I still use bc for some simple arithmetic, but having observed that many simple problems quickly get complicated, usually just start with lua or python these days. (Or Lisp, if you like forward Polish notation.) Just as easy to use for 2 + 2 math, and expandable as needed. Whenever I start with a calculator, I inevitably want “now do this for every number in a text file”.
Ah, the wonderful approachability of making intermediate results visible while editing <3. See also find as you type, REPLs, your terminal prompt, your terminal prompt enhanced with Mercurial or Git repository status, the fish shell’s highlighting of valid path and command prefixes, etc. etc. etc. Up with this sort of thing!
I still use bc for some simple arithmetic, but having observed that many simple problems quickly get complicated, usually just start with lua or python these days. (Or Lisp, if you like forward Polish notation.) Just as easy to use for 2 + 2 math, and expandable as needed. Whenever I start with a calculator, I inevitably want “now do this for every number in a text file”.
Another great stack-based calculator is Emacs’
calc, it’s my choice for doing calculations.Ah, the wonderful approachability of making intermediate results visible while editing <3. See also find as you type, REPLs, your terminal prompt, your terminal prompt enhanced with Mercurial or Git repository status, the fish shell’s highlighting of valid path and command prefixes, etc. etc. etc. Up with this sort of thing!