xref: /freebsd/contrib/bc/NEWS.md (revision 9f27341c336aa12f6c7163c17e646e76c813b689)
1# News
2
3## 6.5.0
4
5This is a production release that fixes an infinite loop bug in `root()` and
6`cbrt()`, fixes a bug with `BC_LINE_LENGTH=0`, and adds the `fib()` function to
7the extended math library to calculate Fibonacci numbers.
8
9## 6.4.0
10
11This is a production release that fixes a `read()`/`?` bug and adds features to
12`bcl`.
13
14The bug was that multiple read calls could repeat old data.
15
16The new features in `bcl` are functions to preserve `BclNumber` arguments and
17not free them.
18
19***WARNING for `bcl` Users***: The `bcl_rand_seedWithNum()` function used to not
20consume its arguments. Now it does. This change could have made this version
21`7.0.0`, but I'm 99.9% confident that there are no `bcl` users, or if there are,
22they probably don't use the PRNG. So I took a risk and didn't update the major
23version.
24
25`bcl` now includes more capacity to check for invalid numbers when built to run
26under Valgrind.
27
28## 6.3.1
29
30This is a production release that fixes a `bc` dependency loop for minimal
31environments and Linux from Scratch.
32
33## 6.3.0
34
35This is a production release with a couple of fixes for manuals and a new
36feature for `dc`: there is now a command to query whether extended registers are
37enabled or not.
38
39Users who don't care do not need to upgrade.
40
41## 6.2.6
42
43This is a production release that fixes an install bug that affected locale
44installation of all locales when using `mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to
45upgrade if they don't use `mksh` and/or don't need to install all locales.
46
47## 6.2.5
48
49This is a production release that fixes a test bug that affected Android and
50`mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade unless they use `mksh` or another
51affected shell and need to run the test suite.
52
53## 6.2.4
54
55This is a production release that fixes a test failure that happens when
56`tests/bc/scripts/timeconst.bc` doesn't exist. This should only affect
57packagers.
58
59This bug happened because I forgot something I added in the previous release:
60better error checking in tests to help packagers. Unfortunately, I was too
61zealous with the error checking.
62
63## 6.2.3
64
65This is a production release that moves `bc` to <https://git.gavinhoward.com>.
66
67That's all it does: update links. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade; there are
68redirects that will stay in place indefinitely. This release is only for new
69users.
70
71## 6.2.2
72
73This is a production release that fixes a bug.
74
75The bug was that if an array element was used as a parameter, and then a later
76parameter had the same name as the array whose element was used, `bc` would grab
77the element from the new array parameter, not the actual element from before the
78function call.
79
80## 6.2.1
81
82This is a production release with one bug fix for a memory bug in history.
83
84## 6.2.0
85
86This is a production release with a new feature and a few bug fixes.
87
88The bug fixes include:
89
90* A crash when `bc` and `dc` are built using editline, but history is not
91  activated.
92* A missing local in the `uint*()` family of functions in the extended math
93  library.
94* A failure to clear the tail call list in `dc` on error.
95* A crash when attempting to swap characters in command-line history when no
96  characters exist.
97* `SIGWINCH` was activated even when history was not.
98
99The new feature is that stack traces are now given for runtime errors. In debug
100mode, the C source file and line of errors are given as well.
101
102## 6.1.1
103
104This is a production release that fixes a build issue with predefined builds and
105generated tests.
106
107## 6.1.0
108
109This is a production release that fixes a discrepancy from the `bc` standard,
110a couple of memory bugs, and adds new features.
111
112The discrepancy from the `bc` standard was with regards to the behavior of the
113`quit` command. This `bc` used to quit whenever it encountered `quit` during
114parsing, even if it was parsing a full file. Now, `bc` only quits when
115encountering `quit` *after* it has executed all executable statements up to that
116point.
117
118This behavior is slightly different from GNU `bc`, but users will only notice
119the difference if they put `quit` on the same line as other statements.
120
121The first memory bug could be reproduced by assigning a string to a non-local
122variable in a function, then redefining the function with use of the same
123non-local variable, which would still refer to a string in the previous version
124of the function.
125
126The second memory bug was caused by passing an array argument to the `asciify()`
127built-in function. In certain cases, that was wrongly allowed, and the
128interpreter just assumed everything was correct and accessed memory. Now that
129arrays are allowed as arguments (see below), this is not an issue.
130
131The first feature was the addition of the `is_number()` built-in function (`u`
132in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a number and 0 otherwise.
133
134The second feature was the addition of the `is_string()` built-in function (`t`
135in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a string and 0 otherwise.
136
137These features were added because I realized that type-checking is necessary now
138that strings can be assigned to variables in `bc` and because they've always
139been assignable to variables in `dc`.
140
141The last added feature is the ability of the `asciify()` built-in function in
142`bc` to convert a full array of numbers into a string. This means that
143character-by-character printing will not be necessary, and more strings than
144just single-character ones will be able to be created.
145
146## 6.0.4
147
148This is a production release that most users will not need to upgrade to.
149
150This fixes a build bug for `bcl` only on OpenBSD. Users that do not need `bcl`
151or have not run into build errors with `bcl` do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
152
153## 6.0.3
154
155This is a production release that fixes a build bug for cross-compilation.
156
157Users that do not need cross-compilation do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
158
159## 6.0.2
160
161This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
162
163* The `-l` option overrode the `-S` option.
164* A double-free and crash when sending a `SIGINT` while executing expressions
165  given on the command-line.
166
167## 6.0.1
168
169This is a production release that fixes memory bugs and memory leaks in `bcl`.
170
171Users that do not use `bcl` (use only `bc` and/or `dc`) do ***NOT*** need to
172upgrade.
173
174These happened because I was unaware that the `bcl` test was not hooked into the
175Valgrind test infrastructure. Then, when I ran the release script, which tests
176everything under Valgrind (or so I thought), it caught nothing, and I thought it
177was safe.
178
179But it was not.
180
181Nevertheless, I have now run it under Valgrind and fixed all of the memory bugs
182(caused by not using `memset()` where I should have but previously didn't have
183to) and memory leaks.
184
185## 6.0.0
186
187This is a production release that fixes an oversight in the `bc` parser (that
188sometimes caused the wrong error message) and adds a feature for compatibility
189with the BSD `bc` and `dc`: turning off digit clamping when parsing numbers.
190
191The default for clamping can be set during the build (see the [build
192manual][13]), it can be set with the `BC_DIGIT_CLAMP` and `DC_DIGIT_CLAMP`
193environment variables, and it can be set with the `-c` and `-C` command-line
194options.
195
196Turning off clamping was also added to the `bcl` library.
197
198In addition, signal handling was removed from the `bcl` library in order to add
199the capability for multi-threading. This required a major version bump. I
200apologize to all library users (I don't know of any), but signals and threads do
201not play well together.
202
203To help with building, a convenience option (`-p`) to `configure.sh` was added
204to build a `bc` and `dc` that is by default compatible with either the BSD `bc`
205and `dc` or the GNU `bc` and `dc`.
