ccalc

Calculator with expression simplification that lets you define new functions and constants. Dependency-free except for readline.

Setup guide

Arch and Manjaro

You can install package ccalc directly from the AUR.

Install from GitHub

1. Clone repository.
2. If you want to use readline, download its development files (Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install libreadline-dev).
3. In root of repository, invoke make (optional targets: debug, tests). If you don't want to use readline, add NOREADLINE=1 as an argument.
4. If you automatically want to load simplification rules on startup, copy simplification.ruleset to /etc/ccalc/. If you want to use another folder, invoke make INSTALL_PATH=/my/path (without trailing slash) and place simplification.ruleset there.

How to use it

ccalc processes input line by line. Any input that is not a command will be considered an arithmetical expression and be directly evaluated. See syntax rules and commands below.

Switches

Switch	Description
--version -v	Displays version number and terminates.
--help -h	Displays help message and terminates.
--interactive -i	Forces to enter interactive mode after processing commands.
--quiet -q	Suppresses license notice on interactive start.
--commands -c [N]	Executes subsequent arguments as if typed in. Must be last switch. Terminates if -i not present.

Syntax

• Just type in a mathematical expression to evaluate it.
• Use ans or @<index> to reference previous results. @0 is the same as ans, @1 the second previous result and so on.
• Two subexpressions next to each other without an infix operator will be multiplied (e.g. 2a or (x-1)(y+1)).
• You can define functions and constants (e.g. myFunc(x) = x^2, myConst = 42).
• Any line starting with # will be ignored (useful for comments in files to be loaded).
• Use $ to parse the rest of the expression as if it was put in parentheses, like in Haskell.

Available commands

Command	Description
<func|const> = <after>	Adds function or constant. E.g. f(x)=3x^2 or c=42
table <expr> ; <from> ; <to> ; <step> [fold <expr> ; <init>]	Prints table of values and optionally folds them. In fold expression, x is replaced with the intermediate result (init in first step), y is replaced with the current value. Result of fold is stored in history.
load [simplification] <path>	Loads file as if its content had been typed in or loads simplification rules.
help [operators]	Lists available commands and operators.
clear [<func|const>]	Clears all or one function or constant.
license	Shows information about ccalc's license.
quit	Closes application.

Arithmetic operators

Infix operators

Name	Associativity	Precedence	Description
+	Both	2	Addition
-	Left	2	Subtraction
*	Both	4	Multiplication
/	Left	3	Division
^	Right	5	Exponentiation
C	Left	1	Binomial coefficient
mod	Left	1	Modulo operator

Prefix operators

Name	Precedence	Description
$	0	Identity to parse rest of expression as if put in parentheses
@	8	History operator (@0 = ans, @1 = second last result etc.)
+	7	Identity
-	7	Negation

Postfix operators

Name	Precedence	Description
!	6	Factorial
%	6	Division by 100
'	7	Derivative shorthand (beta)

Functions

Name	Description
deriv(x, y)	Derivative of x with respect to y (beta)
exp(x)	Natural exponential function
root(x, n)	nth root of x
sqrt(x)	Square root
log(x, n)	Logarithm to base n
ln(x)	Natural logarithm
ld(x)	Binary logarithm
lg(x)	Logarithm to base 10
sin(x)	Sine
cos(x)	Cosine
tan(x)	Tangent
asin(x)	Inverse sine
acos(x)	Inverse cosine
atan(x)	Inverse tangens
sinh(x)	Hyperbolic sine
cosh(x)	Hyperbolic cosine
tanh(x)	Hyperbolic tangent
asinh(x)	Inverse hyperbolic sine
acosh(x)	Inverse hyperbolic cosine
atanh(x)	Inverse hyperbolic tangent
max(*)	Maximum
min(*)	Minimum
abs(x)	Absolute value
ceil(x)	Round up to nearest integer
floor(x)	Round down to nearest integer
round(x)	Round to nearest integer
trunc(x)	Round towards 0 to nearest integer
frac(x)	Fractional part of x
sgn(x)	Sign of x (-1, 0, 1)
sum(*)	Sum of all operands
prod(*)	Product of all operands
avg(*)	Arithmetic mean of all operands
median(*)	Median of all values
gcd(x, y)	Greatest common divisor
lcm(x, y)	Least common multiple
rand(min, max)	Random integer between min and max (exclusive)
fib(n)	Fibonacci sequence
gamma(x)	Gamma function
var(*)	Variance of a population

Note:

• * is used to denote arbitrary number of operands
• Where operands are expected to be integer-valued, they will be truncated
• A function will return NaN on otherwise malformed arguments

Constants

Name	Value	Description
pi	3.14159265359	Archimedes' constant
e	2.71828182846	Euler's number
phi	1.61803398874	Golden ratio
clight	299792458	Speed of light [m/s]
csound	343.2	Speed of sound in air at 20 °C [m/s]
ans		Last result

Contributing

Not currently accepting contributions. Feel free to create an issue.