xref: /freebsd/contrib/bc/NEWS.md (revision 19fae0f66023a97a9b464b3beeeabb2081f575b3)
1# News
2
3## 6.6.0
4
5This is a production release with two bug fixes and one change.
6
7The first bug fix is to fix the build on Mac OSX.
8
9The second bug was to remove printing a leading zero in scientific or
10engineering output modes.
11
12The change was that the implementation of `irand()` was improved to call the
13PRNG less.
14
15## 6.5.0
16
17This is a production release that fixes an infinite loop bug in `root()` and
18`cbrt()`, fixes a bug with `BC_LINE_LENGTH=0`, and adds the `fib()` function to
19the extended math library to calculate Fibonacci numbers.
20
21## 6.4.0
22
23This is a production release that fixes a `read()`/`?` bug and adds features to
24`bcl`.
25
26The bug was that multiple read calls could repeat old data.
27
28The new features in `bcl` are functions to preserve `BclNumber` arguments and
29not free them.
30
31***WARNING for `bcl` Users***: The `bcl_rand_seedWithNum()` function used to not
32consume its arguments. Now it does. This change could have made this version
33`7.0.0`, but I'm 99.9% confident that there are no `bcl` users, or if there are,
34they probably don't use the PRNG. So I took a risk and didn't update the major
35version.
36
37`bcl` now includes more capacity to check for invalid numbers when built to run
38under Valgrind.
39
40## 6.3.1
41
42This is a production release that fixes a `bc` dependency loop for minimal
43environments and Linux from Scratch.
44
45## 6.3.0
46
47This is a production release with a couple of fixes for manuals and a new
48feature for `dc`: there is now a command to query whether extended registers are
49enabled or not.
50
51Users who don't care do not need to upgrade.
52
53## 6.2.6
54
55This is a production release that fixes an install bug that affected locale
56installation of all locales when using `mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to
57upgrade if they don't use `mksh` and/or don't need to install all locales.
58
59## 6.2.5
60
61This is a production release that fixes a test bug that affected Android and
62`mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade unless they use `mksh` or another
63affected shell and need to run the test suite.
64
65## 6.2.4
66
67This is a production release that fixes a test failure that happens when
68`tests/bc/scripts/timeconst.bc` doesn't exist. This should only affect
69packagers.
70
71This bug happened because I forgot something I added in the previous release:
72better error checking in tests to help packagers. Unfortunately, I was too
73zealous with the error checking.
74
75## 6.2.3
76
77This is a production release that moves `bc` to <https://git.gavinhoward.com>.
78
79That's all it does: update links. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade; there are
80redirects that will stay in place indefinitely. This release is only for new
81users.
82
83## 6.2.2
84
85This is a production release that fixes a bug.
86
87The bug was that if an array element was used as a parameter, and then a later
88parameter had the same name as the array whose element was used, `bc` would grab
89the element from the new array parameter, not the actual element from before the
90function call.
91
92## 6.2.1
93
94This is a production release with one bug fix for a memory bug in history.
95
96## 6.2.0
97
98This is a production release with a new feature and a few bug fixes.
99
100The bug fixes include:
101
102* A crash when `bc` and `dc` are built using editline, but history is not
103  activated.
104* A missing local in the `uint*()` family of functions in the extended math
105  library.
106* A failure to clear the tail call list in `dc` on error.
107* A crash when attempting to swap characters in command-line history when no
108  characters exist.
109* `SIGWINCH` was activated even when history was not.
110
111The new feature is that stack traces are now given for runtime errors. In debug
112mode, the C source file and line of errors are given as well.
113
114## 6.1.1
115
116This is a production release that fixes a build issue with predefined builds and
117generated tests.
118
119## 6.1.0
120
121This is a production release that fixes a discrepancy from the `bc` standard,
122a couple of memory bugs, and adds new features.
123
124The discrepancy from the `bc` standard was with regards to the behavior of the
125`quit` command. This `bc` used to quit whenever it encountered `quit` during
126parsing, even if it was parsing a full file. Now, `bc` only quits when
127encountering `quit` *after* it has executed all executable statements up to that
128point.
129
130This behavior is slightly different from GNU `bc`, but users will only notice
131the difference if they put `quit` on the same line as other statements.
132
133The first memory bug could be reproduced by assigning a string to a non-local
134variable in a function, then redefining the function with use of the same
135non-local variable, which would still refer to a string in the previous version
136of the function.
137
138The second memory bug was caused by passing an array argument to the `asciify()`
139built-in function. In certain cases, that was wrongly allowed, and the
140interpreter just assumed everything was correct and accessed memory. Now that
141arrays are allowed as arguments (see below), this is not an issue.
142
143The first feature was the addition of the `is_number()` built-in function (`u`
144in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a number and 0 otherwise.
145
146The second feature was the addition of the `is_string()` built-in function (`t`
147in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a string and 0 otherwise.
148
149These features were added because I realized that type-checking is necessary now
150that strings can be assigned to variables in `bc` and because they've always
151been assignable to variables in `dc`.
152
153The last added feature is the ability of the `asciify()` built-in function in
154`bc` to convert a full array of numbers into a string. This means that
155character-by-character printing will not be necessary, and more strings than
156just single-character ones will be able to be created.
157
158## 6.0.4
159
160This is a production release that most users will not need to upgrade to.
161
162This fixes a build bug for `bcl` only on OpenBSD. Users that do not need `bcl`
163or have not run into build errors with `bcl` do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
164
165## 6.0.3
166
167This is a production release that fixes a build bug for cross-compilation.
168
169Users that do not need cross-compilation do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
170
171## 6.0.2
172
173This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
174
175* The `-l` option overrode the `-S` option.
176* A double-free and crash when sending a `SIGINT` while executing expressions
177  given on the command-line.
178
179## 6.0.1
180
181This is a production release that fixes memory bugs and memory leaks in `bcl`.
182
183Users that do not use `bcl` (use only `bc` and/or `dc`) do ***NOT*** need to
184upgrade.
185
186These happened because I was unaware that the `bcl` test was not hooked into the
187Valgrind test infrastructure. Then, when I ran the release script, which tests
188everything under Valgrind (or so I thought), it caught nothing, and I thought it
189was safe.
190
191But it was not.
192
193Nevertheless, I have now run it under Valgrind and fixed all of the memory bugs
194(caused by not using `memset()` where I should have but previously didn't have
195to) and memory leaks.
196
197## 6.0.0
198
199This is a production release that fixes an oversight in the `bc` parser (that
200sometimes caused the wrong error message) and adds a feature for compatibility
201with the BSD `bc` and `dc`: turning off digit clamping when parsing numbers.
202
203The default for clamping can be set during the build (see the [build
204manual][13]), it can be set with the `BC_DIGIT_CLAMP` and `DC_DIGIT_CLAMP`
205environment variables, and it can be set with the `-c` and `-C` command-line
206options.
207
208Turning off clamping was also added to the `bcl` library.
209
210In addition, signal handling was removed from the `bcl` library in order to add
211the capability for multi-threading. This required a major version bump. I
212apologize to all library users (I don't know of any), but signals and threads do
213not play well together.
