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╒═════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ ╓──╖ ╓──╖ ╓──╖ ╖ ╓──╖ │ │ ║ ║ ║ ║──╢ ║ ║ Version 1.22 │ │ ║ ╖║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ─══════════─ │ │ ╙─╫╜ ╙──╜ ╙ ╜ ╙─╜ ╙──╜ │ │ ╙ The Quick Calculator │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════╛ Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin 66 Birchwood Drive Millington, NJ 07946 "I just did it because I hate the system so much." - Dave QUICK INTRODUCTION ------------------ There you are by your computer, your friends are watching, and you're doing your gosh darndest to impress them. You go through all your games, show off your Sound Blaster, bring up the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in Super VGA, and to top it off, you call up Compuserve and download a program you don't even want just to show you could do it. And then some guy in the back asks you for the square root of two. How embarrassing. Well, you could load up GWbasic and putz around there, or wait for Lotus to load and take a couple minutes dropping numbers in cells. But you know, what would really impress this guy the most is if you could give him the answer quickly. "Were trapped! Like rats!" - T.J. WHAT IS QCALC? -------------- QCALC is a command-line calculator. That is, all the information you will ever need to give it, you can type on the command line, right after the program name. It handles numbers with 15 digit precision, and can print the answer nearly any way you want. You can calculate several expressions all at once, on the same command line. You can assign the answer of an expression to a variable, and reuse that variable in the expressions that follow on the command line. QCALC has several variables (constants) predefined for your use, as well as over 60 trigonometric, financial, conditional, and logical functions to aid in your calculations. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 2 "I think I live in the fourth dimension." - Sam HOW TO USE QCALC ---------------- Four things (arguments-types) may be found on a command line. These four things may occur in any order. A space must be between each argument. The argument types are: Expressions: An expression is what it's all about; A mathematical "formula" for QCALC to solve. An expression may be assigned to a variable, in which case the expression will begin with a variable name, and a colon. 5*5 is an expression. log(5/pi)^2 is also an expression. my_var:1.6%.45 is an expression being assigned to a variable. Switches: Any parameter starting with a forward slash (/). Switches modify the default usage of QCALC, affecting such elements as precision, variables, and the specifics of output. /f is a switch. /oo is also a switch. /oof are two switches, combined into one argument. Script Expansion: Any parameter starting with an at sign (@) and followed by a filename (with or without a path). The file named will be read by QCALC, and any data contained in that file will be added to the command line. @bob is a script expansion of the file "bob". @c:\ted.qc is another script expansion. Input Prompting: And parameter beginnging with an exclamation mark (!) and followed by a variable name, pre-existing or yet- undefined. QCALC will prompt the user for the contents of the variable before continuing. !frank prompts for an expression, this expression is placed in variable "frank". !I_am_10_years_old is another prompt instruction. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 3 "I was trying to astrally project, but I got it wrong." - Bill A CLOSE LOOK AT EXPRESSIONS --------------------------- QCALC understands six basic operator types, plus some more advanced operators. The following shows six different expressions, each employing a different operator: QCALC /oo 6+3 6-3 6*3 6/3 6%3 6^3 Ignore the /oo at this time, it's purpose is to clean up the output. The result you will see is: 9 3 18 2 0 216 Expressions can be parenthesis nested; you can have any amount of parentheses in the expression. For example, this example retrieves the square root of 25 (which is 5), adds 1 to it (making 6), and divides the result by 2 (the final answer is 3). QCALC (sqr((2.5*2)*5)+1)/2 And QCALC responds ... QCALC -> (SQR((2.5*2)*5)+1)/2 = 3 All these parentheses may not be necessary, however. Certain operators have a higher precedence than others. Take a look see at the operator descriptions that follow. