CALCTOOL

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Calctool is desktop calculator which runs under suntools(1). Users interact with calctool using the mouse and keyboard as described below. Calctool honors the standard window command line options.

Calctool can be used as a scientific calculator, providing the standard trigonometric and transcendental functions, or it can be used as a programmer's calculator, allowing bitwise manipulation of binary, octal, and hexadecimal values. All internal values in calctool are maintained using double precision floating point.  

USER INTERFACE

The Display

Calctool presents the user with a keyboard and a display area. The display area displays the results of calculations, and a status line showing information about the current mode of calctool. The left portion of the status line displays the operator stack, allowing the user to track pending operations as calctool stacks them. The middle of the display line shows the current trigonometric mode, either ``Deg'', ``Rad'', or ``Grad''. To the right of the trigonometric mode, either ``EE'' or ``Eng'' will appear when the calculator is in scientific exponential or engineering exponential mode. The right portion shows the current display precision, indicating the number of decimal digits shown (in scientific mode) or the number of bits shown (in programmer mode).

In scientific or enigneering mode, the value in the display is presented in fixed point notation if it is small enough, or is converted to scientific notation if not. In programmer mode, the value is presented as a bit string in the appropriate base. The Fix and EE keys, below, control the precision and format of the display.  

The Keyboard

The various keys on the keyboard are, for the most part, self-explanatory. Keys are ``pressed'' by clicking the left mouse button on the key. Some keys also have inverted functions, which are accessed by first clicking the Inverse key, and then clicking the desired inverse function. Clicking the Inverse key causes the inverse functions to be displayed. Those keys without inverse functions are grayed out.

A shortcut method is provided to access inverse functions. Clicking the middle button on a key accesses its inverse function directly, without pressing the Inverse key first. Pressing and holding the middle button on a key will preview its inverse function; releasing the middle button will activate the inverse function.

Several keys on the keyboard have special functions associated with them. These keys are:

Sto, Rcl, Exc

When accessed with the left button, these keys access memory 0 of calctool. If more memories are desired, they can be accessed by pressing the right button on the desired key. A menu will pop up, showing the various memories currently in use. In the case of the Rcl or Exc keys, selecting a memory will cause that memory to be recalled to, or exchanged with, the value in the display. The Sto key works in a similar manner, except that an additional entry, ``New Memory'', is also provided. Selecting ``New Memory'' causes a new memory to be created, containing the value in the display. Up to 42 memories (0 through 41) can be created in this manner.

Fix, DRG

The Fix key is visible in normal scientific or programmer mode, while the DRG key is visible in inverted scientific mode. When accessed with the left and middle buttons, these keys cycle through the various display modes. In scientific mode, the Fix key cycles through 0 to 12 digits, and floating, precision. This value determines the number of digits which follow the decimal point in the display. In programmer mode, the Fix key cycles through the available bit widths, which for binary is 4, 8, or 16 bits, and for octal and hexadecimal is 8, 16, or 32 bits. The DRG key cycles among the degrees, radians, and grads trigonometric modes, which determines how the trigonometric functions will accept and display their arguments.

Either of these keys cycles when clicked with the left button, and displays a menu when clicked with the right button.

Scientific, Binary, Octal, Hexadecimal

This large key cycles between the various calculator modes. Clicking with the left button cycles through the four modes, while the right button displays a menu of the various modes. When switching from one mode to another, the display is modified to reflect the new mode. The internal value of the display is not changed until that value is used. For example, if the current value in the display is ``14.5'', selecting hexadecimal mode will cause the display to read ``D''. However, the internal value is still 14.5. Returning to scientific mode will restore the display to ``14.5''. If, while in hexadecimal mode, 1 was added to the display, (displaying ``E''), returning to scientific mode would display ``15'', since hexadecimal mode truncated the display before using it.

EE

This key places the calculator in exponential mode, which causes all results to be displayed in scientific notation. In scientific mode, normal scientific notation is used. In engineering mode, the exponent is adjusted to a multiple of three. To return to normal display mode, click Inverse EE. This key also allows the user to enter exponents when keying in a value. Clicking EE once allows the user to enter the exponent value. Clicking again returns the user to entering the mantissa.

Erase, Clear

The Erase key erases the currently displayed value and replaces it with zero. The Clear key erases the display, the internal value stack, and the internal operator stack. The Clear key can be accessed by clicking the Erase key with the middle mouse button.

Typing Values

Instead of clicking keys, the user can type values directly on the keyboard. Calctool will recognize the digits ``0'' through ``9'', and ``A'' through ``F'' in hexadecimal mode. In scientific mode, the ``E'' key acts like the EE key and the ``.'' key acts like the decimal point key. The ``+'', ``-'', ``*'', and ``/'' keys correspond to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and ``('', ``)'', and ``='' perform the expected function. In addition, the ``S'', ``R'', and ``G'' keys correspond to the store, recall and exchange functions. The ``X'' key is equivalent to ``*'', and carriage return and newline act like the ``='' key.  

AUTHOR

Chuck Musciano
Advanced Technology Department
Harris Corporation
PO Box 37, MS 3A/1912
Melbourne, FL 32909
(305) 727-6131
ARPA: chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com  

BUGS

Keystrokes are ignored when the mouse is positioned in the Scientific key.

There is no way to effect the +/- key from the keyboard.

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

USER INTERFACE

The Display

The Keyboard

Typing Values

AUTHOR

BUGS