214
215To help with building, a convenience option (`-p`) to `configure.sh` was added
216to build a `bc` and `dc` that is by default compatible with either the BSD `bc`
217and `dc` or the GNU `bc` and `dc`.
218
219## 5.3.3
220
221This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
222system.
223
224All other users do **NOT** need to upgrade.
225
226## 5.3.2
227
228This is a production release that fixes prompt bugs with editline and readline
229where the `BC_PROMPT` environment variable was not being respected.
230
231This also fixes editline and readline output on `EOF`.
232
233## 5.3.1
234
235This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
236system, as well as a problem in the `en_US` locale. If you don't have problems
237with either, you do not need to upgrade.
238
239## 5.3.0
240
241This is a production release that adds features and has a few bug fixes.
242
243First, support for editline and readline history has been added. To use
244editline, pass `-e` to `configure.sh`, and to use readline, pass `-r`.
245
246Second, history support for Windows has been fixed and re-enabled.
247
248Third, command-line options to set `scale`, `ibase`, `obase`, and `seed` were
249added. This was requested long ago, and I originally disagreed with the idea.
250
251Fourth, the manuals had typos and were missing information. That has been fixed.
252
253Fifth, the manuals received different formatting to be more readable as
254manpages.
255
256## 5.2.5
257
258This is a production release that fixes this `bc`'s behavior on `^D` to match
259GNU `bc`.
260
261## 5.2.4
262
263This is a production release that fixes two bugs in history:
264
265* Without prompt, the cursor could not be placed on the first character in a
266  line.
267* Home and End key handling in `tmux` was fixed.
268
269Any users that do not care about these improvements do not need to upgrade.
270
271## 5.2.3
272
273This is a production release that fixes one bug, a parse error when passing a
274file to `bc` using `-f` if that file had a multiline comment or string in it.
275
276## 5.2.2
277
278This is a production release that fixes one bug, a segmentation fault if
279`argv[0]` equals `NULL`.
280
281This is not a critical bug; there will be no vulnerability as far as I can tell.
282There is no need to update if you do not wish to.
283
284## 5.2.1
285
286This is a production release that fixes two parse bugs when in POSIX standard
287mode. One of these bugs was due to a quirk of the POSIX grammar, and the other
288was because `bc` was too strict.
289
290## 5.2.0
291
292This is a production release that adds a new feature, fixes some bugs, and adds
293out-of-source builds and a `pkg-config` file for `bcl`.
294
295The new feature is the ability to turn off exiting on expressions. It is also
296possible to set the default using `configure.sh`. This behavior used to exist
297with the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variable, which is now used again.
298
299Bugs fixed include:
300
301* Some possible race conditions with error handling.
302* Install and uninstall targets for `bcl` did not work.
303
304## 5.1.1
305
306This is a production release that completes a bug fix from `5.1.0`. The bug
307exists in all versions of `bc`.
308
309The bug was that `if` statements without `else` statements would not be handled
310correctly at the end of files or right before a function definition.
311
312## 5.1.0
313
314This is a production release with some fixes and new features.
315
316* Fixed a bug where an `if` statement without an `else` before defining a
317  function caused an error.
318* Fixed a bug with the `bc` banner and `-q`.
319* Fixed a bug on Windows where files were not read correctly.
320* Added a command-line flag (`-z`) to make `bc` and `dc` print leading zeroes on
321  numbers `-1 < x < 1`.
322* Added four functions to `lib2.bc` (`plz()`, `plznl()`, `pnlz()`, and
323  `pnlznl()`) to allow printing numbers with or without leading zeros, despite
324  the use of `-z` or not.
325* Added builtin functions to query global state like line length, global stacks,
326  and leading zeroes.
327* Added a command-line flag (`-L`) to disable wrapping when printing numbers.
328* Improved builds on Windows.
329
330## 5.0.2
331
332This is a production release with one fix for a flaky test. If you have not
333experienced problems with the test suite, you do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
334
335The test was one that tested whether `bc` fails gracefully when it can't
336allocate memory. Unfortunately, there are cases when Linux and FreeBSD lie and
337pretend to allocate the memory.
338
339The reason they do this is because a lot of programs don't use all of the memory
340they allocate, so those OS's usually get away with it.
341
342However, this `bc` uses all of the memory it allocates (at least at page
343granularity), so when it tries to use the memory, FreeBSD and Linux kill it.
344
345This only happens sometimes, however. Other times (on my machine), they do, in
346fact, refuse the request.
347
348So I changed the test to not test for that because I think the graceful failure
349code won't really change much.
350
351## 5.0.1
352
353This is a production release with two fixes:
354
355* Fix for the build on Mac OSX.
356* Fix for the build on Android.
357
358Users that do not use those platforms do ***NOT*** need to update.
359
360## 5.0.0
361
362This is a major production release with several changes:
363
364* Added support for OpenBSD's `pledge()` and `unveil()`.
365* Fixed print bug where a backslash newline combo was printed even if only one
366  digit was left, something I blindly copied from GNU `bc`, like a fool.
367* Fixed bugs in the manuals.
368* Fixed a possible multiplication overflow in power.
369* Temporary numbers are garbage collected if allocation fails, and the
370  allocation is retried. This is to make `bc` and `dc` more resilient to running
371  out of memory.
372* Limited the number of temporary numbers and made the space for them static so
373  that allocating more space for them cannot fail.
374* Allowed integers with non-zero `scale` to be used with power, places, and
375  shift operators.
376* Added greatest common divisor and least common multiple to `lib2.bc`.
377* Added `SIGQUIT` handling to history.
378* Added a command to `dc` (`y`) to get the length of register stacks.
379* Fixed multi-digit bugs in `lib2.bc`.
380* Removed the no prompt build option.
381* Created settings that builders can set defaults for and users can set their
382  preferences for. This includes the `bc` banner, resetting on `SIGINT`, TTY
383  mode, and prompt.
384* Added history support to Windows.
385* Fixed bugs with the handling of register names in `dc`.
386* Fixed bugs with multi-line comments and strings in both calculators.
387* Added a new error type and message for `dc` when register stacks don't have
388  enough items.
389* Optimized string allocation.
390* Made `bc` and `dc` UTF-8 capable.
391* Fixed a bug with `void` functions.
392* Fixed a misspelled symbol in `bcl`. This is technically a breaking change,
393  which requires this to be `5.0.0`.
394* Added the ability for users to get the copyright banner back.
395* Added the ability for users to have `bc` and `dc` quit on `SIGINT`.
396* Added the ability for users to disable prompt and TTY mode by environment
397  variables.
398* Added the ability for users to redefine keywords. This is another reason this
399  is `5.0.0`.
400* Added `dc`'s modular exponentiation and divmod to `bc`.
401* Added the ability to assign strings to variables and array elements and pass
402  them to functions in `bc`.
403* Added `dc`'s asciify command and stream printing to `bc`.
404* Added a command to `dc` (`Y`) to get the length of an array.
405* Added a command to `dc` (`,`) to get the depth of the execution stack.