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 4 "She's my woman, she's my woman, she's my sweet hot dog woman." - Ben OPERATORS AND PRECEDENCE ------------------------ Parenthesis have the highest precendence. They are evaluated before anything else. Parentheses may be nested for an unlimited length (or until the stack runs out, which makes a LARGE expression). The exponent operator (^) has the next highest precedence. This operator brings the left value to the power of the right value. It is the operator equivalent of the function POW(x,y). Multiplication (*), division (/) and modulus (%) have equal precedence. This means that whichever of the three come first in the expression (left to right) is evaluated first. Modulus, by the way, computes the remainder of a division expression. (5%2 is 1, since 5/2 leaves a remainder of 1.) Addition (+) and subtraction (-) have equal precedence. (Note that the "negative sign" (-), found next to a negative number, is not the same as the subtraction operator. Sign negation takes precedence over all operators below parentheses.) Greater than (> or }), less than (< or {), equal to (=), greater than or equal to (>= or }=), and less than or equal to (<= or {=) are all logical operators with equal precedence, each resulting with a 1 or a 0. (True is 1, 0 is false.) These operators emulate the functions, respectively, GT(x,y), LT(x,y), EQ(x,y), GOE(x,y), and LOE(x,y). Note that the angle brackets (> and <) are equivalent to the curly braces ({ and }). Due to DOS's inability to handle angle brackets, always use curly braces on the command line. They work fine, however, in script files. Also note that you will most likely not be able to use angle brackets, or the equal sign, in the QCALC environment variable, as the SET command does not like them. There is no operator equivalent to the = sign, however. Use the EQ(x,y) function in the environment variable. Of least precedence are logical AND (&) and logical OR (| or $), equivalent to functions AND(x,y) and OR(x,y). DOS can't handle the | on the command line or in an environment variable, so the equivalent operator $ has been provided. You may use | in script files, however. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 5 "This is so disgusting." - Dave VARIABLES --------- To use a variable in an expression, just substitute the number with the name. For example, pi is predefined as 3.14...etc. The following multiplies pi by 5: QCALC pi*5 To define a new variable, tack on a variable name and a colon just before the expression. This example declares a variable named "radius", stores 5 in it, and multiplies it by pi. It is identical to pi*5 above. QCALC radius:5 pi*radius QCALC allows great flexibility in how you assign a number to a variable. The following assigns the number 50 to variable "fifty": QCALC fifty:10*((2*2)+1) User defined variables are not constants; they can be assigned new values later on the command line. Internal (pre-defined) constants, however, may not be changed. Let's say you have an expression you would like to repeat, but with different values each time. You can tell DOS to prompt you for the value of a variable by creating it with an exclamation mark: QCALC !days hours:24 days*hours When executed, QCALC will first ask you for the value of DAYS. After you enter it, it will finish evaluating the expressions. Hit F3 (ENTER) to run QCALC again and enter a new value for DAYS. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 6 "Cockroach!!!" - A guy with a huge wrench, a crazy person with a plunger, and a madman with isopropyl and a lighter. PRINT OPTIONS ------------- QCALC can print results in many different ways. Consider the following command: QCALC /or abs(-10) /% .1 /%f 150.25*278.55 And QCALC prints ... 10 10% $41,852.13 The switch /OR turns on "result only". In actuality, /OR is just a shortcut switch. It does the same work as if you had turned on switches OQ, OX, and OE (see section SWITCHES). The function abs converts -10 to a positive number, so it prints 10. /% puts QCALC into percentage mode. .1 is ten percent in this mode, so QCALC prints 10%. /%f is two switches combined into one parameter. /% tells QCALC to turn percentage mode back OFF, and /f to turn financial mode ON. This mode prints a dollar sign, then the result of the expression with commas every third digit. The number is also brought to two decimal places. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 7 "What, you're going to tell me Ringo was talented?" - Rene ANYTHING I SHOULD KNOW? ----------------------- -*- An expression should never have a space anywhere in it. This will confuse QCALC into thinking the space is where the expression ends. Only use spaces to separate switches and expressions from each other. -*- To save the results of QCALC into a file, use DOS redirection. At the end of the command line, append > filename.ext, where filename.ext is the file where you want to save the answers. Example: QCALC sin(.9) > myfile.txt -*- I highly recommend using DOSKEY (bundled with MS-DOS 5.0) or 4DOS (available through shareware) with QCALC. The command line editing capabilities of these utilities make QCALC much simpler to use. However, for those who don't use DOSKEY or 4DOS, an "editor" switch will be implemented in future versions. -*- Variable names can consist of letters of the alphabet, digits, and the underscore (_) character. They may be of any length, but they must not begin with a digit. -*- Occasionally, you'll do something that will cause QCALC to barf out an error. Check the section on ERRORS for a full list. Note that a caret (^) attempts to point out the error. Use the /E switch to modify the appearance of errors. -*- If there are some switches you frequently turn on, and some variables you frequently use, you can place them in a DOS environment variable. When QCALC is executed, it first checks the environment variable "QCALC" and evaluates any arguments you have there. The following creates an environment variable ... SET QCALC=/op weeks_in_month:4 months_in_year:12 /nf ... To remove an environment variable, type SET QCALC= but do not supply any data. This particular setting creates two variables silently (/OP), restores the default settings (/N), and turns on financial mode (/F). Do not put the switches /I, /H (or /? or ?), or /L in the QCALC variable. /FNORD can be placed there, however. Do not put either of the angle brackets (< or >) or the equal sign (=) in an environment variable (the SET command barfs on it). Use the equivalents: { for <, } for >, and EQ(x,y) for x=y. -*- _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 8 You can store many switches and expressions (and variable definitions) in a script file, and read in that file by use of the script file expansion (@) operator. The file may contain any number of switches and expressions, and each can be separated by a space or a carraige return. Blank lines are ignored. Since QCALC evaluates each argument from left to right, the contents of the script file are not evaluated until @filename is found. Any expressions before the @filename argument may not make use of any variables created inside the script file. The default extension is ".QC," and if the file cannot be found in the current directory, QCALC searches the directory where QCALC.EXE resides. The file "c:\stuff\bob.qc" contains a variable named "bob". The following loads in bob, and multiplies it by five ... QCALC @C:\STUFF\BOB.QC BOB*5 Script files can contain some special characters: A semicolon (;) is a comment. Everything from the semicolon until the end of the line is ignored. A pound sign (#) print everything from the pound sign to the end of the line to the screen. Do not place a semicolon on the same line as a pound sign. (Er, well, you can, but you may not get what you expect.) A tilde (~) tells QCALC to pause. QCALC pauses until the user hits a key, or aborts the script by hitting the ESCAPE key. The input-variable character (!) can be used in script files to make them more interactive and reusable. Script files will be greatly expanded upon in future versions, but do not count on backward compatibility. Note that there are only two things you CAN'T do in a script file; you can't use /FNORD, and you can't include another script with the @filename argument. -*- If you like a "running-tape" calculator, and have a printer, use CONTROL-PRINTSCREEN. This tells DOS to turn on "line printing". When you are done printing, hit CTRL-PS again to turn off the printer. -*- The functions QCALC employs are not heavily tested at this point, so use them with care. If a function