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(This documentation is from Fish Disk 53, and describes 'vc' an earlier
version of this spreadsheet. They are very helpful, however, and for
that reason are included here. sc 4.1 came without documentation) -eh
VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1)
NAME
vc - spread sheet calculator ("visicalc-like")
SYNOPSIS
vc [ file ]
DESCRIPTION
Vc is a calculator that is based on rectangular tables, in
much the same style as Visicalc or Lotus 123. When it is
invoked it presents you with an empty table organised as
rows and columns of cells. Each cell may have a label
string associated with it and an expression. The expression
may be a constant or it may compute something based on other
entries.
When vc is running, the screen is divided into four regions:
the top line is for entering commands, the second line is
for messages from vc, the third line and the first four
columns show the row and column numbers, and the rest of the
screen forms a window looking at the table. vc has two
cursors: a cell cursor (indicated by a '<' on the screen)
and a character cursor (indicated by the terminals hardware
cursor). The cell and character cursors are often the same.
They will differ when a long command is being typed on the
top line.
Commands which use the terminal's control key will work when
either a long command is being typed or in "normal" mode.
The cursor control commands and the row, column commands can
be prefixed by a numeric argument indicating how many times
the command is to be executed. "^U" can be used before the
number if the cursor movement is to take place while a
command is being typed into the command line.
Cursor control commands:
^N Move the cell cursor to the next row.
^P Move the cell cursor to the previous row.
^F Move the cell cursor forward one column.
^B Move the cell cursor backward one column.
^H Backspace one character.
Page 1 (printed 1/5/87)
VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1)
h, j, k, l
Alternate cursor controls (left, down, up, right).
0 Move the cell cursor to column 0 of the current row.
$ Move the cell cursor to the last valid column in the
current row.
Cell entry and editing commands:
= Prompts for an expression which will be evaluated
dynamically to produce a value for the cell pointed at
by the cell cursor. This may be used in conjunction
with ^V to make one entries value be dependent on
anothers.
" Enter a label for the current cell.
< Enter a label that will be flushed left against the
left edge of the cell.
> Enter a label that will be flushed right against the
right edge of the cell.
x Clears the current cell.
e Edit the value associated with the current cell. This
is identical to '=' except that the command line starts
out containing the old value or expression associated
with the cell.
E Edit the string associated with the current cell. This
is the same as either "leftstring", "rightstring", or
"label", with the additional fact that the command line
starts out with the old string.
m Mark a cell to be used as the source for the copy
command.
c Copy the last marked cell to the current cell, updating
Page 2 (printed 1/5/87)
VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1)
the row and column references.
^T Toggle cell display. The current cell's contents are
displayed in line one when no command being entered or
edited. ^T turns the display on or off.
File operations
G Get a new database from a file.
P Put the current database into a file.
W Write a listing of the current database in a form that
matches its appearance on the screen. This differs
from the "put" command in that "put"s files are
intended to be reloaded with "get", while "write"
produces a file for people to look at.
T Write a listing of the current database to a file, but
put ":"s between each field. This is useful for
tables that will be further formatted by the tbl
preprocessor of nroff.
M Merges the database from the named file into the
current database. Values, expressions and names
defined in the named file are written into the current
file, overwriting the existing entries at those
locations.
Row and Column operations. Members of this class of
commands can be used on either rows or columns. The second
letter of the command is either a column designator (one of
the characters c, j, k, ^N, ^p) or a row designator (one of
r, l, h, ^B, ^F). Commands which move or copy cells also
modify the variable references in affected cell expressions.
Variable references may be frozen by using the "fixed"
operator.
ar, ac
Creates a new row (column) immediately following the
current row (column). It is initialized to be a copy
of the current one.
Page 3 (printed 1/5/87)
VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1)
dr, dc
Delete this row (column).
pr, pc, pm
Pull deleted rows (columns) back into the spread sheet.
The last deleted set of cells is put back into the
spread sheet at the current location. Pr inserts
enough rows to hold the data. Pc inserts enough
columns to hold the data. Pm (merge) does not insert
rows or columns, but overwrites the cells beginning at
the current cursor location.
ir, ic
Insert a new row (column) by moving the row (column)
containing the cell cursor, and all following, down
(right) one. The new position will be empty.
zr, zc
Hide ("zap") the current row (column). This keeps a
row or column from being displayed but keeps it in the
data base.
vr, vc
Removes expressions from the affected rows (columns),
leaving only the values which were in the cells before
the command was executed.
sr, sc
Show hidden rows (columns). Type in a range of rows or
columns to be revealed. The command default is the
first range of rows or columns currently hidden.
f Sets the output format to be used for printing the
numbers in each cell in the current column. Type in
two numbers which will be the width in characters of a
column and the number of digits which will follow the
decimal point. Note that this command has only a
column version and does have a second letter.
Miscellaneous commands:
^C Exit from vc. If you were editing a named file, and
you modified it, then it will ask about saving before
exiting.
Page 4 (printed 1/5/87)
VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1)
q Alternate exit command.
? Types a brief helpful message.
/ Copy a region to the area specified by the current
cell.
^G or ESC
Abort the current long command.
^R Redraw the screen.
^V Types, in the long command line, the name of the cell
being pointed at by the cell cursor. This is used when
typing in expressions to refer to entries in the table.
^E Types, in the long command line, the expression of the
cell being pointed at by the cell cursor.
^A Types, in the long command line, the value of the cell
being pointed at by the cell cursor.
Expressions that are used with the '=' and 'e' commands have
a fairly conventional syntax. Terms may be variable names
(from the ^V command), parenthesised expressions, negated
terms, and constants. Rectangular regions of the screen may
be operated upon with '@' functions such as sum (@sum),
average (@avg) and product (@prod). Terms may be combined
using many binary operators. Their precedences (from
highest to lowest) are: *,/; +,-; <,=,>,<=,>=; &; |; ?.
e+e Addition.
e-e Subtraction.
e*e Multiplication.
e/e Division.
Page 5 (printed 1/5/87)
VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1)
@sum(v:v) Sum all valid (nonblank) entries in the
region whose two corners are defined by the
two variable (cell) names given.
@avg(v:v) Average all valid (nonblank) entries in the
region whose two corners are defined by the
two variable (cell) names given.
@prod(v:v) Multiply together all valid (nonblank)
entries in the region whose two corners are
defined by the two variable (cell) names
given.
e?e:e Conditional: If the first expression is true
then the value of the second is returned,
otherwise the value of the third is.
<,=,>,<=,>= Relationals: true iff the indicated relation
holds.
&,| Boolean connectives.
fixed To make a variable not change automatically
when a cell moves, put the word fixed in
front of the reference. I.e. B1*fixed C3
SEE ALSO
bc(1), dc(1)
BUGS
Expression reevaluation is done in the same top-to-bottom,
left-to-right manner as is done in other spread sheet
calculators. This is silly. A proper following of the
dependency graph with (perhaps) recourse to relaxation
should be implemented.
At most 200 rows and 40 columns.
Page 6 (printed 1/5/87)