406* Added bitwise and, or, xor, left shift, right shift, reverse, left rotate,
407  right rotate, and mod functions to `lib2.bc`.
408* Added the functions `s2u(x)` and `s2un(x,n)`, to `lib2.bc`.
409
410## 4.0.2
411
412This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
413
4141.	If no files are used and the first statement on `stdin` is invalid, `scale`
415	would not be set to `20` even if `-l` was used.
4162.	When using history, `bc` failed to respond properly to `SIGSTOP` and
417	`SIGTSTP`.
418
419## 4.0.1
420
421This is a production release that only adds one thing: flushing output when it
422is printed with a print statement.
423
424## 4.0.0
425
426This is a production release with many fixes, a new command-line option, and a
427big surprise:
428
429* A bug was fixed in `dc`'s `P` command where the item on the stack was *not*
430  popped.
431* Various bugs in the manuals have been fixed.
432* A known bug was fixed where history did not interact well with prompts printed
433  by user code without newlines.
434* A new command-line option, `-R` and `--no-read-prompt` was added to disable
435  just the prompt when using `read()` (`bc`) or `?` (`dc`).
436* And finally, **official support for Windows was added**.
437
438The last item is why this is a major version bump.
439
440Currently, only one set of build options (extra math and prompt enabled, history
441and NLS/locale support disabled, both calculators enabled) is supported on
442Windows. However, both debug and release builds are supported.
443
444In addition, Windows builds are supported for the the library (`bcl`).
445
446For more details about how to build on Windows, see the [README][5] or the
447[build manual][13].
448
449## 3.3.4
450
451This is a production release that fixes a small bug.
452
453The bug was that output was not flushed before a `read()` call, so prompts
454without a newline on the end were not flushed before the `read()` call.
455
456This is such a tiny bug that users only need to upgrade if they are affected.
457
458## 3.3.3
459
460This is a production release with one tweak and fixes for manuals.
461
462The tweak is that `length(0)` returns `1` instead of `0`. In `3.3.1`, I changed
463it so `length(0.x)`, where `x` could be any number of digits, returned the
464`scale`, but `length(0)` still returned `0` because I believe that `0` has `0`
465significant digits.
466
467After request of FreeBSD and considering the arguments of a mathematician,
468compatibility with other `bc`'s, and the expectations of users, I decided to
469make the change.
470
471The fixes for manuals fixed a bug where `--` was rendered as `-`.
472
473## 3.3.2
474
475This is a production release that fixes a divide-by-zero bug in `root()` in the
476[extended math library][16]. All previous versions with `root()` have the bug.
477
478## 3.3.1
479
480This is a production release that fixes a bug.
481
482The bug was in the reporting of number length when the value was 0.
483
484## 3.3.0
485
486This is a production release that changes one behavior and fixes documentation
487bugs.
488
489The changed behavior is the treatment of `-e` and `-f` when given through
490`BC_ENV_ARGS` or `DC_ENV_ARGS`. Now `bc` and `dc` do not exit when those options
491(or their equivalents) are given through those environment variables. However,
492`bc` and `dc` still exit when they or their equivalents are given on the
493command-line.
494
495## 3.2.7
496
497This is a production release that removes a small non-portable shell operation
498in `configure.sh`. This problem was only noticed on OpenBSD, not FreeBSD or
499Linux.
500
501Non-OpenBSD users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, although NetBSD users may also
502need to upgrade.
503
504## 3.2.6
505
506This is a production release that fixes the build on FreeBSD.
507
508There was a syntax error in `configure.sh` that the Linux shell did not catch,
509and FreeBSD depends on the existence of `tests/all.sh`.
510
511All users that already upgraded to `3.2.5` should update to this release, with
512my apologies for the poor release of `3.2.5`. Other users should skip `3.2.5` in
513favor of this version.
514
515## 3.2.5
516
517This is a production release that fixes several bugs and adds a couple small
518things.
519
520The two most important bugs were bugs that causes `dc` to access memory
521out-of-bounds (crash in debug builds). This was found by upgrading to `afl++`
522from `afl`. Both were caused by a failure to distinguish between the same two
523cases.
524
525Another bug was the failure to put all of the licenses in the `LICENSE.md` file.
526
527Third, some warnings by `scan-build` were found and eliminated. This needed one
528big change: `bc` and `dc` now bail out as fast as possible on fatal errors
529instead of unwinding the stack.
530
531Fourth, the pseudo-random number now attempts to seed itself with `/dev/random`
532if `/dev/urandom` fails.
533
534Finally, this release has a few quality-of-life changes to the build system. The
535usage should not change at all; the only thing that changed was making sure the
536`Makefile.in` was written to rebuild properly when headers changed and to not
537rebuild when not necessary.
538
539## 3.2.4
540
541This is a production release that fixes a warning on `gcc` 6 or older, which
542does not have an attribute that is used.
543
544Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade if they don't use `gcc` 6 or older.
545
546## 3.2.3
547
548This is a production release that fixes a bug in `gen/strgen.sh`. I recently
549changed `gen/strgen.c`, but I did not change `gen/strgen.sh`.
550
551Users that do not use `gen/strgen.sh` do not need to upgrade.
552
553## 3.2.2
554
555This is a production release that fixes a portability bug in `configure.sh`. The
556bug was using the GNU `find` extension `-wholename`.
557
558## 3.2.1
559
560This is a production release that has one fix for `bcl(3)`. It is technically
561not a bug fix since the behavior is undefined, but the `BclNumber`s that
562`bcl_divmod()` returns will be set to `BCL_ERROR_INVALID_NUM` if there is an
563error. Previously, they were not set.
564
565## 3.2.0
566
567This is a production release that has one bug fix and a major addition.
568
569The bug fix was a missing `auto` variable in the bessel `j()` function in the
570math library.
571
572The major addition is a way to build a version of `bc`'s math code as a library.
573This is done with the `-a` option to `configure.sh`. The API for the library can
574be read in `./manuals/bcl.3.md` or `man bcl` once the library is installed with
575`make install`.
576
577This library was requested by developers before I even finished version 1.0, but
578I could not figure out how to do it until now.
579
580If the library has API breaking changes, the major version of `bc` will be
581incremented.
582
583## 3.1.6
584
585This is a production release that fixes a new warning from Clang 12 for FreeBSD
586and also removes some possible undefined behavior found by UBSan that compilers
587did not seem to take advantage of.
588
589Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, if they do not want to.
590
591## 3.1.5
592
593This is a production release that fixes the Chinese locales (which caused `bc`
594to crash) and a crash caused by `bc` executing code when it should not have been
595able to.
596
597***ALL USERS SHOULD UPGRADE.***
598
599## 3.1.4
600
601This is a production release that fixes one bug, changes two behaviors, and
602removes one environment variable.
603
604The bug is like the one in the last release except it applies if files are being
605executed. I also made the fix more general.
606
607The behavior that was changed is that `bc` now exits when given `-e`, `-f`,
608`--expression` or `--file`. However, if the last one of those is `-f-` (using
609`stdin` as the file), `bc` does not exit. If `-f-` exists and is not the last of
610the `-e` and `-f` options (and equivalents), `bc` gives a fatal error and exits.