seems accurate, it probably is, but remember they come from a variety of sources. About 25 are from Borland C++'s math library, about another 24 I wrote myself, and they make calls to Borland's functions, and another 11 are from Howard Kapustein's Turbo C library (TCHK 2.0). -*- I've just thought of a use for the /OA switch. If you type an expression on the command line, and then realize you would like to have this expression in a script file, insert the switches _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 9 /FNORDOPOQOEOA to before the expression, append "> script.qc" to the end of the command line, and re-execute the line. This will have the effect of printing just the expression (variables are ignored: /OP) and saving the expression in the file "script.qc". /OA turns OFF answer printing to make this possible. Great, eh? Okay, a bit of a pain, but it's now I can say QCALC features "auto-scripting". Heh heh. -*- Simulated functions: If you wish to multiply two values, you use the * operator as in 5*6. However, if the second value is surrounded by parentheses, multiplication is assumed if no operator exists as in 5(6). Using this technique, you can create variables that appear to work as functions. For example: QCALC one_tenth:.1 one_tenth(5) This reports .5 as the answer, which is one-tenth of 5. All it is doing, though, is multiplying one_tenth (.1) by the amount in the parentheses. The constant "rad" can appear to work as the function "torad": QCALC torad(90) rad(90) These two answers will be identical. However, do realize that a simulated function does not report errors as a real function does -- don't forget that it IS a variable. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 10 "I don't think so." - Angeler REGISTRATION, OTHER BORING TOPICS --------------------------------- Read the file REGISTER.TXT for full information on registering this version of QCALC. Trust me, it's cheap. And if you don't use it often, I'm not asking you to delete your copy. Use it. If it ever becomes handy enough to justify the cost, register. This applies only to home use, however. Please do not install an unregistered copy of QCALC on a business machine for anything other than a test drive. Registration is mandatory for business use. I wrote a story about an old folks home that gets a shipment of bum radioactive peas and all the senile old people get mutant powers. The teacher didn't like it, however. I thought it was pretty funny, but he said the main character wasn't likeable. You're not likeable, I said. No, actually I didn't, but I should have... Oh, I'm sorry, am I boring you? _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 11 "You ever wonder?" - Mike A WORD ABOUT CONSTANTS AND FUNCTIONS ------------------------------------ Any functions that take an angle as a parameter work only in radians. To convert degrees to radians, use the function torad, or multiply degrees by rad (pi/180). Remember, do NOT put a space between the function name and the parentheses, nor a space after the numbers or commas. Or anywhere else in an expression for that matter. Any number that is nonzero is "TRUE". Any number that is zero is "FALSE". This does NOT apply to functions that require a value. For example, if variable barf equals 5, the expression EQ(barf,5) would return 1 (TRUE): However, the expression EQ(barf,TRUE) would not return TRUE. EQ compares values, not logic. For logical equality, use AND. AND(barf,TRUE) will return TRUE. Note that some functions have operator equivalents that may or may not be desirable. (In the above example, AND is operator & and EQ is operator =.) Constants may not be changed -- that's why they're called constants. Don't let that stop you from changing your own user- defined variables, though. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 12 "That's an awful lot of garbage." - Jason LIST OF CONSTANTS ----------------- PI The ratio of circumference to diameter. Defined as 3.14159265358979323846. E The base of natural logarithms. Defined as 2.71828182845904523536. RAD Converts degrees to radians. If x is in degrees, multiply x by rad and you will have x radians. Defined as pi/180. DEG Converts radians to degrees. If y is in radians, multiply y by deg and you will have y in degrees. Defined as 1/RAD. However, an alternate (and more accurate) approach is to divide y by RAD. TRUE Logical true. Defined as 1, however any number that is nonzero is "true". FALSE Logical false. Defined as 0. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 13 "Oh, man! Oh, man." - Sam LIST OF FUNCTIONS ----------------- SIN(X) Sine. COS(X) Cosine. TAN(X) Tangent. sin(x)/cos(x). SEC(X) Secant. 1/cos(x). COSEC(X) Cosecant. 1/sin(x). COTAN(X) Cotangent. 1/tan(x). ASIN(X) Inverse (arc) sine. x must be between -1 and 1. ACOS(X) Inverse (arc) cosine. x must be between -1 and 1. ATAN(X) Inverse (arc) tangent. ASEC(X) Inverse (arc) secant. ACOSEC(X) Inverse (arc) cosecant. ACOTAN(X) Inverse (arc) cotangent. SINH(X) Hyperbolic sine. COSH(X) Hyperbolic cosine. TANH(X) Hyperbolic tangent. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 14 SECH(X) Hyperbolic secant. COSECH(X) Hyperbolic cosecant. COTANH(X) Hyperbolic cotangent. ASINH(X) Inverse (arc) hyperbolic sine. ACOSH(X) Inverse (arc) hyperbolic cosine. ATANH(X) Inverse (arc) hyperbolic tangent. ASECH(X) Inverse (arc) hyperbolic secant. ACOSECH(X) Inverse (arc) hyperbolic cosecant. ACOTANH(X) Inverse (arc) hyperbolic cotangent. LOG(X) Natural logarithm. x must be greater than 0. LOG10(X) Natural logarithm, base 10. x must be greater than 0. POW(x,y) Exponentation function x to the power of y. Equivalent to operator expression x^y. EXP(X) Exponential function e to the xth power. HYPOT(X,X) Hypotenuse of a right triangle. TORAD(X) Converts x from degrees to radians. (See rad.) TODEG(X) Converts x from radians to degrees. (See deg.) _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 15 SIGN(X) The sign of x. If x is positive, sign returns 1. If x is negative, sign returns -1. If x is zero, sign returns 0. SQR(X) Square root of x. x must not be negative. RND(X) Random integer from 1 to x. x must be between 1 and 65535. ABS(X) Absolute value of x. Converts x to a positive number. MIN(X,Y) Returns whichever is smaller. Identical to IF(LT(x,y),x,y). MAX(X,Y) Returns whichever is larger. Identical to IF(GT(x,y)x,y). SLN(Cost,Salvage,Life) Straight Line depreciation. SYD(Cost,Salvage,Life,Period) Sum Year Digits depreciation. DDB(Cost,Life,Period) Double Declining Balance depreciation. ASLN(Cost,Salvage,Life) Accumulated Straight Line depreciation. ASYD(Cost,Salvage,Life,Period) Accumulated Sum Year Digits depreciation. ADDB(Cost,Life,Period) Accumulated Double Declining Balance depreciation. PMT(Principal,Interest,Term) Periodic payment required to fully amortize a principal. FV(Payment,Interest,Periods) Future Value of a single amount. FVA(Payment,Interest,Periods) Future Value of a annuity. PV(Payment,Interest,Periods) Present Value of a single amount. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 16 PVA(Payment,Interest,Periods) Present Value of an annuity. AND(x,y) Logical And. Returns TRUE if both x and y are both TRUE. Otherwise, it returns FALSE. Identical to the operator expression x&y. OR(x,y) Logical Inclusive Or. Returns TRUE if either x or y are TRUE. Only returns FALSE if x and y are both FALSE. Identical to the operator expressions x|y and x$y. XOR(x,y) Logical Exclusive Or. Returns TRUE if either x or y is TRUE, but not both. Only returns FALSE if both are TRUE, or both are FALSE. XOR has no operator equivalent. NEG(x) Logical Negation. Returns TRUE if x is FALSE. Returns FALSE if x is TRUE. Negate has no operator equivalent. NOT(x) Identical to NEG. See NEG. IF(x,a,b) Conditional Answer. If x is TRUE, the value of a is returned. Otherwise, the value of b is returned. EQ(x,y) Equal To. Returns TRUE if x is equal to y. Otherwise returns FALSE. Equivalent to operator expression x=y. GT(x,y) Greater Than. Returns TRUE if x is greater, but not equal, to y. Otherwise returns FALSE. Equivalent to operator expressions x>y and x}y. LT(x,y) Less Than. Returns TRUE if x is less than, but not equal, to y. Otherwise returns FALSE. Equivalent to operator expressions x<y and x{y. GOE(x,y) Greater Than Or Equal To. Returns TRUE if x is greater than or equal to y. Otherwise returns FALSE. Identical to OR(GT(x,y),EQ(x,y)). Equivalent to operator expressions x>=y, and x}=y. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 17 LOE(x,y) Less Than Or Equal To. Returns TRUE if x is less than or equal to y. Otherwise returns FALSE. Identical to OR(LT(x,y),EQ(x,y)). Equivalent to operator expressions x<=y, and x{=y. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 18 "Rastafarians? Hey, I know Rastas, man." - Seth LIST OF ERRORS -------------- SYNTAX ERROR! Any general bewilderment. Illegal characters can produce a syntax error, but they will produce a bad operator error if the expression is expecting an operator at that point. Using a variable as a function, or vice versa, will create a syntax error. MISMATCHED PARENTHESES! The expression does not have the same amount of left parenthesis as it does right parenthesis, or QCALC encounters a right parenthesis before it's matching left. Example: QCALC )(. OVERFLOW ERROR! Somewhere along the calculation of the expression, the number got waaaay too big. An overflow error will also be caused by "underflow" (a number got way too small). DIVISION BY ZERO ERROR! The right value of a divide or modulus expression is zero. You cannot divide by zero, it's against the law. You can get arrested. Example: 5/0 is illegal. DOMAIN ERROR! You have called a function but given illegal values to it. For example, ASIN(x) requires x to be between -1 and 1. ASIN(10) would produce a domain error. A domain error is also produced when a function call causes a total loss of significant digits. For example: sin(10e70). UNKNOWN SYMBOL! The symbol name pointed to does not exist as either a variable, or a function. You haver either misspelled the symbol, or you have a slight case of brain damage. BAD OPERATOR! Syntax error. The expression contains an illegal character, when it's looking for an operator. IMPROPER NUMBER OF PARAMETERS! You have called a function, but have either supplied it with too many parameters, or not enough. Look up the function with the /L switch for number of parameters; QCALC /L. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 19 CONTROL-C ENCOUNTERED! ABORT MISSION! ABORT MISSION! You hit CONTROL-C or CONTROL-BREAK before QCALC finished calculations. Jerk. WARNING: NULL STATEMENT REACHED PREMATURELY! I doubt you'll see this error. It's an old error detection scheme used in the earliest versions of QCALC. However, if it does occur, please notify the author (me) of the circumstances under which it happened. Then hear me faint. ALERT AUTHOR: BUG! RAID! BLACK FLAG! HELP! This is a bug. This bug means death. It represents conditions that I, in my small imagination, thought couldn't occur. If it does occur, alert the author (me) and send him (me) a copy of the command line you used that produced the error. NO NAME GIVEN! You began an expression with a colon. QCALC thinks you want to assign the expression to a variable. BAD VARIABLE DEFINITION! A colon, which dilineates a variable from the expression, was found in a location that made QCALC wonder who put you in charge. EMPTY EXPRESSION! You begin the expression with a variable name and an equal sign, but that's it. QCALC can't define a new variable unless it has a value to give it. SYMBOL IS IN USE! The expression is attempting to define a variable with a name that is already in use. The name is being used by a function. See the next error. SYMBOL IS A CONSTANT! The expression is attempting to define a variable with a name that is already in use. The name is being used by a constant (pre-defined internal variable). See the previous error. ABNORMAL PROGRAM TERMINATION This is a major error that QCALC has failed to trap. Again, please send to the author (again, me) the description of the error, and the full command line under which this error occurred. FATAL: CAN'T LOAD xxx! The script you are trying to expand with the @filename parameter cannot be loaded for some reason. Either it doesn't exist, or there is a disk error. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 20 "Come on, John, let's get drunk." - Ben A WORD ABOUT SWITCHES --------------------- QCALC's switches are not case sensitive. Switches marked (TOGGLE) in the following list can be turned on and off by selecting the switch again. For example, /$ prints a dollar sign before the number. The command ... QCALC /$ 20 /$ 20 ... prints two numbers. The first number will have a $ before it, and the second will not, since the option was toggled off. Several switches can be combined into one parameter. For example, the /$ and /C switches can be turned on by /$C. Switches marked (SINGLE) in the following list are information switches -- they override and ignore all other switches to