206
207## 5.3.3
208
209This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
210system.
211
212All other users do **NOT** need to upgrade.
213
214## 5.3.2
215
216This is a production release that fixes prompt bugs with editline and readline
217where the `BC_PROMPT` environment variable was not being respected.
218
219This also fixes editline and readline output on `EOF`.
220
221## 5.3.1
222
223This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
224system, as well as a problem in the `en_US` locale. If you don't have problems
225with either, you do not need to upgrade.
226
227## 5.3.0
228
229This is a production release that adds features and has a few bug fixes.
230
231First, support for editline and readline history has been added. To use
232editline, pass `-e` to `configure.sh`, and to use readline, pass `-r`.
233
234Second, history support for Windows has been fixed and re-enabled.
235
236Third, command-line options to set `scale`, `ibase`, `obase`, and `seed` were
237added. This was requested long ago, and I originally disagreed with the idea.
238
239Fourth, the manuals had typos and were missing information. That has been fixed.
240
241Fifth, the manuals received different formatting to be more readable as
242manpages.
243
244## 5.2.5
245
246This is a production release that fixes this `bc`'s behavior on `^D` to match
247GNU `bc`.
248
249## 5.2.4
250
251This is a production release that fixes two bugs in history:
252
253* Without prompt, the cursor could not be placed on the first character in a
254  line.
255* Home and End key handling in `tmux` was fixed.
256
257Any users that do not care about these improvements do not need to upgrade.
258
259## 5.2.3
260
261This is a production release that fixes one bug, a parse error when passing a
262file to `bc` using `-f` if that file had a multiline comment or string in it.
263
264## 5.2.2
265
266This is a production release that fixes one bug, a segmentation fault if
267`argv[0]` equals `NULL`.
268
269This is not a critical bug; there will be no vulnerability as far as I can tell.
270There is no need to update if you do not wish to.
271
272## 5.2.1
273
274This is a production release that fixes two parse bugs when in POSIX standard
275mode. One of these bugs was due to a quirk of the POSIX grammar, and the other
276was because `bc` was too strict.
277
278## 5.2.0
279
280This is a production release that adds a new feature, fixes some bugs, and adds
281out-of-source builds and a `pkg-config` file for `bcl`.
282
283The new feature is the ability to turn off exiting on expressions. It is also
284possible to set the default using `configure.sh`. This behavior used to exist
285with the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variable, which is now used again.
286
287Bugs fixed include:
288
289* Some possible race conditions with error handling.
290* Install and uninstall targets for `bcl` did not work.
291
292## 5.1.1
293
294This is a production release that completes a bug fix from `5.1.0`. The bug
295exists in all versions of `bc`.
296
297The bug was that `if` statements without `else` statements would not be handled
298correctly at the end of files or right before a function definition.
299
300## 5.1.0
301
302This is a production release with some fixes and new features.
303
304* Fixed a bug where an `if` statement without an `else` before defining a
305  function caused an error.
306* Fixed a bug with the `bc` banner and `-q`.
307* Fixed a bug on Windows where files were not read correctly.
308* Added a command-line flag (`-z`) to make `bc` and `dc` print leading zeroes on
309  numbers `-1 < x < 1`.
310* Added four functions to `lib2.bc` (`plz()`, `plznl()`, `pnlz()`, and
311  `pnlznl()`) to allow printing numbers with or without leading zeros, despite
312  the use of `-z` or not.
313* Added builtin functions to query global state like line length, global stacks,
314  and leading zeroes.
315* Added a command-line flag (`-L`) to disable wrapping when printing numbers.
316* Improved builds on Windows.
317
318## 5.0.2
319
320This is a production release with one fix for a flaky test. If you have not
321experienced problems with the test suite, you do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
322
323The test was one that tested whether `bc` fails gracefully when it can't
324allocate memory. Unfortunately, there are cases when Linux and FreeBSD lie and
325pretend to allocate the memory.
326
327The reason they do this is because a lot of programs don't use all of the memory
328they allocate, so those OS's usually get away with it.
329
330However, this `bc` uses all of the memory it allocates (at least at page
331granularity), so when it tries to use the memory, FreeBSD and Linux kill it.
332
333This only happens sometimes, however. Other times (on my machine), they do, in
334fact, refuse the request.
335
336So I changed the test to not test for that because I think the graceful failure
337code won't really change much.
338
339## 5.0.1
340
341This is a production release with two fixes:
342
343* Fix for the build on Mac OSX.
344* Fix for the build on Android.
345
346Users that do not use those platforms do ***NOT*** need to update.
347
348## 5.0.0
349
350This is a major production release with several changes:
351
352* Added support for OpenBSD's `pledge()` and `unveil()`.
353* Fixed print bug where a backslash newline combo was printed even if only one
354  digit was left, something I blindly copied from GNU `bc`, like a fool.
355* Fixed bugs in the manuals.
356* Fixed a possible multiplication overflow in power.
357* Temporary numbers are garbage collected if allocation fails, and the
358  allocation is retried. This is to make `bc` and `dc` more resilient to running
359  out of memory.
360* Limited the number of temporary numbers and made the space for them static so
361  that allocating more space for them cannot fail.
362* Allowed integers with non-zero `scale` to be used with power, places, and
363  shift operators.
364* Added greatest common divisor and least common multiple to `lib2.bc`.
365* Added `SIGQUIT` handling to history.
366* Added a command to `dc` (`y`) to get the length of register stacks.
367* Fixed multi-digit bugs in `lib2.bc`.
368* Removed the no prompt build option.
369* Created settings that builders can set defaults for and users can set their
370  preferences for. This includes the `bc` banner, resetting on `SIGINT`, TTY
371  mode, and prompt.
372* Added history support to Windows.
373* Fixed bugs with the handling of register names in `dc`.
374* Fixed bugs with multi-line comments and strings in both calculators.
375* Added a new error type and message for `dc` when register stacks don't have
376  enough items.
377* Optimized string allocation.
378* Made `bc` and `dc` UTF-8 capable.
379* Fixed a bug with `void` functions.
380* Fixed a misspelled symbol in `bcl`. This is technically a breaking change,
381  which requires this to be `5.0.0`.
382* Added the ability for users to get the copyright banner back.
383* Added the ability for users to have `bc` and `dc` quit on `SIGINT`.
384* Added the ability for users to disable prompt and TTY mode by environment
385  variables.
386* Added the ability for users to redefine keywords. This is another reason this
387  is `5.0.0`.
388* Added `dc`'s modular exponentiation and divmod to `bc`.
389* Added the ability to assign strings to variables and array elements and pass
390  them to functions in `bc`.
391* Added `dc`'s asciify command and stream printing to `bc`.
392* Added a command to `dc` (`Y`) to get the length of an array.
393* Added a command to `dc` (`,`) to get the depth of the execution stack.
394* Added bitwise and, or, xor, left shift, right shift, reverse, left rotate,
395  right rotate, and mod functions to `lib2.bc`.
396* Added the functions `s2u(x)` and `s2un(x,n)`, to `lib2.bc`.