611
612Next, I removed the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` and `DC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variables
613since their use is not needed with the behavior change.
614
615Finally, I made it so `bc` does not print the header, though the `-q` and
616`--quiet` options were kept for compatibility with GNU `bc`.
617
618## 3.1.3
619
620This is a production release that fixes one minor bug: if `bc` was invoked like
621the following, it would error:
622
623```
624echo "if (1 < 3) 1" | bc
625```
626
627Unless users run into this bug, they do not need to upgrade, but it is suggested
628that they do.
629
630## 3.1.2
631
632This is a production release that adds a way to install *all* locales. Users do
633***NOT*** need to upgrade.
634
635For package maintainers wishing to make use of the change, just pass `-l` to
636`configure.sh`.
637
638## 3.1.1
639
640This is a production release that adds two Spanish locales. Users do ***NOT***
641need to upgrade, unless they want those locales.
642
643## 3.1.0
644
645This is a production release that adjusts one behavior, fixes eight bugs, and
646improves manpages for FreeBSD. Because this release fixes bugs, **users and
647package maintainers should update to this version as soon as possible**.
648
649The behavior that was adjusted was how code from the `-e` and `-f` arguments
650(and equivalents) were executed. They used to be executed as one big chunk, but
651in this release, they are now executed line-by-line.
652
653The first bug fix in how output to `stdout` was handled in `SIGINT`. If a
654`SIGINT` came in, the `stdout` buffer was not correctly flushed. In fact, a
655clean-up function was not getting called. This release fixes that bug.
656
657The second bug is in how `dc` handled input from `stdin`. This affected `bc` as
658well since it was a mishandling of the `stdin` buffer.
659
660The third fixed bug was that `bc` and `dc` could `abort()` (in debug mode) when
661receiving a `SIGTERM`. This one was a race condition with pushing and popping
662items onto and out of vectors.
663
664The fourth bug fixed was that `bc` could leave extra items on the stack and
665thus, not properly clean up some memory. (The memory would still get
666`free()`'ed, but it would not be `free()`'ed when it could have been.)
667
668The next two bugs were bugs in `bc`'s parser that caused crashes when executing
669the resulting code.
670
671The last two bugs were crashes in `dc` that resulted from mishandling of
672strings.
673
674The manpage improvement was done by switching from [ronn][20] to [Pandoc][21] to
675generate manpages. Pandoc generates much cleaner manpages and doesn't leave
676blank lines where they shouldn't be.
677
678## 3.0.3
679
680This is a production release that adds one new feature: specific manpages.
681
682Before this release, `bc` and `dc` only used one manpage each that referred to
683various build options. This release changes it so there is one manpage set per
684relevant build type. Each manual only has information about its particular
685build, and `configure.sh` selects the correct set for install.
686
687## 3.0.2
688
689This is a production release that adds `utf8` locale symlinks and removes an
690unused `auto` variable from the `ceil()` function in the [extended math
691library][16].
692
693Users do ***NOT*** need to update unless they want the locales.
694
695## 3.0.1
696
697This is a production release with two small changes. Users do ***NOT*** need to
698upgrade to this release; however, if they haven't upgraded to `3.0.0` yet, it
699may be worthwhile to upgrade to this release.
700
701The first change is fixing a compiler warning on FreeBSD with strict warnings
702on.
703
704The second change is to make the new implementation of `ceil()` in `lib2.bc`
705much more efficient.
706
707## 3.0.0
708
709*Notes for package maintainers:*
710
711*First, the `2.7.0` release series saw a change in the option parsing. This made
712me change one error message and add a few others. The error message that was
713changed removed one format specifier. This means that `printf()` will seqfault
714on old locale files. Unfortunately, `bc` cannot use any locale files except the
715global ones that are already installed, so it will use the previous ones while
716running tests during install. **If `bc` segfaults while running arg tests when
717updating, it is because the global locale files have not been replaced. Make
718sure to either prevent the test suite from running on update or remove the old
719locale files before updating.** (Removing the locale files can be done with
720`make uninstall` or by running the [`locale_uninstall.sh`][22] script.) Once
721this is done, `bc` should install without problems.*
722
723*Second, **the option to build without signal support has been removed**. See
724below for the reasons why.*
725
726This is a production release with some small bug fixes, a few improvements,
727three major bug fixes, and a complete redesign of `bc`'s error and signal
728handling. **Users and package maintainers should update to this version as soon
729as possible.**
730
731The first major bug fix was in how `bc` executed files. Previously, a whole file
732was parsed before it was executed, but if a function is defined *after* code,
733especially if the function definition was actually a redefinition, and the code
734before the definition referred to the previous function, this `bc` would replace
735the function before executing any code. The fix was to make sure that all code
736that existed before a function definition was executed.
737
738The second major bug fix was in `bc`'s `lib2.bc`. The `ceil()` function had a
739bug where a `0` in the decimal place after the truncation position, caused it to
740output the wrong numbers if there was any non-zero digit after.
741
742The third major bug is that when passing parameters to functions, if an
743expression included an array (not an array element) as a parameter, it was
744accepted, when it should have been rejected. It is now correctly rejected.
745
746Beyond that, this `bc` got several improvements that both sped it up, improved
747the handling of signals, and improved the error handling.
748
749First, the requirements for `bc` were pushed back to POSIX 2008. `bc` uses one
750function, `strdup()`, which is not in POSIX 2001, and it is in the X/Open System
751Interfaces group 2001. It is, however, in POSIX 2008, and since POSIX 2008 is
752old enough to be supported anywhere that I care, that should be the requirement.
753
754Second, the BcVm global variable was put into `bss`. This actually slightly
755reduces the size of the executable from a massive code shrink, and it will stop
756`bc` from allocating a large set of memory when `bc` starts.
757
758Third, the default Karatsuba length was updated from 64 to 32 after making the
759optimization changes below, since 32 is going to be better than 64 after the
760changes.
761
762Fourth, Spanish translations were added.
763
764Fifth, the interpreter received a speedup to make performance on non-math-heavy
765scripts more competitive with GNU `bc`. While improvements did, in fact, get it
766much closer (see the [benchmarks][19]), it isn't quite there.
767
768There were several things done to speed up the interpreter:
769
770First, several small inefficiencies were removed. These inefficiencies included
771calling the function `bc_vec_pop(v)` twice instead of calling
772`bc_vec_npop(v, 2)`. They also included an extra function call for checking the
773size of the stack and checking the size of the stack more than once on several
774operations.
775
776Second, since the current `bc` function is the one that stores constants and
777strings, the program caches pointers to the current function's vectors of
778constants and strings to prevent needing to grab the current function in order
779to grab a constant or a string.
780
781Third, `bc` tries to reuse `BcNum`'s (the internal representation of
782arbitary-precision numbers). If a `BcNum` has the default capacity of
783`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` (32 on 64-bit and 16 on 32-bit) when it is freed, it is added
784to a list of available `BcNum`'s. And then, when a `BcNum` is allocated with a
785capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` and any `BcNum`'s exist on the list of reusable
786ones, one of those ones is grabbed instead.