print a message, give help, etc. For example, the command ... QCALC 5*5 /? ... brings up the help screen. It does NOT print the result of the expression 5*5, because /? is marked (SINGLE), and overrides normal switches. (SINGLE) switches can be used anywhere on the command line, but only the first (SINGLE) switch encountered will be recognized -- all other arguments will be ignored. (Get it?) Some switches take arguments. For example, /P is the precision switch. It expects a number (NUM) after the switch (ie, /P10). /E is the error switch. It expects a letter (LET) after the switch (ie, /EV). If a switch requires a certain type argument, and that type is not given, or no argument is given at all, unexpected errors may occur. If in doubt of how a switch works, do not combine it with another switch in the same parameter (ie /P10$ combines /P and /$ together) -- combining switches improperly can confuse QCALC and make it cuckoo. _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 21 "Ayep." - Ocean LIST OF SWITCHES ---------------- SWITCH /I: Gives information on the current version of QCALC. (SINGLE) Prints a short text description about this version of QCALC, and information regarding registration (blah). Usage: QCALC /I SWITCH /L: Lists mathematical functions and constants. (SINGLE) Prints a list of mathematical functions that QCALC understands, and any predefined constants. Also lists legal operators. Usage: QCALC /L SWITCH /H: Help screen. (SINGLE) Shows QCALC's usage and available switches. The following are equivalent usages of the /H switch: QCALC /H QCALC /? QCALC ? SWITCH /%: Prints number as a percentage. (TOGGLE) Each number is converted to a percentage (multiplied by 100), and printed with a percent sign (%) after it. Example: QCALC /% .65 Result: QCALC -> .65 = 65% SWITCH /$: Puts a dollar sign before each number. (TOGGLE) Each answer is printed after a dollar sign ($). Example: QCALC /$ 5*5 Result: QCALC -> 5*5 = $25 _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 22 SWITCH /C: Delineates each number with commas every third digit. (TOGGLE) Prints numbers with commas. Example: QCALC /C 1234 Result: QCALC -> 1234 = 1,234 SWITCH /P: Changes the precision. (NUM) Requires an argument from 1 to 15. Final answers will be rounded up or down to the specified precision. Example: QCALC /P5 1234.56 Result: QCALC -> 1234.56 = 1234.6 SWITCH /D: Changes the number of places after the decimal point. (NUMBER) Requires an argument from 0 to 15. /D15 is the default amount of digits to be printed after the decimal point. /D0 will always print numbers whole, and with no decimal point. Zero padding is controlled by the "minimum digits" argument, as below. Any fractional part of a number beyond the specified argument will be truncated. =OR= (TOGGLE-LETTER) Requires the letter 'M' as an argument. "Minimum digits" defaults to ON. When minimum digits is on, any fractional part smaller than the specified digit limit will NOT have trailing zeroes, and if there is no fractional part, a decimal point will not be printed. With minimum digits off, all numbers with a specified digit limit greater than zero WILL have a decimal point, and will be zero padded up until the limit. Example: QCALC /v a:123.123 /D2 a /D0 a /DMD4 a /DM 123.12345 Result: QCALC -> A = 123.12 QCALC -> A = 123 QCALC -> A = 123.1230 QCALC -> 123.12345 = 123.1234 _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 23 SWITCH /F: Prints answers financially. (SEMI-TOGGLE) Prints answers with a dollar sign, commas, and two digits after the decimal point, trailing zeroes if necessary. Financial mode is considered "ON" if ALL of the following switches are set: /$CD2DM. If any of these settings are changed, financial mode is toggled "OFF". If financial mode is on and /F is called, the above settings are returned to their default values. Example: QCALC /F 12345.12345 500 Result: QCALC -> 12345.12435 = $12,345.12 QCALC -> 500 = $500.00 SWITCH /Ox: Alters the output of answers. (LET/TOGGLE) Has a number of arguments. These are: Q Toggles printing of "QCALC ->". X Toggles printing of the expression. E Toggles printing of the equal sign. R Prints answers (results) only. Same as /OQOXOE. A Toggles printing of the answer. (Got a use for this?) V For variables, toggles printing of "[var NAME]". N Toggles printing of the newline (carraige return). S Toggles