397
398## 4.0.2
399
400This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
401
4021.	If no files are used and the first statement on `stdin` is invalid, `scale`
403	would not be set to `20` even if `-l` was used.
4042.	When using history, `bc` failed to respond properly to `SIGSTOP` and
405	`SIGTSTP`.
406
407## 4.0.1
408
409This is a production release that only adds one thing: flushing output when it
410is printed with a print statement.
411
412## 4.0.0
413
414This is a production release with many fixes, a new command-line option, and a
415big surprise:
416
417* A bug was fixed in `dc`'s `P` command where the item on the stack was *not*
418  popped.
419* Various bugs in the manuals have been fixed.
420* A known bug was fixed where history did not interact well with prompts printed
421  by user code without newlines.
422* A new command-line option, `-R` and `--no-read-prompt` was added to disable
423  just the prompt when using `read()` (`bc`) or `?` (`dc`).
424* And finally, **official support for Windows was added**.
425
426The last item is why this is a major version bump.
427
428Currently, only one set of build options (extra math and prompt enabled, history
429and NLS/locale support disabled, both calculators enabled) is supported on
430Windows. However, both debug and release builds are supported.
431
432In addition, Windows builds are supported for the the library (`bcl`).
433
434For more details about how to build on Windows, see the [README][5] or the
435[build manual][13].
436
437## 3.3.4
438
439This is a production release that fixes a small bug.
440
441The bug was that output was not flushed before a `read()` call, so prompts
442without a newline on the end were not flushed before the `read()` call.
443
444This is such a tiny bug that users only need to upgrade if they are affected.
445
446## 3.3.3
447
448This is a production release with one tweak and fixes for manuals.
449
450The tweak is that `length(0)` returns `1` instead of `0`. In `3.3.1`, I changed
451it so `length(0.x)`, where `x` could be any number of digits, returned the
452`scale`, but `length(0)` still returned `0` because I believe that `0` has `0`
453significant digits.
454
455After request of FreeBSD and considering the arguments of a mathematician,
456compatibility with other `bc`'s, and the expectations of users, I decided to
457make the change.
458
459The fixes for manuals fixed a bug where `--` was rendered as `-`.
460
461## 3.3.2
462
463This is a production release that fixes a divide-by-zero bug in `root()` in the
464[extended math library][16]. All previous versions with `root()` have the bug.
465
466## 3.3.1
467
468This is a production release that fixes a bug.
469
470The bug was in the reporting of number length when the value was 0.
471
472## 3.3.0
473
474This is a production release that changes one behavior and fixes documentation
475bugs.
476
477The changed behavior is the treatment of `-e` and `-f` when given through
478`BC_ENV_ARGS` or `DC_ENV_ARGS`. Now `bc` and `dc` do not exit when those options
479(or their equivalents) are given through those environment variables. However,
480`bc` and `dc` still exit when they or their equivalents are given on the
481command-line.
482
483## 3.2.7
484
485This is a production release that removes a small non-portable shell operation
486in `configure.sh`. This problem was only noticed on OpenBSD, not FreeBSD or
487Linux.
488
489Non-OpenBSD users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, although NetBSD users may also
490need to upgrade.
491
492## 3.2.6
493
494This is a production release that fixes the build on FreeBSD.
495
496There was a syntax error in `configure.sh` that the Linux shell did not catch,
497and FreeBSD depends on the existence of `tests/all.sh`.
498
499All users that already upgraded to `3.2.5` should update to this release, with
500my apologies for the poor release of `3.2.5`. Other users should skip `3.2.5` in
501favor of this version.
502
503## 3.2.5
504
505This is a production release that fixes several bugs and adds a couple small
506things.
507
508The two most important bugs were bugs that causes `dc` to access memory
509out-of-bounds (crash in debug builds). This was found by upgrading to `afl++`
510from `afl`. Both were caused by a failure to distinguish between the same two
511cases.
512
513Another bug was the failure to put all of the licenses in the `LICENSE.md` file.
514
515Third, some warnings by `scan-build` were found and eliminated. This needed one
516big change: `bc` and `dc` now bail out as fast as possible on fatal errors
517instead of unwinding the stack.
518
519Fourth, the pseudo-random number now attempts to seed itself with `/dev/random`
520if `/dev/urandom` fails.
521
522Finally, this release has a few quality-of-life changes to the build system. The
523usage should not change at all; the only thing that changed was making sure the
524`Makefile.in` was written to rebuild properly when headers changed and to not
525rebuild when not necessary.
526
527## 3.2.4
528
529This is a production release that fixes a warning on `gcc` 6 or older, which
530does not have an attribute that is used.
531
532Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade if they don't use `gcc` 6 or older.
533
534## 3.2.3
535
536This is a production release that fixes a bug in `gen/strgen.sh`. I recently
537changed `gen/strgen.c`, but I did not change `gen/strgen.sh`.
538
539Users that do not use `gen/strgen.sh` do not need to upgrade.
540
541## 3.2.2
542
543This is a production release that fixes a portability bug in `configure.sh`. The
544bug was using the GNU `find` extension `-wholename`.
545
546## 3.2.1
547
548This is a production release that has one fix for `bcl(3)`. It is technically
549not a bug fix since the behavior is undefined, but the `BclNumber`s that
550`bcl_divmod()` returns will be set to `BCL_ERROR_INVALID_NUM` if there is an
551error. Previously, they were not set.
552
553## 3.2.0
554
555This is a production release that has one bug fix and a major addition.
556
557The bug fix was a missing `auto` variable in the bessel `j()` function in the
558math library.
559
560The major addition is a way to build a version of `bc`'s math code as a library.
561This is done with the `-a` option to `configure.sh`. The API for the library can
562be read in `./manuals/bcl.3.md` or `man bcl` once the library is installed with
563`make install`.
564
565This library was requested by developers before I even finished version 1.0, but
566I could not figure out how to do it until now.
567
568If the library has API breaking changes, the major version of `bc` will be
569incremented.
570
571## 3.1.6
572
573This is a production release that fixes a new warning from Clang 12 for FreeBSD
574and also removes some possible undefined behavior found by UBSan that compilers
575did not seem to take advantage of.
576
577Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, if they do not want to.
578
579## 3.1.5
580
581This is a production release that fixes the Chinese locales (which caused `bc`
582to crash) and a crash caused by `bc` executing code when it should not have been
583able to.
584
585***ALL USERS SHOULD UPGRADE.***
586
587## 3.1.4
588
589This is a production release that fixes one bug, changes two behaviors, and
590removes one environment variable.
591
592The bug is like the one in the last release except it applies if files are being
593executed. I also made the fix more general.
594
595The behavior that was changed is that `bc` now exits when given `-e`, `-f`,
596`--expression` or `--file`. However, if the last one of those is `-f-` (using
597`stdin` as the file), `bc` does not exit. If `-f-` exists and is not the last of
598the `-e` and `-f` options (and equivalents), `bc` gives a fatal error and exits.
599
600Next, I removed the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` and `DC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variables
601since their use is not needed with the behavior change.