787
788In order to support these changes, the `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` was changed. It used to
789be 16 bytes on all systems, but it was changed to more closely align with the
790minimum allocation size on Linux, which is either 32 bytes (64-bit musl), 24
791bytes (64-bit glibc), 16 bytes (32-bit musl), or 12 bytes (32-bit glibc). Since
792these are the minimum allocation sizes, these are the sizes that would be
793allocated anyway, making it worth it to just use the whole space, so the value
794of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` on 64-bit systems was changed to 32 bytes.
795
796On top of that, at least on 64-bit, `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` supports numbers with
797either 72 integer digits or 45 integer digits and 27 fractional digits. This
798should be more than enough for most cases since `bc`'s default `scale` values
799are 0 or 20, meaning that, by default, it has at most 20 fractional digits. And
80045 integer digits are *a lot*; it's enough to calculate the amount of mass in
801the Milky Way galaxy in kilograms. Also, 72 digits is enough to calculate the
802diameter of the universe in Planck lengths.
803
804(For 32-bit, these numbers are either 32 integer digits or 12 integer digits and
80520 fractional digits. These are also quite big, and going much bigger on a
80632-bit system seems a little pointless since 12 digits is just under a trillion
807and 20 fractional digits is still enough for about any use since `10^-20` light
808years is just under a millimeter.)
809
810All of this together means that for ordinary uses, and even uses in scientific
811work, the default number size will be all that is needed, which means that
812nearly all, if not all, numbers will be reused, relieving pressure on the system
813allocator.
814
815I did several experiments to find the changes that had the most impact,
816especially with regard to reusing `BcNum`'s. One was putting `BcNum`'s into
817buckets according to their capacity in powers of 2 up to 512. That performed
818worse than `bc` did in `2.7.2`. Another was putting any `BcNum` on the reuse
819list that had a capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE * 2` and reusing them for `BcNum`'s
820that requested `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`. This did reduce the amount of time spent, but
821it also spent a lot of time in the system allocator for an unknown reason. (When
822using `strace`, a bunch more `brk` calls showed up.) Just reusing `BcNum`'s that
823had exactly `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` capacity spent the smallest amount of time in both
824user and system time. This makes sense, especially with the changes to make
825`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` bigger on 64-bit systems, since the vast majority of numbers
826will only ever use numbers with a size less than or equal to `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`.
827
828Last of all, `bc`'s signal handling underwent a complete redesign. (This is the
829reason that this version is `3.0.0` and not `2.8.0`.) The change was to move
830from a polling approach to signal handling to an interrupt-based approach.
831
832Previously, every single loop condition had a check for signals. I suspect that
833this could be expensive when in tight loops.
834
835Now, the signal handler just uses `longjmp()` (actually `siglongjmp()`) to start
836an unwinding of the stack until it is stopped or the stack is unwound to
837`main()`, which just returns. If `bc` is currently executing code that cannot be
838safely interrupted (according to POSIX), then signals are "locked." The signal
839handler checks if the lock is taken, and if it is, it just sets the status to
840indicate that a signal arrived. Later, when the signal lock is released, the
841status is checked to see if a signal came in. If so, the stack unwinding starts.
842
843This design eliminates polling in favor of maintaining a stack of `jmp_buf`'s.
844This has its own performance implications, but it gives better interaction. And
845the cost of pushing and popping a `jmp_buf` in a function is paid at most twice.
846Most functions do not pay that price, and most of the rest only pay it once.
847(There are only some 3 functions in `bc` that push and pop a `jmp_buf` twice.)
848
849As a side effect of this change, I had to eliminate the use of `stdio.h` in `bc`
850because `stdio` does not play nice with signals and `longjmp()`. I implemented
851custom I/O buffer code that takes a fraction of the size. This means that static
852builds will be smaller, but non-static builds will be bigger, though they will
853have less linking time.
854
855This change is also good because my history implementation was already bypassing
856`stdio` for good reasons, and unifying the architecture was a win.
857
858Another reason for this change is that my `bc` should *always* behave correctly
859in the presence of signals like `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM`, and `SIGQUIT`. With the
860addition of my own I/O buffering, I needed to also make sure that the buffers
861were correctly flushed even when such signals happened.
862
863For this reason, I **removed the option to build without signal support**.
864
865As a nice side effect of this change, the error handling code could be changed
866to take advantage of the stack unwinding that signals used. This means that
867signals and error handling use the same code paths, which means that the stack
868unwinding is well-tested. (Errors are tested heavily in the test suite.)
869
870It also means that functions do not need to return a status code that
871***every*** caller needs to check. This eliminated over 100 branches that simply
872checked return codes and then passed that return code up the stack if necessary.
873The code bloat savings from this is at least 1700 bytes on `x86_64`, *before*
874taking into account the extra code from removing `stdio.h`.
875
876## 2.7.2
877
878This is a production release with one major bug fix.
879
880The `length()` built-in function can take either a number or an array. If it
881takes an array, it returns the length of the array. Arrays can be passed by
882reference. The bug is that the `length()` function would not properly
883dereference arrays that were references. This is a bug that affects all users.
884
885**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
886
887## 2.7.1
888
889This is a production release with fixes for new locales and fixes for compiler
890warnings on FreeBSD.
891
892## 2.7.0
893
894This is a production release with a bug fix for Linux, new translations, and new
895features.
896
897Bug fixes:
898
899* Option parsing in `BC_ENV_ARGS` was broken on Linux in 2.6.1 because `glibc`'s
900  `getopt_long()` is broken. To get around that, and to support long options on
901  every platform, an adapted version of [`optparse`][17] was added. Now, `bc`
902  does not even use `getopt()`.
903* Parsing `BC_ENV_ARGS` with quotes now works. It isn't the smartest, but it
904  does the job if there are spaces in file names.
905
906The following new languages are supported:
907
908* Dutch
909* Polish
910* Russian
911* Japanes
912* Simplified Chinese
913
914All of these translations were generated using [DeepL][18], so improvements are
915welcome.
916
917There is only one new feature: **`bc` now has a built-in pseudo-random number
918generator** (PRNG).
919
920The PRNG is seeded, making it useful for applications where
921`/dev/urandom` does not work because output needs to be reproducible. However,
922it also uses `/dev/urandom` to seed itself by default, so it will start with a
923good seed by default.
924
925It also outputs 32 bits on 32-bit platforms and 64 bits on 64-bit platforms, far
926better than the 15 bits of C's `rand()` and `bash`'s `$RANDOM`.
927
928In addition, the PRNG can take a bound, and when it gets a bound, it
929automatically adjusts to remove bias. It can also generate numbers of arbitrary
930size. (As of the time of release, the largest pseudo-random number generated by
931this `bc` was generated with a bound of `2^(2^20)`.)
932
933***IMPORTANT: read the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] to find out
934exactly what guarantees the PRNG provides. The underlying implementation is not
935guaranteed to stay the same, but the guarantees that it provides are guaranteed
936to stay the same regardless of the implementation.***
937
938On top of that, four functions were added to `bc`'s [extended math library][16]
939to make using the PRNG easier:
940
941* `frand(p)`: Generates a number between `[0,1)` to `p` decimal places.
