Quick introduction

    This is an interactive calculator which provides for easy large
    numeric calculations, but which also can be easily programmed
    for difficult or long calculations.	 It can accept a command line
    argument, in which case it executes that single command and exits.
    Otherwise, it enters interactive mode.  In this mode, it accepts
    commands one at a time, processes them, and displays the answers.
    In the simplest case, commands are simply expressions which are
    evaluated.	For example, the following line can be input:

	    3 * (4 + 1)

    and the calculator will print 15.

    The special '.' symbol (called dot), represents the result of the
    last command expression, if any.  This is of great use when a series
    of partial results are calculated, or when the output mode is changed
    and the last result needs to be redisplayed.  For example, the above
    result can be doubled by typing:

	    . * 2

    and the calculator will print 30.

    For more complex calculations, variables can be used to save the
    intermediate results.  For example, the result of adding 7 to the
    previous result can be saved by typing:

	    old = . + 7

    Functions can be used in expressions.  There are a great number of
    pre-defined functions.  For example, the following will calculate
    the factorial of the value of 'old':

	    fact(old)

    and the calculator prints 13763753091226345046315979581580902400000000.
    Notice that numbers can be very large. (There is a practical limit
    of several thousand digits before calculations become too slow.)

    The calculator can calculate transcendental functions, and accept and
    display numbers in real or exponential format. For example, typing:

	    config("display", 50)
	    epsilon(1e-50)
	    sin(1)

    prints "~.84147098480789650665250232163029899962256306079837".

    The calculator also knows about complex numbers, so that typing:

	    (2+3i) * (4-3i)

    prints "17+6i".

    For more information about the calc lauguage and features, try:

	    help overview

## Copyright (C) 1999  Landon Curt Noll
##
## Calc is open software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
## the terms of the version 2.1 of the GNU Lesser General Public License
## as published by the Free Software Foundation.
##
## Calc is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
## ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
## or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.	 See the GNU Lesser General
## Public License for more details.
##
## A copy of version 2.1 of the GNU Lesser General Public License is
## distributed with calc under the filename COPYING-LGPL.  You should have
## received a copy with calc; if not, write to Free Software Foundation, Inc.
## 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
##
## @(#) $Revision: 29.1 $
## @(#) $Id: intro,v 29.1 1999/12/14 09:15:54 chongo Exp $
## @(#) $Source: /usr/local/src/cmd/calc/help/RCS/intro,v $
##
## Under source code control:	1991/07/21 04:37:21
## File existed as early as:	1991
##
## chongo <was here> /\oo/\	http://reality.sgi.com/chongo/
## Share and enjoy!  :-)	http://reality.sgi.com/chongo/tech/comp/calc/