602
603Finally, I made it so `bc` does not print the header, though the `-q` and
604`--quiet` options were kept for compatibility with GNU `bc`.
605
606## 3.1.3
607
608This is a production release that fixes one minor bug: if `bc` was invoked like
609the following, it would error:
610
611```
612echo "if (1 < 3) 1" | bc
613```
614
615Unless users run into this bug, they do not need to upgrade, but it is suggested
616that they do.
617
618## 3.1.2
619
620This is a production release that adds a way to install *all* locales. Users do
621***NOT*** need to upgrade.
622
623For package maintainers wishing to make use of the change, just pass `-l` to
624`configure.sh`.
625
626## 3.1.1
627
628This is a production release that adds two Spanish locales. Users do ***NOT***
629need to upgrade, unless they want those locales.
630
631## 3.1.0
632
633This is a production release that adjusts one behavior, fixes eight bugs, and
634improves manpages for FreeBSD. Because this release fixes bugs, **users and
635package maintainers should update to this version as soon as possible**.
636
637The behavior that was adjusted was how code from the `-e` and `-f` arguments
638(and equivalents) were executed. They used to be executed as one big chunk, but
639in this release, they are now executed line-by-line.
640
641The first bug fix in how output to `stdout` was handled in `SIGINT`. If a
642`SIGINT` came in, the `stdout` buffer was not correctly flushed. In fact, a
643clean-up function was not getting called. This release fixes that bug.
644
645The second bug is in how `dc` handled input from `stdin`. This affected `bc` as
646well since it was a mishandling of the `stdin` buffer.
647
648The third fixed bug was that `bc` and `dc` could `abort()` (in debug mode) when
649receiving a `SIGTERM`. This one was a race condition with pushing and popping
650items onto and out of vectors.
651
652The fourth bug fixed was that `bc` could leave extra items on the stack and
653thus, not properly clean up some memory. (The memory would still get
654`free()`'ed, but it would not be `free()`'ed when it could have been.)
655
656The next two bugs were bugs in `bc`'s parser that caused crashes when executing
657the resulting code.
658
659The last two bugs were crashes in `dc` that resulted from mishandling of
660strings.
661
662The manpage improvement was done by switching from [ronn][20] to [Pandoc][21] to
663generate manpages. Pandoc generates much cleaner manpages and doesn't leave
664blank lines where they shouldn't be.
665
666## 3.0.3
667
668This is a production release that adds one new feature: specific manpages.
669
670Before this release, `bc` and `dc` only used one manpage each that referred to
671various build options. This release changes it so there is one manpage set per
672relevant build type. Each manual only has information about its particular
673build, and `configure.sh` selects the correct set for install.
674
675## 3.0.2
676
677This is a production release that adds `utf8` locale symlinks and removes an
678unused `auto` variable from the `ceil()` function in the [extended math
679library][16].
680
681Users do ***NOT*** need to update unless they want the locales.
682
683## 3.0.1
684
685This is a production release with two small changes. Users do ***NOT*** need to
686upgrade to this release; however, if they haven't upgraded to `3.0.0` yet, it
687may be worthwhile to upgrade to this release.
688
689The first change is fixing a compiler warning on FreeBSD with strict warnings
690on.
691
692The second change is to make the new implementation of `ceil()` in `lib2.bc`
693much more efficient.
694
695## 3.0.0
696
697*Notes for package maintainers:*
698
699*First, the `2.7.0` release series saw a change in the option parsing. This made
700me change one error message and add a few others. The error message that was
701changed removed one format specifier. This means that `printf()` will seqfault
702on old locale files. Unfortunately, `bc` cannot use any locale files except the
703global ones that are already installed, so it will use the previous ones while
704running tests during install. **If `bc` segfaults while running arg tests when
705updating, it is because the global locale files have not been replaced. Make
706sure to either prevent the test suite from running on update or remove the old
707locale files before updating.** (Removing the locale files can be done with
708`make uninstall` or by running the [`locale_uninstall.sh`][22] script.) Once
709this is done, `bc` should install without problems.*
710
711*Second, **the option to build without signal support has been removed**. See
712below for the reasons why.*
713
714This is a production release with some small bug fixes, a few improvements,
715three major bug fixes, and a complete redesign of `bc`'s error and signal
716handling. **Users and package maintainers should update to this version as soon
717as possible.**
718
719The first major bug fix was in how `bc` executed files. Previously, a whole file
720was parsed before it was executed, but if a function is defined *after* code,
721especially if the function definition was actually a redefinition, and the code
722before the definition referred to the previous function, this `bc` would replace
723the function before executing any code. The fix was to make sure that all code
724that existed before a function definition was executed.
725
726The second major bug fix was in `bc`'s `lib2.bc`. The `ceil()` function had a
727bug where a `0` in the decimal place after the truncation position, caused it to
728output the wrong numbers if there was any non-zero digit after.
729
730The third major bug is that when passing parameters to functions, if an
731expression included an array (not an array element) as a parameter, it was
732accepted, when it should have been rejected. It is now correctly rejected.
733
734Beyond that, this `bc` got several improvements that both sped it up, improved
735the handling of signals, and improved the error handling.
736
737First, the requirements for `bc` were pushed back to POSIX 2008. `bc` uses one
738function, `strdup()`, which is not in POSIX 2001, and it is in the X/Open System
739Interfaces group 2001. It is, however, in POSIX 2008, and since POSIX 2008 is
740old enough to be supported anywhere that I care, that should be the requirement.
741
742Second, the BcVm global variable was put into `bss`. This actually slightly
743reduces the size of the executable from a massive code shrink, and it will stop
744`bc` from allocating a large set of memory when `bc` starts.
745
746Third, the default Karatsuba length was updated from 64 to 32 after making the
747optimization changes below, since 32 is going to be better than 64 after the
748changes.
749
750Fourth, Spanish translations were added.
751
752Fifth, the interpreter received a speedup to make performance on non-math-heavy
753scripts more competitive with GNU `bc`. While improvements did, in fact, get it
754much closer (see the [benchmarks][19]), it isn't quite there.
755
756There were several things done to speed up the interpreter:
757
758First, several small inefficiencies were removed. These inefficiencies included
759calling the function `bc_vec_pop(v)` twice instead of calling
760`bc_vec_npop(v, 2)`. They also included an extra function call for checking the
761size of the stack and checking the size of the stack more than once on several
762operations.
763
764Second, since the current `bc` function is the one that stores constants and
765strings, the program caches pointers to the current function's vectors of
766constants and strings to prevent needing to grab the current function in order
767to grab a constant or a string.
768
769Third, `bc` tries to reuse `BcNum`'s (the internal representation of
770arbitary-precision numbers). If a `BcNum` has the default capacity of
771`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` (32 on 64-bit and 16 on 32-bit) when it is freed, it is added
772to a list of available `BcNum`'s. And then, when a `BcNum` is allocated with a
773capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` and any `BcNum`'s exist on the list of reusable
774ones, one of those ones is grabbed instead.