942* `ifrand(i, p)`: Generates an integer with bound `i` and adds it to `frand(p)`.
943* `srand(x)`: Randomizes the sign of `x`. In other words, it flips the sign of
944  `x` with probability `0.5`.
945* `brand()`: Returns a random boolean value (either `0` or `1`).
946
947## 2.6.1
948
949This is a production release with a bug fix for FreeBSD.
950
951The bug was that when `bc` was built without long options, it would give a fatal
952error on every run. This was caused by a mishandling of `optind`.
953
954## 2.6.0
955
956This release is a production release ***with no bugfixes***. If you do not want
957to upgrade, you don't have to.
958
959No source code changed; the only thing that changed was `lib2.bc`.
960
961This release adds one function to the [extended math library][16]: `p(x, y)`,
962which calculates `x` to the power of `y`, whether or not `y` is an integer. (The
963`^` operator can only accept integer powers.)
964
965This release also includes a couple of small tweaks to the [extended math
966library][16], mostly to fix returning numbers with too high of `scale`.
967
968## 2.5.3
969
970This release is a production release which addresses inconsistencies in the
971Portuguese locales. No `bc` code was changed.
972
973The issues were that the ISO files used different naming, and also that the
974files that should have been symlinks were not. I did not catch that because
975GitHub rendered them the exact same way.
976
977## 2.5.2
978
979This release is a production release.
980
981No code was changed, but the build system was changed to allow `CFLAGS` to be
982given to `CC`, like this:
983
984```
985CC="gcc -O3 -march=native" ./configure.sh
986```
987
988If this happens, the flags are automatically put into `CFLAGS`, and the compiler
989is set appropriately. In the example above this means that `CC` will be "gcc"
990and `CFLAGS` will be "-O3 -march=native".
991
992This behavior was added to conform to GNU autotools practices.
993
994## 2.5.1
995
996This is a production release which addresses portability concerns discovered
997in the `bc` build system. No `bc` code was changed.
998
999* Support for Solaris SPARC and AIX were added.
1000* Minor documentations edits were performed.
1001* An option for `configure.sh` was added to disable long options if
1002  `getopt_long()` is missing.
1003
1004## 2.5.0
1005
1006This is a production release with new translations. No code changed.
1007
1008The translations were contributed by [bugcrazy][15], and they are for
1009Portuguese, both Portugal and Brazil locales.
1010
1011## 2.4.0
1012
1013This is a production release primarily aimed at improving `dc`.
1014
1015* A couple of copy and paste errors in the [`dc` manual][10] were fixed.
1016* `dc` startup was optimized by making sure it didn't have to set up `bc`-only
1017  things.
1018* The `bc` `&&` and `||` operators were made available to `dc` through the `M`
1019  and `m` commands, respectively.
1020* `dc` macros were changed to be tail call-optimized.
1021
1022The last item, tail call optimization, means that if the last thing in a macro
1023is a call to another macro, then the old macro is popped before executing the
1024new macro. This change was made to stop `dc` from consuming more and more memory
1025as macros are executed in a loop.
1026
1027The `q` and `Q` commands still respect the "hidden" macros by way of recording
1028how many macros were removed by tail call optimization.
1029
1030## 2.3.2
1031
1032This is a production release meant to fix warnings in the Gentoo `ebuild` by
1033making it possible to disable binary stripping. Other users do *not* need to
1034upgrade.
1035
1036## 2.3.1
1037
1038This is a production release. It fixes a bug that caused `-1000000000 < -1` to
1039return `0`. This only happened with negative numbers and only if the value on
1040the left was more negative by a certain amount. That said, this bug *is* a bad
1041bug, and needs to be fixed.
1042
1043**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
1044
1045## 2.3.0
1046
1047This is a production release with changes to the build system.
1048
1049## 2.2.0
1050
1051This release is a production release. It only has new features and performance
1052improvements.
1053
10541.	The performance of `sqrt(x)` was improved.
10552.	The new function `root(x, n)` was added to the extended math library to
1056	calculate `n`th roots.
10573.	The new function `cbrt(x)` was added to the extended math library to
1058	calculate cube roots.
1059
1060## 2.1.3
1061
1062This is a non-critical release; it just changes the build system, and in
1063non-breaking ways:
1064
10651.	Linked locale files were changed to link to their sources with a relative
1066	link.
10672.	A bug in `configure.sh` that caused long option parsing to fail under `bash`
1068	was fixed.
1069
1070## 2.1.2
1071
1072This release is not a critical release.
1073
10741.	A few codes were added to history.
10752.	Multiplication was optimized a bit more.
10763.	Addition and subtraction were both optimized a bit more.
1077
1078## 2.1.1
1079
1080This release contains a fix for the test suite made for Linux from Scratch: now
1081the test suite prints `pass` when a test is passed.
1082
1083Other than that, there is no change in this release, so distros and other users
1084do not need to upgrade.
1085
1086## 2.1.0
1087
1088This release is a production release.
1089
1090The following bugs were fixed:
1091
10921.	A `dc` bug that caused stack mishandling was fixed.
10932.	A warning on OpenBSD was fixed.
10943.	Bugs in `ctrl+arrow` operations in history were fixed.
10954.	The ability to paste multiple lines in history was added.
10965.	A `bc` bug, mishandling of array arguments to functions, was fixed.
10976.	A crash caused by freeing the wrong pointer was fixed.
10987.	A `dc` bug where strings, in a rare case, were mishandled in parsing was
1099	fixed.
1100
1101In addition, the following changes were made:
1102
11031.	Division was slightly optimized.
11042.	An option was added to the build to disable printing of prompts.
11053.	The special case of empty arguments is now handled. This is to prevent
1106	errors in scripts that end up passing empty arguments.
11074.	A harmless bug was fixed. This bug was that, with the pop instructions
1108	(mostly) removed (see below), `bc` would leave extra values on its stack for
1109	`void` functions and in a few other cases. These extra items would not
1110	affect anything put on the stack and would not cause any sort of crash or
1111	even buggy behavior, but they would cause `bc` to take more memory than it
1112	needed.
1113
1114On top of the above changes, the following optimizations were added:
1115
11161.	The need for pop instructions in `bc` was removed.
11172.	Extra tests on every iteration of the interpreter loop were removed.
11183.	Updating function and code pointers on every iteration of the interpreter
1119	loop was changed to only updating them when necessary.
11204.	Extra assignments to pointers were removed.
1121
1122Altogether, these changes sped up the interpreter by around 2x.
1123
1124***NOTE***: This is the last release with new features because this `bc` is now
1125considered complete. From now on, only bug fixes and new translations will be
1126added to this `bc`.
1127
1128## 2.0.3
1129
1130This is a production, bug-fix release.
1131
1132Two bugs were fixed in this release:
1133
11341.	A rare and subtle signal handling bug was fixed.
11352.	A misbehavior on `0` to a negative power was fixed.
1136
1137The last bug bears some mentioning.
