (currently in the package of that name, formerly in the
package apcalc)? That being what I've used for over a decade now.

Reading through the bc man page, it looks to me as if using calc it
should take comparable numbers of keystrokes, aside from typing the name
of the program itself.

In some contexts it could even need fewer; for example, calc (as shipped
in Debian) provides the built-in function 'pi()', which takes a
precision - expressed as a value between zero and one - and returns pi
to that level of precision. The list of built-in functions in the bc man
page is very short, and doesn't include any such thing, so unless
something has added one without the man page getting updated anything
that needs to use pi is going to take more typing than with calc.

calc also has the option to present non-integer output in the form of a
ratio of two integers, which means you don't have to figure out manually
what fraction a given result is; at a skim, I don't see indication that
bc has comparable functionality.

I've heard recommendation of bc before, but to date I've yet to
encounter anything that makes it seem preferable over calc, and I'm
curious what I'm missing.

-- 
   The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw



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Re: what calculator do you use?

[Linux-Fan]

Andrei POPESCU writes:


On Lu, 13 iul 20, 15:31:10, kaye n wrote:
> Hello Friends,
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian
> os.
> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.

qalc, the command line version of qalculate.


qalc and speedcrunch look nice, thanks for sharing :)

I use maxima (Debian package maxima) most of the time. It is easy enough to
get started although I always fail to remember the syntax for more advanced
things.

Here is a sample session (I actually have `alias maxima=maxima -q`):

$ maxima -q

(%i1) a: 2;
(%o1)  2
(%i2) a**10;
(%o2)1024
(%i3) sqrt(%o2);
(%o3) 32
(%i4) sqrt(2);
(%o4)   sqrt(2)
(%i5) %o4, numer;
(%o5)  1.414213562373095

It is possible to write scripts and batch-process them which allows
integrating maxima with other (text-based) tools. There are also GUI
frontends, but I did not find them a large improvement over the commandline
for Maxima. I even made a script to auto-replace Maxima variables in LaTeX
files, but it is not available online yet.

For spreadsheets and on low-end computers where maxima does not run quickly,
I prefer `sc-im` which is unfortunately not in Debian:
https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc-im

In case anybody wants an unofficial Debian package, I hacked one together
here: https://github.com/m7a/lp-sc-im

HTH
Linux-Fan

[...]


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Re: what calculator do you use?

[Reco]

Hi.

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 03:31:10PM +0800, kaye n wrote:
> Hello Friends,
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.

There are plenty, for all tastes. Try "apt search calculator".

> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.

bc, simple as that. Everything else requires more keystokes or a mouse.

Reco

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Eric S Fraga]

Emacs Calc if using the computer, HP-48x simulator on my phone
otherwise.
-- 
Eric S Fraga via Emacs 28.0.50 & org 9.3.7 on Debian bullseye/sid

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Joe]

On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 15:31:10 +0800
kaye n  wrote:

> Hello Friends,
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my
> Debian os. What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.
> Thank you!

Galculator works for me, but I only do simple one-stage things with it.
If I need multi-stage, or repeated near-identical calculations, I use a
spreadsheet.

But I don't do many calculations, so if I used one of the command-line
options as most seem to do, I'd spend more time reading the man page
than actually calculating.

-- 
Joe

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Ed Redd]

  1+


On Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 2:31 AM kaye n  wrote:

> Hello Friends,
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian
> os.
> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.
> Thank you!
>
>

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Michael Lange]

Hi,

On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 15:31:10 +0800
kaye n  wrote:

> Hello Friends,
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my
> Debian os. What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.
> Thank you!

if you want a simple gui calculator you might try xcalc from the package
x11-apps.

Regards

Michael



.-.. .. ...- .   .-.. --- -. --.   .- -. -..   .--. .-. --- ... .--. . .-.

The joys of love made her human and the agonies of love destroyed her.
-- Spock, "Requiem for Methuselah", stardate 5842.8

Re: what calculator do you use?

[tomas]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 03:31:10PM +0800, kaye n wrote:
> Hello Friends,
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.

Try, in a command line, "apt search calculator". I get 127 hits (of
course not all of them are a calculator app. Let's say a rough third
is. That leaves fourty calculators to choose from!).

> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.

Ah. Now we're talking. Given that broad choice, you will get reams of
answers, depending on people's preferences and needs. Your approach
will depend a lot on how you do such things. Test a few or ten of the
above options. Ask people for their experiences. Things like that.

My favourite one won't be in the above list: it's Emacs calc.
Unlimited precision, symbolic math, units, stack, trail -- and
seamless integration with my favourite text editor.

Cheers
-- t


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Re: what calculator do you use?

[Marco Möller]

On 13.07.20 09:31, kaye n wrote:

Hello Friends,
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.
What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.
Thank you!



I prefer:  speedcrunch
Good Luck! Marco.

Re: what calculator do you use?

[Brad Rogers]

On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 15:31:10 +0800
kaye n  wrote:

Hello kaye,

>What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.

Not that I use it often, but KCalc came as part of my KDE install.  Of
course, if KDE is not part of your install, it might need to pull in a
few dependencies.

There's also deepin-calculator.  which I've not even installed, never
mind try.

-- 
 Regards  _
 / )   "The blindingly obvious is
/ _)radnever immediately apparent"
Let them go, set them free, let them be who they wanna be
Lovers Of Outrage - Penetration


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Re: what calculator do you use?

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Lu, 13 iul 20, 15:31:10, kaye n wrote:
> Hello Friends,
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.
> What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.

qalc, the command line version of qalculate.

Kind regards,
Andrei
-- 
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser


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Re: what calculator do you use?

[Alex Mestiashvili]

On 7/13/20 9:31 AM, kaye n wrote:

Hello Friends,
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.
What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.
Thank you!



perl -E 'say eval(math expression)'

Math::XX modules for more complicated stuff :)

Best,
Alex

what calculator do you use?

[kaye n]

Hello Friends,
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any calculator app in my Debian os.
What do you guys use? I'm having trouble with Galculator.
Thank you!