775
776In order to support these changes, the `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` was changed. It used to
777be 16 bytes on all systems, but it was changed to more closely align with the
778minimum allocation size on Linux, which is either 32 bytes (64-bit musl), 24
779bytes (64-bit glibc), 16 bytes (32-bit musl), or 12 bytes (32-bit glibc). Since
780these are the minimum allocation sizes, these are the sizes that would be
781allocated anyway, making it worth it to just use the whole space, so the value
782of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` on 64-bit systems was changed to 32 bytes.
783
784On top of that, at least on 64-bit, `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` supports numbers with
785either 72 integer digits or 45 integer digits and 27 fractional digits. This
786should be more than enough for most cases since `bc`'s default `scale` values
787are 0 or 20, meaning that, by default, it has at most 20 fractional digits. And
78845 integer digits are *a lot*; it's enough to calculate the amount of mass in
789the Milky Way galaxy in kilograms. Also, 72 digits is enough to calculate the
790diameter of the universe in Planck lengths.
791
792(For 32-bit, these numbers are either 32 integer digits or 12 integer digits and
79320 fractional digits. These are also quite big, and going much bigger on a
79432-bit system seems a little pointless since 12 digits is just under a trillion
795and 20 fractional digits is still enough for about any use since `10^-20` light
796years is just under a millimeter.)
797
798All of this together means that for ordinary uses, and even uses in scientific
799work, the default number size will be all that is needed, which means that
800nearly all, if not all, numbers will be reused, relieving pressure on the system
801allocator.
802
803I did several experiments to find the changes that had the most impact,
804especially with regard to reusing `BcNum`'s. One was putting `BcNum`'s into
805buckets according to their capacity in powers of 2 up to 512. That performed
806worse than `bc` did in `2.7.2`. Another was putting any `BcNum` on the reuse
807list that had a capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE * 2` and reusing them for `BcNum`'s
808that requested `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`. This did reduce the amount of time spent, but
809it also spent a lot of time in the system allocator for an unknown reason. (When
810using `strace`, a bunch more `brk` calls showed up.) Just reusing `BcNum`'s that
811had exactly `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` capacity spent the smallest amount of time in both
812user and system time. This makes sense, especially with the changes to make
813`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` bigger on 64-bit systems, since the vast majority of numbers
814will only ever use numbers with a size less than or equal to `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`.
815
816Last of all, `bc`'s signal handling underwent a complete redesign. (This is the
817reason that this version is `3.0.0` and not `2.8.0`.) The change was to move
818from a polling approach to signal handling to an interrupt-based approach.
819
820Previously, every single loop condition had a check for signals. I suspect that
821this could be expensive when in tight loops.
822
823Now, the signal handler just uses `longjmp()` (actually `siglongjmp()`) to start
824an unwinding of the stack until it is stopped or the stack is unwound to
825`main()`, which just returns. If `bc` is currently executing code that cannot be
826safely interrupted (according to POSIX), then signals are "locked." The signal
827handler checks if the lock is taken, and if it is, it just sets the status to
828indicate that a signal arrived. Later, when the signal lock is released, the
829status is checked to see if a signal came in. If so, the stack unwinding starts.
830
831This design eliminates polling in favor of maintaining a stack of `jmp_buf`'s.
832This has its own performance implications, but it gives better interaction. And
833the cost of pushing and popping a `jmp_buf` in a function is paid at most twice.
834Most functions do not pay that price, and most of the rest only pay it once.
835(There are only some 3 functions in `bc` that push and pop a `jmp_buf` twice.)
836
837As a side effect of this change, I had to eliminate the use of `stdio.h` in `bc`
838because `stdio` does not play nice with signals and `longjmp()`. I implemented
839custom I/O buffer code that takes a fraction of the size. This means that static
840builds will be smaller, but non-static builds will be bigger, though they will
841have less linking time.
842
843This change is also good because my history implementation was already bypassing
844`stdio` for good reasons, and unifying the architecture was a win.
845
846Another reason for this change is that my `bc` should *always* behave correctly
847in the presence of signals like `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM`, and `SIGQUIT`. With the
848addition of my own I/O buffering, I needed to also make sure that the buffers
849were correctly flushed even when such signals happened.
850
851For this reason, I **removed the option to build without signal support**.
852
853As a nice side effect of this change, the error handling code could be changed
854to take advantage of the stack unwinding that signals used. This means that
855signals and error handling use the same code paths, which means that the stack
856unwinding is well-tested. (Errors are tested heavily in the test suite.)
857
858It also means that functions do not need to return a status code that
859***every*** caller needs to check. This eliminated over 100 branches that simply
860checked return codes and then passed that return code up the stack if necessary.
861The code bloat savings from this is at least 1700 bytes on `x86_64`, *before*
862taking into account the extra code from removing `stdio.h`.
863
864## 2.7.2
865
866This is a production release with one major bug fix.
867
868The `length()` built-in function can take either a number or an array. If it
869takes an array, it returns the length of the array. Arrays can be passed by
870reference. The bug is that the `length()` function would not properly
871dereference arrays that were references. This is a bug that affects all users.
872
873**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
874
875## 2.7.1
876
877This is a production release with fixes for new locales and fixes for compiler
878warnings on FreeBSD.
879
880## 2.7.0
881
882This is a production release with a bug fix for Linux, new translations, and new
883features.
884
885Bug fixes:
886
887* Option parsing in `BC_ENV_ARGS` was broken on Linux in 2.6.1 because `glibc`'s
888  `getopt_long()` is broken. To get around that, and to support long options on
889  every platform, an adapted version of [`optparse`][17] was added. Now, `bc`
890  does not even use `getopt()`.
891* Parsing `BC_ENV_ARGS` with quotes now works. It isn't the smartest, but it
892  does the job if there are spaces in file names.
893
894The following new languages are supported:
895
896* Dutch
897* Polish
898* Russian
899* Japanes
900* Simplified Chinese
901
902All of these translations were generated using [DeepL][18], so improvements are
903welcome.
904
905There is only one new feature: **`bc` now has a built-in pseudo-random number
906generator** (PRNG).
907
908The PRNG is seeded, making it useful for applications where
909`/dev/urandom` does not work because output needs to be reproducible. However,
910it also uses `/dev/urandom` to seed itself by default, so it will start with a
911good seed by default.
912
913It also outputs 32 bits on 32-bit platforms and 64 bits on 64-bit platforms, far
914better than the 15 bits of C's `rand()` and `bash`'s `$RANDOM`.
915
916In addition, the PRNG can take a bound, and when it gets a bound, it
917automatically adjusts to remove bias. It can also generate numbers of arbitrary
918size. (As of the time of release, the largest pseudo-random number generated by
919this `bc` was generated with a bound of `2^(2^20)`.)
920
921***IMPORTANT: read the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] to find out
922exactly what guarantees the PRNG provides. The underlying implementation is not
923guaranteed to stay the same, but the guarantees that it provides are guaranteed
924to stay the same regardless of the implementation.***
925
926On top of that, four functions were added to `bc`'s [extended math library][16]
927to make using the PRNG easier:
928
929* `frand(p)`: Generates a number between `[0,1)` to `p` decimal places.