1138
1139When I originally wrote power, I did not thoroughly check its error cases;
1140instead, I had it check if the first number was `0` and then if so, just return
1141`0`. However, `0` to a negative power means that `1` will be divided by `0`,
1142which is an error.
1143
1144I caught this, but only after I stopped being cocky. You see, sometime later, I
1145had noticed that GNU `bc` returned an error, correctly, but I thought it was
1146wrong simply because that's not what my `bc` did. I saw it again later and had a
1147double take. I checked for real, finally, and found out that my `bc` was wrong
1148all along.
1149
1150That was bad on me. But the bug was easy to fix, so it is fixed now.
1151
1152There are two other things in this release:
1153
11541.	Subtraction was optimized by [Stefan Eßer][14].
11552.	Division was also optimized, also by Stefan Eßer.
1156
1157## 2.0.2
1158
1159This release contains a fix for a possible overflow in the signal handling. I
1160would be surprised if any users ran into it because it would only happen after 2
1161billion (`2^31-1`) `SIGINT`'s, but I saw it and had to fix it.
1162
1163## 2.0.1
1164
1165This release contains very few things that will apply to any users.
1166
11671.	A slight bug in `dc`'s interactive mode was fixed.
11682.	A bug in the test suite that was only triggered on NetBSD was fixed.
11693.	**The `-P`/`--no-prompt` option** was added for users that do not want a
1170	prompt.
11714.	A `make check` target was added as an alias for `make test`.
11725.	`dc` got its own read prompt: `?> `.
1173
1174## 2.0.0
1175
1176This release is a production release.
1177
1178This release is also a little different from previous releases. From here on
1179out, I do not plan on adding any more features to this `bc`; I believe that it
1180is complete. However, there may be bug fix releases in the future, if I or any
1181others manage to find bugs.
1182
1183This release has only a few new features:
1184
11851.	`atan2(y, x)` was added to the extended math library as both `a2(y, x)` and
1186	`atan2(y, x)`.
11872.	Locales were fixed.
11883.	A **POSIX shell-compatible script was added as an alternative to compiling
1189	`gen/strgen.c`** on a host machine. More details about making the choice
1190	between the two can be found by running `./configure.sh --help` or reading
1191	the [build manual][13].
11924.	Multiplication was optimized by using **diagonal multiplication**, rather
1193	than straight brute force.
11945.	The `locale_install.sh` script was fixed.
11956.	`dc` was given the ability to **use the environment variable
1196	`DC_ENV_ARGS`**.
11977.	`dc` was also given the ability to **use the `-i` or `--interactive`**
1198	options.
11998.	Printing the prompt was fixed so that it did not print when it shouldn't.
12009.	Signal handling was fixed.
120110.	**Handling of `SIGTERM` and `SIGQUIT`** was fixed.
120211.	The **built-in functions `maxibase()`, `maxobase()`, and `maxscale()`** (the
1203	commands `T`, `U`, `V` in `dc`, respectively) were added to allow scripts to
1204	query for the max allowable values of those globals.
120512.	Some incompatibilities with POSIX were fixed.
1206
1207In addition, this release is `2.0.0` for a big reason: the internal format for
1208numbers changed. They used to be a `char` array. Now, they are an array of
1209larger integers, packing more decimal digits into each integer. This has
1210delivered ***HUGE*** performance improvements, especially for multiplication,
1211division, and power.
1212
1213This `bc` should now be the fastest `bc` available, but I may be wrong.
1214
1215## 1.2.8
1216
1217This release contains a fix for a harmless bug (it is harmless in that it still
1218works, but it just copies extra data) in the [`locale_install.sh`][12] script.
1219
1220## 1.2.7
1221
1222This version contains fixes for the build on Arch Linux.
1223
1224## 1.2.6
1225
1226This release removes the use of `local` in shell scripts because it's not POSIX
1227shell-compatible, and also updates a man page that should have been updated a
1228long time ago but was missed.
1229
1230## 1.2.5
1231
1232This release contains some missing locale `*.msg` files.
1233
1234## 1.2.4
1235
1236This release contains a few bug fixes and new French translations.
1237
1238## 1.2.3
1239
1240This release contains a fix for a bug: use of uninitialized data. Such data was
1241only used when outputting an error message, but I am striving for perfection. As
1242Michelangelo said, "Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."
1243
1244## 1.2.2
1245
1246This release contains fixes for OpenBSD.
1247
1248## 1.2.1
1249
1250This release contains bug fixes for some rare bugs.
1251
1252## 1.2.0
1253
1254This is a production release.
1255
1256There have been several changes since `1.1.0`:
1257
12581.	The build system had some changes.
12592.	Locale support has been added. (Patches welcome for translations.)
12603.	**The ability to turn `ibase`, `obase`, and `scale` into stacks** was added
1261	with the `-g` command-line option. (See the [`bc` manual][9] for more
1262	details.)
12634.	Support for compiling on Mac OSX out of the box was added.
12645.	The extended math library got `t(x)`, `ceil(x)`, and some aliases.
12656.	The extended math library also got `r2d(x)` (for converting from radians to
1266	degrees) and `d2r(x)` (for converting from degrees to radians). This is to
1267	allow using degrees with the standard library.
12687.	Both calculators now accept numbers in **scientific notation**. See the
1269	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
12708.	Both calculators can **output in either scientific or engineering
1271	notation**. See the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
12729.	Some inefficiencies were removed.
127310.	Some bugs were fixed.
127411.	Some bugs in the extended library were fixed.
127512.	Some defects from [Coverity Scan][11] were fixed.
1276
1277## 1.1.4
1278
1279This release contains a fix to the build system that allows it to build on older
1280versions of `glibc`.
1281
1282## 1.1.3
1283
1284This release contains a fix for a bug in the test suite where `bc` tests and
1285`dc` tests could not be run in parallel.
1286
1287## 1.1.2
1288
1289This release has a fix for a history bug; the down arrow did not work.
1290
1291## 1.1.1
1292
1293This release fixes a bug in the `1.1.0` build system. The source is exactly the
1294same.
1295
1296The bug that was fixed was a failure to install if no `EXECSUFFIX` was used.
1297
1298## 1.1.0
1299
1300This is a production release. However, many new features were added since `1.0`.
1301
13021.	**The build system has been changed** to use a custom, POSIX
1303	shell-compatible configure script ([`configure.sh`][6]) to generate a POSIX
1304	make-compatible `Makefile`, which means that `bc` and `dc` now build out of
1305	the box on any POSIX-compatible system.
13062.	Out-of-memory and output errors now cause the `bc` to report the error,
1307	clean up, and die, rather than just reporting and trying to continue.
13083.	**Strings and constants are now garbage collected** when possible.
13094.	Signal handling and checking has been made more simple and more thorough.
13105.	`BcGlobals` was refactored into `BcVm` and `BcVm` was made global. Some
1311	procedure names were changed to reflect its difference to everything else.
13126.	Addition got a speed improvement.
13137.	Some common code for addition and multiplication was refactored into its own
1314	procedure.
13158.	A bug was removed where `dc` could have been selected, but the internal
1316	`#define` that returned `true` for a query about `dc` would not have
1317	returned `true`.