printing of the separator. (See /S.) O Prints answers all on one line. Same as /OSONOR. P Supends printing of variable creation. (All parts.) D Restores all /O defaults. Example: QCALC /OO 5*5 5+5 5-5 Result: 25 10 0 _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 24 SWITCH /E: Alters the printing of errors. (LET) Requires N B H or V as an argument. /EN prints NO errors. If an error occurs, no mention will be made of the error. This may result in "empty lines" -- be careful with this switch! /EB prints BRIEF errors. If an error occurs, "Error!" is printed, rather than the description of the error. /EH prints full errors (same as /EV), but halts QCALC once an error occurs. (This may be a desirable option to put in the QCALC variable.) /EV prints VERBOSE errors. This is the default -- when an error occurs, QCALC prints the full error message, and a caret (^) on the next line attempts to point out the error. In the following example, /EB turns BRIEF printing on. The symbol "sin" is not a variable, it's a function, so QCALC reports "Syntax error!" However, since /EB is on, it only reports ... Example: QCALC /EB 5*sin Result: QCALC -> 5*SIN = Error! SWITCH /S: Changes the separator between answers used with /OS. (STRING) REQUIRES a string as an argument. This string MUST be surrounded by quotes. (Quotes are necessary because of the way DOS parses strings -- screwy things may occur without them.) In actuality, the S and the string do not have to be touching (there can be a space between them) -- the S only signals that the next argument is a string. But a string surrounded by quotes MUST be the next argument. The separator is only active when the /OS switch is turned on. The default separator is a single space -- this separator is printed between any answers. The following turns on single line printing, and selects a space, two hyphens, and another space as the separator. (To remove that third separator, put a /OS before the 3 on the command line.) Example: QCALC /OOS" -- " 1 2 3 Result: 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 25 SWITCH /N: Restores all switches to their defaults. This switch is NOT a toggle switch. Once specified, answers will be printed as if no switches were ever called (restored to their default parameters). This includes any switches in the QCALC environment variable! The following example turns on financial printing and prints only the answers. Then it prints a number, restores defaults, and prints the number again. Example: QCALC /FOR 1234.1234 /N 1234.1234 Results: $1,234.12 QCALC -> 1234.1234 = 1234.1234 SWITCH /FNORD: Suspends the printing of the opening header. "Quick-Calculator Version blah blah blah" can be suspended by having /FNORD as an argument anywhere in the command line, or in the QCALC environment variable. /FNORD may be combined with other switches, despite its unsightly appearance. /FNORD will not have any affect inside of a script file. The following prints NOTHING at all: QCALC /FNORD "I love beer." - Brent _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 26 THANKS AND REGRETS ------------------ Thanks to Scott Straley and Greg Matyola for advice and beta- testing on this project. Thanks to the people who make the software I use: Borland, Inc. Borland C++ Semware Quick Edit 2.10 Howard Kapustein Turbo C library (TCHK 2.0) Vern Buerg List 7.5i Word Perfect, Co. Word Perfect 5.1 This is the first release of QCALC, so I imagine many bugs will pop up and annoy people, and the lack of hindsight will come back to haunt me. If you have any errors to report, or suggestions to make, send them to: John Newlin Re: QCALC v. ______ (write in version number you're using) 66 Birchwood Drive Millington, NJ 07946 I should be at this address a while, considering I'm out of college, can't get a job, and leeching off the parents still seems like a good idea. Also, by the way, this is the address to send your checks too. (And just in case there's confusion, put MY name in the "TO" portion of the check. It's a bit difficult to cash checks made out to "QCALC", because my driver's license says John Newlin.) Enjoy, all. "If you weren't keeping me hostage in the bathroom, I might agree with you that I should pay for the door." - John Newlin _________________________________________________________________ Quick-Calculator -- Copyright (c) 1991 John Newlin -- Page 27