930* `ifrand(i, p)`: Generates an integer with bound `i` and adds it to `frand(p)`.
931* `srand(x)`: Randomizes the sign of `x`. In other words, it flips the sign of
932  `x` with probability `0.5`.
933* `brand()`: Returns a random boolean value (either `0` or `1`).
934
935## 2.6.1
936
937This is a production release with a bug fix for FreeBSD.
938
939The bug was that when `bc` was built without long options, it would give a fatal
940error on every run. This was caused by a mishandling of `optind`.
941
942## 2.6.0
943
944This release is a production release ***with no bugfixes***. If you do not want
945to upgrade, you don't have to.
946
947No source code changed; the only thing that changed was `lib2.bc`.
948
949This release adds one function to the [extended math library][16]: `p(x, y)`,
950which calculates `x` to the power of `y`, whether or not `y` is an integer. (The
951`^` operator can only accept integer powers.)
952
953This release also includes a couple of small tweaks to the [extended math
954library][16], mostly to fix returning numbers with too high of `scale`.
955
956## 2.5.3
957
958This release is a production release which addresses inconsistencies in the
959Portuguese locales. No `bc` code was changed.
960
961The issues were that the ISO files used different naming, and also that the
962files that should have been symlinks were not. I did not catch that because
963GitHub rendered them the exact same way.
964
965## 2.5.2
966
967This release is a production release.
968
969No code was changed, but the build system was changed to allow `CFLAGS` to be
970given to `CC`, like this:
971
972```
973CC="gcc -O3 -march=native" ./configure.sh
974```
975
976If this happens, the flags are automatically put into `CFLAGS`, and the compiler
977is set appropriately. In the example above this means that `CC` will be "gcc"
978and `CFLAGS` will be "-O3 -march=native".
979
980This behavior was added to conform to GNU autotools practices.
981
982## 2.5.1
983
984This is a production release which addresses portability concerns discovered
985in the `bc` build system. No `bc` code was changed.
986
987* Support for Solaris SPARC and AIX were added.
988* Minor documentations edits were performed.
989* An option for `configure.sh` was added to disable long options if
990  `getopt_long()` is missing.
991
992## 2.5.0
993
994This is a production release with new translations. No code changed.
995
996The translations were contributed by [bugcrazy][15], and they are for
997Portuguese, both Portugal and Brazil locales.
998
999## 2.4.0
1000
1001This is a production release primarily aimed at improving `dc`.
1002
1003* A couple of copy and paste errors in the [`dc` manual][10] were fixed.
1004* `dc` startup was optimized by making sure it didn't have to set up `bc`-only
1005  things.
1006* The `bc` `&&` and `||` operators were made available to `dc` through the `M`
1007  and `m` commands, respectively.
1008* `dc` macros were changed to be tail call-optimized.
1009
1010The last item, tail call optimization, means that if the last thing in a macro
1011is a call to another macro, then the old macro is popped before executing the
1012new macro. This change was made to stop `dc` from consuming more and more memory
1013as macros are executed in a loop.
1014
1015The `q` and `Q` commands still respect the "hidden" macros by way of recording
1016how many macros were removed by tail call optimization.
1017
1018## 2.3.2
1019
1020This is a production release meant to fix warnings in the Gentoo `ebuild` by
1021making it possible to disable binary stripping. Other users do *not* need to
1022upgrade.
1023
1024## 2.3.1
1025
1026This is a production release. It fixes a bug that caused `-1000000000 < -1` to
1027return `0`. This only happened with negative numbers and only if the value on
1028the left was more negative by a certain amount. That said, this bug *is* a bad
1029bug, and needs to be fixed.
1030
1031**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
1032
1033## 2.3.0
1034
1035This is a production release with changes to the build system.
1036
1037## 2.2.0
1038
1039This release is a production release. It only has new features and performance
1040improvements.
1041
10421.	The performance of `sqrt(x)` was improved.
10432.	The new function `root(x, n)` was added to the extended math library to
1044	calculate `n`th roots.
10453.	The new function `cbrt(x)` was added to the extended math library to
1046	calculate cube roots.
1047
1048## 2.1.3
1049
1050This is a non-critical release; it just changes the build system, and in
1051non-breaking ways:
1052
10531.	Linked locale files were changed to link to their sources with a relative
1054	link.
10552.	A bug in `configure.sh` that caused long option parsing to fail under `bash`
1056	was fixed.
1057
1058## 2.1.2
1059
1060This release is not a critical release.
1061
10621.	A few codes were added to history.
10632.	Multiplication was optimized a bit more.
10643.	Addition and subtraction were both optimized a bit more.
1065
1066## 2.1.1
1067
1068This release contains a fix for the test suite made for Linux from Scratch: now
1069the test suite prints `pass` when a test is passed.
1070
1071Other than that, there is no change in this release, so distros and other users
1072do not need to upgrade.
1073
1074## 2.1.0
1075
1076This release is a production release.
1077
1078The following bugs were fixed:
1079
10801.	A `dc` bug that caused stack mishandling was fixed.
10812.	A warning on OpenBSD was fixed.
10823.	Bugs in `ctrl+arrow` operations in history were fixed.
10834.	The ability to paste multiple lines in history was added.
10845.	A `bc` bug, mishandling of array arguments to functions, was fixed.
10856.	A crash caused by freeing the wrong pointer was fixed.
10867.	A `dc` bug where strings, in a rare case, were mishandled in parsing was
1087	fixed.
1088
1089In addition, the following changes were made:
1090
10911.	Division was slightly optimized.
10922.	An option was added to the build to disable printing of prompts.
10933.	The special case of empty arguments is now handled. This is to prevent
1094	errors in scripts that end up passing empty arguments.
10954.	A harmless bug was fixed. This bug was that, with the pop instructions
1096	(mostly) removed (see below), `bc` would leave extra values on its stack for
1097	`void` functions and in a few other cases. These extra items would not
1098	affect anything put on the stack and would not cause any sort of crash or
1099	even buggy behavior, but they would cause `bc` to take more memory than it
1100	needed.
1101
1102On top of the above changes, the following optimizations were added:
1103
11041.	The need for pop instructions in `bc` was removed.
11052.	Extra tests on every iteration of the interpreter loop were removed.
11063.	Updating function and code pointers on every iteration of the interpreter
1107	loop was changed to only updating them when necessary.
11084.	Extra assignments to pointers were removed.
1109
1110Altogether, these changes sped up the interpreter by around 2x.
1111
1112***NOTE***: This is the last release with new features because this `bc` is now
1113considered complete. From now on, only bug fixes and new translations will be
1114added to this `bc`.
1115
1116## 2.0.3
1117
1118This is a production, bug-fix release.
1119
1120Two bugs were fixed in this release:
1121
11221.	A rare and subtle signal handling bug was fixed.
11232.	A misbehavior on `0` to a negative power was fixed.
1124
1125The last bug bears some mentioning.
1126
1127When I originally wrote power, I did not thoroughly check its error cases;
1128instead, I had it check if the first number was `0` and then if so, just return
1129`0`. However, `0` to a negative power means that `1` will be divided by `0`,
1130which is an error.
