learnpython.org - an online interactive Python tutorial

Sun Apr 24 07:16:15 EDT 2011

On 01/-10/-28163 02:59 PM, harrismh777 wrote:
> Cameron Simpson wrote:
>> | folks are not aware that 'bc' also has arbitrary precision floating
>> | point math and a standard math library.
>>>> Floating point math? I thought, historically at least, that bc is built
>> on dc (arbitrary precision integer math, reverse polish syntax) and that
>> consequently bc uses fixed point math rather than floating point.
>> My bad... I don't mean under-the-covers... I mean that the user may
> calculate arbitrary precision floating arithmetic ... bc keeps track of
> the decimal point and displays the number of digits the user specifies;
> arbitrary precision calculator. (loose language, sorry)
>> On a *nix system, Mac OSx, Linux, run this to get 1000+ digits of PI:
>> time echo "scale = 1010; 16 * a(1/5) - 4 * a(1/239)" |bc -lq
>>>> scale sets the precision, -lq loads the math library arctan() quiet.
>>>
Wouldn't it be shorter to say:
time echo "scale = 1010; 4 * a(1)" |bc -lq
DaveA