From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: cowan@mercury.ccil.org (John Cowan) Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 18:17:43 -0400 Subject: [TUHS] Etymology of bc(1) In-Reply-To: References: <877g19g8a7.fsf@gmail.com> <7A7060B7-0229-425F-BCF4-23C3669E167C@bsdimp.com> Message-ID: <20140911221742.GJ23708@mercury.ccil.org> Dave Horsfall scripsit: > > I?d always heard ?binary calculator? but I don?t have a good reference > > for that. > > I've heard "binary" because it used binary arithmetic (and limited > precision), and "basic" because it was a lot simpler than "dc" (which I've > always thought was "decimal" calculator due to it using arbitrary > precision decimal arithmetic). That can't be right. Bc was just an overlay to dc that parsed bc language, compiled it into dc language, and fed dc from a pipe (all the output was direct from dc). So the arithmetic capabilities were exactly the same. I note that bc first appeared just about when bas(1) disappeared, so perhaps there is a connection in their names. -- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan at ccil.org In the sciences, we are now uniquely privileged to sit side by side with the giants on whose shoulders we stand. --Gerald Holton