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calc |
Version: 2.3.1 |
| If you build a better calculator... | ||
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calc |
Version: 2.3.1 |
| If you build a better calculator... | ||
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Wcalc is a very capable calculator. It supports abitrary precision, has standard functions (sin, asin, and sinh for example, in either radians or degrees), many pre-defined constants (pi, e, c, etc.), support for using variables, "active" variables, a command history, hex/octal/binary input and output, unit conversions, embedded comments, and an expandable expression entry field. It evaluates expressions using the standard order of operations. Wcalc uses intuitive expressions and implicit multiplication. For example,
Wcalc will evaluate: Wcalc also comes in a command-line version that works on most (if not all) forms of Unix (including Linux and BSD). To support arbitrary precision, Wcalc relies on the GMP and MPFR libraries. In the MacOSX release, these are compiled-in, so you shouldn't have to install them yourself. NOTE: GMP comes with a broken version of MPFR (that will be removed in future GMP releases, according to the GMP website). You have to install a real (aka. recent) version of MPFR for Wcalc to work. StatusI'm looking for a new icon. The current one just isn't doing it for me anymore (it's hard to click on, doesn't suggest "calculator", and doesn't look good against a dark background, among other problems). I want something slick-looking, that works well with the other MacOS X icons. Here's my first attempt: 
The calculator in the background is stolen from Google... I don't know what the legalities of that are (probably dubious). Anyone with a better idea, PLEASE send it my way! 2.3.1 is released! This release is, as you may guess from the small version bump, primarily a bugfix release. Over the last six months, it's been slowly accumulating minor fixes, and the volume has gotten to the "new version" level. The most important change for Debian users is also the most insignificant: some language in the licensing leftover from the dawn of wcalc was incompatible with the GPL. This was discovered by Vincent Lefevre (Debian bug 435751) back in August, and was fixed in CVS immediately, but there hasn't been a new release until now. Hopefully, this hasn't made life too difficult for Danielle. Wcalc also got some attention from the authors of WIMS, leading to the introduction of the ability to read information from the environment. I believe the relevant example page is here. Hopefully this release makes integrating wcalc with WIMS a little more straightforward. Other than that, the bug fixes are mostly minor things that have been raised on the mailing list or that I stumbled across myself: preference behavior, some display issues, erratic behavior with regard to engineering notation and some compound operations, that sort of thing. I also had a few conversations with some folks who wished the wcalc documentation was a little more accessible. To that end, I've put the Wcalc manual and the list of all available conversion units in webpages linked on the right side of this page. If it makes one person's life easier, well, then excellent! You may have noticed that Wcalc is now available only in source or Universal-Binary form. That's because I've finally gotten an Intel Mac, and my ability to make PPC binaries is somewhat restricted. If I have the time, I may add a PPC binary at some point, but until then, this will have to do. Also, for what it's worth, I discovered that in the previous release, the Mac CLI didn't have history support (though it did appear to have tab-completion). The problem has been addressed in this binary release. As per usual: enjoy! Let me know if you find anything unpleasant. 2.3 is released! This has plenty of bugfixes and a couple nifty new features. In the GUI realm, Wcalc now also serves as a System Service, and so adds a "Wcalc Compute" entry to the Services menu of other applications. In the CLI realm, Wcalc's error reporting is now more friendly, and will tell you exactly where in the line the error occurred. Also, Wcalc now uses tab-completion in the CLI, and can tab-complete just about anything (variables, conversion units, commands, functions, etc.). There's plenty more for everyone, so enjoy! Oh, and one last thing: I finally got around to figuring out how to compile Wcalc as a Universal Binary. I know, it's really a rather pointless exercise (Wcalc is hardly a performance hog), but some people look at it as some sort of important benchmark. It's not, but for those who think it is: there! I did it! You'll note, unfortunately, that the OSX-10.3-compatible download is a mere 888K, while the universal binary is 2MB. That's the way these things work, I'm afraid. Anyway, enjoy! Let me know if you find anything unpleasant. 2.2.2 is released! This is primarily a bugfix release. Most notably, the mod operator (%) is both efficient and correct now (yeesh, that was bad) as per the discussion on the mailing list, and can be configured to behave two different ways with negative numbers. There are several other fixes and changes that have been accumulating in CVS since the last release (check the download page for a more complete list). Anyway, enjoy! Well, don't I feel like a moron. 2.2.1 is released! There was a crasher in the persistent variables editing window. In retrospect, it was a pretty obvious one. To trigger it, bring up the window, make sure you have no variables (if you had some, delete them and restart Wcalc), and then close the window. Dumb, right? The updated version is in the usual place. Status update archive. If you find bugs, PLEASE let me know! |
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