1131
1132I caught this, but only after I stopped being cocky. You see, sometime later, I
1133had noticed that GNU `bc` returned an error, correctly, but I thought it was
1134wrong simply because that's not what my `bc` did. I saw it again later and had a
1135double take. I checked for real, finally, and found out that my `bc` was wrong
1136all along.
1137
1138That was bad on me. But the bug was easy to fix, so it is fixed now.
1139
1140There are two other things in this release:
1141
11421.	Subtraction was optimized by [Stefan Eßer][14].
11432.	Division was also optimized, also by Stefan Eßer.
1144
1145## 2.0.2
1146
1147This release contains a fix for a possible overflow in the signal handling. I
1148would be surprised if any users ran into it because it would only happen after 2
1149billion (`2^31-1`) `SIGINT`'s, but I saw it and had to fix it.
1150
1151## 2.0.1
1152
1153This release contains very few things that will apply to any users.
1154
11551.	A slight bug in `dc`'s interactive mode was fixed.
11562.	A bug in the test suite that was only triggered on NetBSD was fixed.
11573.	**The `-P`/`--no-prompt` option** was added for users that do not want a
1158	prompt.
11594.	A `make check` target was added as an alias for `make test`.
11605.	`dc` got its own read prompt: `?> `.
1161
1162## 2.0.0
1163
1164This release is a production release.
1165
1166This release is also a little different from previous releases. From here on
1167out, I do not plan on adding any more features to this `bc`; I believe that it
1168is complete. However, there may be bug fix releases in the future, if I or any
1169others manage to find bugs.
1170
1171This release has only a few new features:
1172
11731.	`atan2(y, x)` was added to the extended math library as both `a2(y, x)` and
1174	`atan2(y, x)`.
11752.	Locales were fixed.
11763.	A **POSIX shell-compatible script was added as an alternative to compiling
1177	`gen/strgen.c`** on a host machine. More details about making the choice
1178	between the two can be found by running `./configure.sh --help` or reading
1179	the [build manual][13].
11804.	Multiplication was optimized by using **diagonal multiplication**, rather
1181	than straight brute force.
11825.	The `locale_install.sh` script was fixed.
11836.	`dc` was given the ability to **use the environment variable
1184	`DC_ENV_ARGS`**.
11857.	`dc` was also given the ability to **use the `-i` or `--interactive`**
1186	options.
11878.	Printing the prompt was fixed so that it did not print when it shouldn't.
11889.	Signal handling was fixed.
118910.	**Handling of `SIGTERM` and `SIGQUIT`** was fixed.
119011.	The **built-in functions `maxibase()`, `maxobase()`, and `maxscale()`** (the
1191	commands `T`, `U`, `V` in `dc`, respectively) were added to allow scripts to
1192	query for the max allowable values of those globals.
119312.	Some incompatibilities with POSIX were fixed.
1194
1195In addition, this release is `2.0.0` for a big reason: the internal format for
1196numbers changed. They used to be a `char` array. Now, they are an array of
1197larger integers, packing more decimal digits into each integer. This has
1198delivered ***HUGE*** performance improvements, especially for multiplication,
1199division, and power.
1200
1201This `bc` should now be the fastest `bc` available, but I may be wrong.
1202
1203## 1.2.8
1204
1205This release contains a fix for a harmless bug (it is harmless in that it still
1206works, but it just copies extra data) in the [`locale_install.sh`][12] script.
1207
1208## 1.2.7
1209
1210This version contains fixes for the build on Arch Linux.
1211
1212## 1.2.6
1213
1214This release removes the use of `local` in shell scripts because it's not POSIX
1215shell-compatible, and also updates a man page that should have been updated a
1216long time ago but was missed.
1217
1218## 1.2.5
1219
1220This release contains some missing locale `*.msg` files.
1221
1222## 1.2.4
1223
1224This release contains a few bug fixes and new French translations.
1225
1226## 1.2.3
1227
1228This release contains a fix for a bug: use of uninitialized data. Such data was
1229only used when outputting an error message, but I am striving for perfection. As
1230Michelangelo said, "Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."
1231
1232## 1.2.2
1233
1234This release contains fixes for OpenBSD.
1235
1236## 1.2.1
1237
1238This release contains bug fixes for some rare bugs.
1239
1240## 1.2.0
1241
1242This is a production release.
1243
1244There have been several changes since `1.1.0`:
1245
12461.	The build system had some changes.
12472.	Locale support has been added. (Patches welcome for translations.)
12483.	**The ability to turn `ibase`, `obase`, and `scale` into stacks** was added
1249	with the `-g` command-line option. (See the [`bc` manual][9] for more
1250	details.)
12514.	Support for compiling on Mac OSX out of the box was added.
12525.	The extended math library got `t(x)`, `ceil(x)`, and some aliases.
12536.	The extended math library also got `r2d(x)` (for converting from radians to
1254	degrees) and `d2r(x)` (for converting from degrees to radians). This is to
1255	allow using degrees with the standard library.
12567.	Both calculators now accept numbers in **scientific notation**. See the
1257	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
12588.	Both calculators can **output in either scientific or engineering
1259	notation**. See the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
12609.	Some inefficiencies were removed.
126110.	Some bugs were fixed.
126211.	Some bugs in the extended library were fixed.
126312.	Some defects from [Coverity Scan][11] were fixed.
1264
1265## 1.1.4
1266
1267This release contains a fix to the build system that allows it to build on older
1268versions of `glibc`.
1269
1270## 1.1.3
1271
1272This release contains a fix for a bug in the test suite where `bc` tests and
1273`dc` tests could not be run in parallel.
1274
1275## 1.1.2
1276
1277This release has a fix for a history bug; the down arrow did not work.
1278
1279## 1.1.1
1280
1281This release fixes a bug in the `1.1.0` build system. The source is exactly the
1282same.
1283
1284The bug that was fixed was a failure to install if no `EXECSUFFIX` was used.
1285
1286## 1.1.0
1287
1288This is a production release. However, many new features were added since `1.0`.
1289
12901.	**The build system has been changed** to use a custom, POSIX
1291	shell-compatible configure script ([`configure.sh`][6]) to generate a POSIX
1292	make-compatible `Makefile`, which means that `bc` and `dc` now build out of
1293	the box on any POSIX-compatible system.
12942.	Out-of-memory and output errors now cause the `bc` to report the error,
1295	clean up, and die, rather than just reporting and trying to continue.
12963.	**Strings and constants are now garbage collected** when possible.
12974.	Signal handling and checking has been made more simple and more thorough.
12985.	`BcGlobals` was refactored into `BcVm` and `BcVm` was made global. Some
1299	procedure names were changed to reflect its difference to everything else.
13006.	Addition got a speed improvement.
13017.	Some common code for addition and multiplication was refactored into its own
1302	procedure.
13038.	A bug was removed where `dc` could have been selected, but the internal
1304	`#define` that returned `true` for a query about `dc` would not have
1305	returned `true`.
