TAPECALC(1)

💖 TAPECALC(1) — the full-screen editing calculator 💖

okay bestie, so this is a User commands page for tapecalc, and no cap it's about to be your new emotional support calculator ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

tapecalc — full-screen editing calculator. yes that's the whole vibe, a calculator that's also an editor, main character energy fr fr 💅

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

tapecalc [options] [file-specifications]

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so tapecalc does fixed-point computation. lowkey iconic. it's designed to be your checkbook or expense-account balancing tool, which like… adulting, but make it cute 🫶

tapecalc keeps a running result for each operation. you can scroll to literally any position in the expression list and modify the list — no need to redo the whole thing, we're not doing that 💀

you enter data by typing numbers (decimal point optional, she's flexible), separated by operators.

an output transcript may be saved and reloaded for further editing. scripts are loaded from left to right (with the "output" processed first). noted 📝

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⭐ OPTIONS ⭐

command line options of tapecalc are:

• -h — prints the list of options. help me help you bestie 💖
• -i interval — sets the compounding interval for interest computation. money math, love that for us 💸
• -o script — specify the file in which to save the output transcript.
• -p num — sets precision (number of digits after the decimal place). how many digits, you decide 👑

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🌈 OPERATIONS 🌈

🧮 Computations:

the operators are all single-character:

• + — begins an addition
• - — begins a subtraction
• ~ — negates the result
• * — begins a multiplication
• / — begins a division
• % — begins an interest computation (uses interval): rate=number.
• $ — begins a sales-tax computation: rate=number.
• ( — opening parenthesis. this may enclose a unary '-', more parentheses, or data (implicit unary '+').
• ) — closing parenthesis, expects another operator, not data.
• = — flushes out the current number, forces re-computation of the running result. the way it just… recomputes 💅
• w — increases the width used for numbers by one column, up to a platform-specific value.
• W — decreases the width used for numbers by one column, down to a minimum of 6.

a space flushes out the current number-input, and (by default) sets the next operator to be the same as the current one. you may repeat the last arithmetic operation of any type:

• a — repeats the last '+' (default 0).
• s — repeats the last '-' (default 0).
• n — repeats the last '~'.
• m — repeats the last '*' (default 1).
• d — repeats the last '/' (default 1).
• i — repeats the last '%' (default 4).
• t — repeats the last '$' (default 4).

you may toggle the prefix operator of any number by typing a single character:

• A — toggles the operator to '+'.
• S — toggles the operator to '-'.
• N — toggles the operator to '~'.
• M — toggles the operator to '*'.
• D — toggles the operator to '/'.
• I — toggles the operator to '%'.
• T — toggles the operator to '$'.

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✏️ Editing:

as you enter data, you may edit it. a backspace deletes the last digit of the current number (if it's visible — gotta be visible, queen). use the arrow keys or vi-style 'h' and 'l' to move left and right within the line. other editing commands include:

• u — undoes the last x/X command (restricted to restoring the current data only). limited undo, we take what we can get 😭
• x — deletes the current data. if the data is null, deletes the following line.
• X — deletes the current data. if the data is null, deletes the preceding line and moves up.
• o — opens a new line after the current line.
• O — opens a new line before the current line.
• # — edit the associated comment.

an "open" permits you to insert a new operator and data into the expression list. you may type an operator character (e.g., '+'), and continue with the new data, or an operator-repeat (e.g., 'A'). in either case, you may edit the new data, just as you would the old data. a 'u' (or other toggle, such as 'o', 'O', or 'q') typed after an open will undo the open (and close it). okay that's actually so satisfying 🦋

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🖱️ Scrolling/cursor movement:

• H — move to the top line on the screen.
• M — move to the middle line on the screen.
• L — move to the last line on the screen
• CTL/F — scroll forward one screen.
• CTL/B — scroll backward one screen.
• j — move forward one line.
• k — move backward one line.
• z<CR> — move the current line to the top of the screen.
• z. — move the current line to the middle of the screen.
• z- — move the current line to the bottom of the screen.

like vi, tapecalc allows you to jump to a particular line with a ":" command

• :$ — jumps to the last entry
• :1 — jumps to the first entry.

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📜 Scripts:

transcript files are formatted to permit line-oriented entries:

<operator><value><blank><ignored><blank># comment

the transcripts saved by tapecalc contain the running result in the "ignored" part. to exit without saving a transcript, type 'Q'. a normal exit, by typing 'q', saves the list of operators, data (and running result) in the specified file. capital letter matters, bestie, do not play 🙈

you can read and write scripts without leaving tapecalc:

• :e file — clears the current script and reads a script from the file.
• :f — shows the current script name.
• :r file — reads a script at the current entry
• :w file — writes a script to the specified file.

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🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

tapecalc runs in a portable UNIX® environment. she travels well 💜

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🍓 FILES 🍓

tapecalc is a single binary module, with a help file tapecalc.hlp installed in the same directory.

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💀 BUGS 💀

it would be nice to be able to change the precision within the program. in particular, the interest and sales tax computations would be more useful if their precision was independent of the running total. so… noted, not fixed, we move 🌸

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Thomas E. Dickey

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

wc(1), vi(1)

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and that's the whole page bestie, you're literally a calculator girlie now 💖✨

this was the TAPECALC(1) page — source/version and date, from the footer: 2024-01-10. mwah, go balance something 🎀