13189.	Useless calls to `bc_num_zero()` were removed.
131910.	**History support was added.** The history support is based off of a
1320	[UTF-8 aware fork][7] of [`linenoise`][8], which has been customized with
1321	`bc`'s own data structures and signal handling.
132211.	Generating C source from the math library now removes tabs from the library,
1323	shrinking the size of the executable.
132412.	The math library was shrunk.
132513.	Error handling and reporting was improved.
132614.	Reallocations were reduced by giving access to the request size for each
1327	operation.
132815.	**`abs()` (`b` command for `dc`) was added as a builtin.**
132916.	Both calculators were tested on FreeBSD.
133017.	Many obscure parse bugs were fixed.
133118.	Markdown and man page manuals were added, and the man pages are installed by
1332	`make install`.
133319.	Executable size was reduced, though the added features probably made the
1334	executable end up bigger.
133520.	**GNU-style array references were added as a supported feature.**
133621.	Allocations were reduced.
133722.	**New operators were added**: `$` (`$` for `dc`), `@` (`@` for `dc`), `@=`,
1338	`<<` (`H` for `dc`), `<<=`, `>>` (`h` for `dc`), and `>>=`. See the
1339	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for more details.
134023.	**An extended math library was added.** This library contains code that
1341	makes it so I can replace my desktop calculator with this `bc`. See the
1342	[`bc` manual][3] for more details.
134324.	Support for all capital letters as numbers was added.
134425.	**Support for GNU-style void functions was added.**
134526.	A bug fix for improper handling of function parameters was added.
134627.	Precedence for the or (`||`) operator was changed to match GNU `bc`.
134728.	`dc` was given an explicit negation command.
134829.	`dc` was changed to be able to handle strings in arrays.
1349
1350## 1.1 Release Candidate 3
1351
1352This release is the eighth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1353release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1354been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1355
1356## 1.1 Release Candidate 2
1357
1358This release is the seventh release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1359release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1360been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1361
1362## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 5
1363
1364This release is the sixth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fifth
1365release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1366code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1367
1368## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 4
1369
1370This release is the fifth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fourth
1371release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1372code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1373
1374## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 3
1375
1376This release is the fourth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1377release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1378code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1379
1380## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 2
1381
1382This release is the third release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1383release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1384code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1385
1386## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 1
1387
1388This release is the second release candidate for 1.1, though it is meant
1389specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new code has not been tested as
1390thoroughly as it should for release.
1391
1392## 1.1 Release Candidate 1
1393
1394This is the first release candidate for 1.1. The new code has not been tested as
1395thoroughly as it should for release.
1396
1397## 1.0
1398
1399This is the first non-beta release. `bc` is ready for production use.
1400
1401As such, a lot has changed since 0.5.
1402
14031.	`dc` has been added. It has been tested even more thoroughly than `bc` was
1404	for `0.5`. It does not have the `!` command, and for security reasons, it
1405	never will, so it is complete.
14062.	`bc` has been more thoroughly tested. An entire section of the test suite
1407	(for both programs) has been added to test for errors.
14083.	A prompt (`>>> `) has been added for interactive mode, making it easier to
1409	see inputs and outputs.
14104.	Interrupt handling has been improved, including elimination of race
1411	conditions (as much as possible).
14125.	MinGW and [Windows Subsystem for Linux][1] support has been added (see
1413	[xstatic][2] for binaries).
14146.	Memory leaks and errors have been eliminated (as far as ASan and Valgrind
1415	can tell).
14167.	Crashes have been eliminated (as far as [afl][3] can tell).
14178.	Karatsuba multiplication was added (and thoroughly) tested, speeding up
1418	multiplication and power by orders of magnitude.
14199.	Performance was further enhanced by using a "divmod" function to reduce
1420	redundant divisions and by removing superfluous `memset()` calls.
142110.	To switch between Karatsuba and `O(n^2)` multiplication, the config variable
1422	`BC_NUM_KARATSUBA_LEN` was added. It is set to a sane default, but the
1423	optimal number can be found with [`karatsuba.py`][4] (requires Python 3)
1424	and then configured through `make`.
142511.	The random math test generator script was changed to Python 3 and improved.
1426	`bc` and `dc` have together been run through 30+ million random tests.
142712.	All known math bugs have been fixed, including out of control memory
1428	allocations in `sine` and `cosine` (that was actually a parse bug), certain
1429	cases of infinite loop on square root, and slight inaccuracies (as much as
1430	possible; see the [README][5]) in transcendental functions.
143113.	Parsing has been fixed as much as possible.
143214.	Test coverage was improved to 94.8%. The only paths not covered are ones
1433	that happen when `malloc()` or `realloc()` fails.
143415.	An extension to get the length of an array was added.
143516.	The boolean not (`!`) had its precedence change to match negation.
143617.	Data input was hardened.
143718.	`bc` was made fully compliant with POSIX when the `-s` flag is used or
1438	`POSIXLY_CORRECT` is defined.
143919.	Error handling was improved.
144020.	`bc` now checks that files it is given are not directories.
1441
1442## 1.0 Release Candidate 7
1443
1444This is the seventh release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0
1445Release Candidate 6.
1446
1447## 1.0 Release Candidate 6
1448
1449This is the sixth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1450Candidate 5.
1451
1452## 1.0 Release Candidate 5
1453
1454This is the fifth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1455Candidate 4.
1456
1457## 1.0 Release Candidate 4
1458
1459This is the fourth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1460Candidate 3.
1461
1462## 1.0 Release Candidate 3
1463
1464This is the third release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1465Candidate 2.
1466
1467## 1.0 Release Candidate 2
1468
1469This is the second release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1470Candidate 1.
1471
1472## 1.0 Release Candidate 1
1473
1474This is the first Release Candidate for 1.0. `bc` is complete, with `dc`, but it
1475is not tested.
1476
1477## 0.5
1478
1479This beta release completes more features, but it is still not complete nor
1480tested as thoroughly as necessary.
1481
1482## 0.4.1
1483
1484This beta release fixes a few bugs in 0.4.
1485
1486## 0.4
1487
1488This is a beta release. It does not have the complete set of features, and it is
1489not thoroughly tested.
1490
1491[1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
1492[2]: https://pkg.musl.cc/bc/
1493[3]: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/
1494[4]: ./scripts/karatsuba.py
1495[5]: ./README.md
1496[6]: ./configure.sh
1497[7]: https://github.com/rain-1/linenoise-mob
1498[8]: https://github.com/antirez/linenoise
1499[9]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md
1500[10]: ./manuals/dc/A.1.md
1501[11]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/gavinhoward-bc
1502[12]: ./scripts/locale_install.sh
1503[13]: ./manuals/build.md
1504[14]: https://github.com/stesser
1505[15]: https://github.com/bugcrazy
1506[16]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md#extended-library
1507[17]: https://github.com/skeeto/optparse
1508[18]: https://www.deepl.com/translator
1509[19]: ./manuals/benchmarks.md
1510[20]: https://github.com/apjanke/ronn-ng
1511[21]: https://pandoc.org/
1512[22]: ./scripts/locale_uninstall.sh
1513