13069.	Useless calls to `bc_num_zero()` were removed.
130710.	**History support was added.** The history support is based off of a
1308	[UTF-8 aware fork][7] of [`linenoise`][8], which has been customized with
1309	`bc`'s own data structures and signal handling.
131011.	Generating C source from the math library now removes tabs from the library,
1311	shrinking the size of the executable.
131212.	The math library was shrunk.
131313.	Error handling and reporting was improved.
131414.	Reallocations were reduced by giving access to the request size for each
1315	operation.
131615.	**`abs()` (`b` command for `dc`) was added as a builtin.**
131716.	Both calculators were tested on FreeBSD.
131817.	Many obscure parse bugs were fixed.
131918.	Markdown and man page manuals were added, and the man pages are installed by
1320	`make install`.
132119.	Executable size was reduced, though the added features probably made the
1322	executable end up bigger.
132320.	**GNU-style array references were added as a supported feature.**
132421.	Allocations were reduced.
132522.	**New operators were added**: `$` (`$` for `dc`), `@` (`@` for `dc`), `@=`,
1326	`<<` (`H` for `dc`), `<<=`, `>>` (`h` for `dc`), and `>>=`. See the
1327	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for more details.
132823.	**An extended math library was added.** This library contains code that
1329	makes it so I can replace my desktop calculator with this `bc`. See the
1330	[`bc` manual][3] for more details.
133124.	Support for all capital letters as numbers was added.
133225.	**Support for GNU-style void functions was added.**
133326.	A bug fix for improper handling of function parameters was added.
133427.	Precedence for the or (`||`) operator was changed to match GNU `bc`.
133528.	`dc` was given an explicit negation command.
133629.	`dc` was changed to be able to handle strings in arrays.
1337
1338## 1.1 Release Candidate 3
1339
1340This release is the eighth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1341release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1342been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1343
1344## 1.1 Release Candidate 2
1345
1346This release is the seventh release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1347release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1348been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1349
1350## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 5
1351
1352This release is the sixth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fifth
1353release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1354code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1355
1356## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 4
1357
1358This release is the fifth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fourth
1359release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1360code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1361
1362## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 3
1363
1364This release is the fourth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
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 2
1369
1370This release is the third release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
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 1
1375
1376This release is the second release candidate for 1.1, though it is meant
1377specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new code has not been tested as
1378thoroughly as it should for release.
1379
1380## 1.1 Release Candidate 1
1381
1382This is the first release candidate for 1.1. The new code has not been tested as
1383thoroughly as it should for release.
1384
1385## 1.0
1386
1387This is the first non-beta release. `bc` is ready for production use.
1388
1389As such, a lot has changed since 0.5.
1390
13911.	`dc` has been added. It has been tested even more thoroughly than `bc` was
1392	for `0.5`. It does not have the `!` command, and for security reasons, it
1393	never will, so it is complete.
13942.	`bc` has been more thoroughly tested. An entire section of the test suite
1395	(for both programs) has been added to test for errors.
13963.	A prompt (`>>> `) has been added for interactive mode, making it easier to
1397	see inputs and outputs.
13984.	Interrupt handling has been improved, including elimination of race
1399	conditions (as much as possible).
14005.	MinGW and [Windows Subsystem for Linux][1] support has been added (see
1401	[xstatic][2] for binaries).
14026.	Memory leaks and errors have been eliminated (as far as ASan and Valgrind
1403	can tell).
14047.	Crashes have been eliminated (as far as [afl][3] can tell).
14058.	Karatsuba multiplication was added (and thoroughly) tested, speeding up
1406	multiplication and power by orders of magnitude.
14079.	Performance was further enhanced by using a "divmod" function to reduce
1408	redundant divisions and by removing superfluous `memset()` calls.
140910.	To switch between Karatsuba and `O(n^2)` multiplication, the config variable
1410	`BC_NUM_KARATSUBA_LEN` was added. It is set to a sane default, but the
1411	optimal number can be found with [`karatsuba.py`][4] (requires Python 3)
1412	and then configured through `make`.
141311.	The random math test generator script was changed to Python 3 and improved.
1414	`bc` and `dc` have together been run through 30+ million random tests.
141512.	All known math bugs have been fixed, including out of control memory
1416	allocations in `sine` and `cosine` (that was actually a parse bug), certain
1417	cases of infinite loop on square root, and slight inaccuracies (as much as
1418	possible; see the [README][5]) in transcendental functions.
141913.	Parsing has been fixed as much as possible.
142014.	Test coverage was improved to 94.8%. The only paths not covered are ones
1421	that happen when `malloc()` or `realloc()` fails.
142215.	An extension to get the length of an array was added.
142316.	The boolean not (`!`) had its precedence change to match negation.
142417.	Data input was hardened.
142518.	`bc` was made fully compliant with POSIX when the `-s` flag is used or
1426	`POSIXLY_CORRECT` is defined.
142719.	Error handling was improved.
142820.	`bc` now checks that files it is given are not directories.
1429
1430## 1.0 Release Candidate 7
1431
1432This is the seventh release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0
1433Release Candidate 6.
1434
1435## 1.0 Release Candidate 6
1436
1437This is the sixth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1438Candidate 5.
1439
1440## 1.0 Release Candidate 5
1441
1442This is the fifth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1443Candidate 4.
1444
1445## 1.0 Release Candidate 4
1446
1447This is the fourth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1448Candidate 3.
1449
1450## 1.0 Release Candidate 3
1451
1452This is the third release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1453Candidate 2.
1454
1455## 1.0 Release Candidate 2
1456
1457This is the second release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1458Candidate 1.
1459
1460## 1.0 Release Candidate 1
1461
1462This is the first Release Candidate for 1.0. `bc` is complete, with `dc`, but it
1463is not tested.
1464
1465## 0.5
1466
1467This beta release completes more features, but it is still not complete nor
1468tested as thoroughly as necessary.
1469
1470## 0.4.1
1471
1472This beta release fixes a few bugs in 0.4.
1473
1474## 0.4
1475
1476This is a beta release. It does not have the complete set of features, and it is
1477not thoroughly tested.
1478
1479[1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
1480[2]: https://pkg.musl.cc/bc/
1481[3]: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/
1482[4]: ./scripts/karatsuba.py
1483[5]: ./README.md
1484[6]: ./configure.sh
1485[7]: https://github.com/rain-1/linenoise-mob
1486[8]: https://github.com/antirez/linenoise
1487[9]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md
1488[10]: ./manuals/dc/A.1.md
1489[11]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/gavinhoward-bc
1490[12]: ./scripts/locale_install.sh
1491[13]: ./manuals/build.md
1492[14]: https://github.com/stesser
1493[15]: https://github.com/bugcrazy
1494[16]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md#extended-library
1495[17]: https://github.com/skeeto/optparse
1496[18]: https://www.deepl.com/translator
1497[19]: ./manuals/benchmarks.md
1498[20]: https://github.com/apjanke/ronn-ng
1499[21]: https://pandoc.org/
1500[22]: ./scripts/locale_uninstall.sh
1501