Command: rcal
RCAL is an interactive calculator that loosely mimics the behavior of
"roller printing" calculators. It supports huge numbers, floating point
and has extremely low hardware requirements.
Syntax:
rcal [/log=file.log] [/?]
Options:
/log=file.log Writes the log file ("paper of roller printing")
/? Shows the help
Comments:
rcal is a 16-bit (real mode) DOS application. It needs DOS 3+, an 8086
CPU and around 100 KiB of available conventional RAM.
USAGE:
Using rcal is as simple as launching the rcal executable and providing
the operands and operators that need to be computed. Following operators
are supported:
'+' and '-' (add/subtract)
'*' and '/' (multiply/divide)
^ - power
% - percent
Inputing a negative operand requires to press the 'S' key (S = change
sign).
Operator notes:
1. The percent operator acts in a perhaps peculiar way, since it
actually does slightly more than just scaling a value down by 100.
When it is preceded by an addition or subtraction, the percent
operator will add or subtract the product of the previous operand.
Example:
Operation: "300 + 5%" will actually perform "300 + (300 * 5%)"
2. The power operator (^) supports only integer exponents.
3. Divisions are performed using a precision limited to 20 decimal
places.
Limitations:
Values that can be input to rcal can have up to 10 integer digits and
6 fractional digits. The computation engine itself is able to handle
much bigger numbers though: the entire result can be up to 56 digits
long (longer intermediate results are possible, but won't be displayed).
Changelog v 1.0.1: fixed handlings of decimals when separator is
not "."
Examples:
Enter an operand, followed by an operator, followed by an operand.
Press ESC to quit.
rcal (Enter rcal first, followed by ENTER)
2.795 = 2.795 (Enter the value followed by +)
+ 3,87629 = 6.67129 (Enter the value followed by -)
- 5.123456 = 1.547834 (Enter the value followed by /)
/ 2 = 0.773917 (Enter the value followed by *)
* 4 = 3.095668 (ESC to quit).
= Goodbye
rcal (Enter rcal first, followed by ENTER)
55 = 55 (Enter the value, followed by ^)
^ 4 = 9150625 (Enter the value, followed by ESC)
= Goodbye (55^4 = 55*55*55*55)
rcal (Enter rcal first, followed by ENTER)
555 = 555 (Enter the value, followed by +)
+ 10% = 610,5 (Enter the value AND "%", followed by -)
- 20% = 488,4 (Enter the value AND "%", followed by *)
* 3% = 14,652 (Enter the value AND "5", followed by ESC).
= Goodbye
See also:
fdrc
foxcalc
Copyright © 2018 Mateusz Viste, help version 2023 W. Spiegl.
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
See the file H2Cpying for copying conditions.