xref: /freebsd/contrib/bc/NEWS.md (revision a5c0d5517771d84514cdeff2c6a655d120bfd71e)
1# News
2
3## 6.2.2
4
5This is a production release that fixes a bug.
6
7The bug was that if an array element was used as a parameter, and then a later
8parameter had the same name as the array whose element was used, `bc` would grab
9the element from the new array parameter, not the actual element from before the
10function call.
11
12## 6.2.1
13
14This is a production release with one bug fix for a memory bug in history.
15
16## 6.2.0
17
18This is a production release with a new feature and a few bug fixes.
19
20The bug fixes include:
21
22* A crash when `bc` and `dc` are built using editline, but history is not
23  activated.
24* A missing local in the `uint*()` family of functions in the extended math
25  library.
26* A failure to clear the tail call list in `dc` on error.
27* A crash when attempting to swap characters in command-line history when no
28  characters exist.
29* `SIGWINCH` was activated even when history was not.
30
31The new feature is that stack traces are now given for runtime errors. In debug
32mode, the C source file and line of errors are given as well.
33
34## 6.1.1
35
36This is a production release that fixes a build issue with predefined builds and
37generated tests.
38
39## 6.1.0
40
41This is a production release that fixes a discrepancy from the `bc` standard,
42a couple of memory bugs, and adds new features.
43
44The discrepancy from the `bc` standard was with regards to the behavior of the
45`quit` command. This `bc` used to quit whenever it encountered `quit` during
46parsing, even if it was parsing a full file. Now, `bc` only quits when
47encountering `quit` *after* it has executed all executable statements up to that
48point.
49
50This behavior is slightly different from GNU `bc`, but users will only notice
51the difference if they put `quit` on the same line as other statements.
52
53The first memory bug could be reproduced by assigning a string to a non-local
54variable in a function, then redefining the function with use of the same
55non-local variable, which would still refer to a string in the previous version
56of the function.
57
58The second memory bug was caused by passing an array argument to the `asciify()`
59built-in function. In certain cases, that was wrongly allowed, and the
60interpreter just assumed everything was correct and accessed memory. Now that
61arrays are allowed as arguments (see below), this is not an issue.
62
63The first feature was the addition of the `is_number()` built-in function (`u`
64in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a number and 0 otherwise.
65
66The second feature was the addition of the `is_string()` built-in function (`t`
67in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a string and 0 otherwise.
68
69These features were added because I realized that type-checking is necessary now
70that strings can be assigned to variables in `bc` and because they've always
71been assignable to variables in `dc`.
72
73The last added feature is the ability of the `asciify()` built-in function in
74`bc` to convert a full array of numbers into a string. This means that
75character-by-character printing will not be necessary, and more strings than
76just single-character ones will be able to be created.
77
78## 6.0.4
79
80This is a production release that most users will not need to upgrade to.
81
82This fixes a build bug for `bcl` only on OpenBSD. Users that do not need `bcl`
83or have not run into build errors with `bcl` do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
84
85## 6.0.3
86
87This is a production release that fixes a build bug for cross-compilation.
88
89Users that do not need cross-compilation do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
90
91## 6.0.2
92
93This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
94
95* The `-l` option overrode the `-S` option.
96* A double-free and crash when sending a `SIGINT` while executing expressions
97  given on the command-line.
98
99## 6.0.1
100
101This is a production release that fixes memory bugs and memory leaks in `bcl`.
102
103Users that do not use `bcl` (use only `bc` and/or `dc`) do ***NOT*** need to
104upgrade.
105
106These happened because I was unaware that the `bcl` test was not hooked into the
107Valgrind test infrastructure. Then, when I ran the release script, which tests
108everything under Valgrind (or so I thought), it caught nothing, and I thought it
109was safe.
110
111But it was not.
112
113Nevertheless, I have now run it under Valgrind and fixed all of the memory bugs
114(caused by not using `memset()` where I should have but previously didn't have
115to) and memory leaks.
116
117## 6.0.0
118
119This is a production release that fixes an oversight in the `bc` parser (that
120sometimes caused the wrong error message) and adds a feature for compatibility
121with the BSD `bc` and `dc`: turning off digit clamping when parsing numbers.
122
123The default for clamping can be set during the build (see the [build
124manual][13]), it can be set with the `BC_DIGIT_CLAMP` and `DC_DIGIT_CLAMP`
125environment variables, and it can be set with the `-c` and `-C` command-line
126options.
127
128Turning off clamping was also added to the `bcl` library.
129
130In addition, signal handling was removed from the `bcl` library in order to add
131the capability for multi-threading. This required a major version bump. I
132apologize to all library users (I don't know of any), but signals and threads do
133not play well together.
134
135To help with building, a convenience option (`-p`) to `configure.sh` was added
136to build a `bc` and `dc` that is by default compatible with either the BSD `bc`
137and `dc` or the GNU `bc` and `dc`.
138
139## 5.3.3
140
141This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
142system.
143
144All other users do **NOT** need to upgrade.
145
146## 5.3.2
147
148This is a production release that fixes prompt bugs with editline and readline
149where the `BC_PROMPT` environment variable was not being respected.
150
151This also fixes editline and readline output on `EOF`.
152
153## 5.3.1
154
155This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
156system, as well as a problem in the `en_US` locale. If you don't have problems
157with either, you do not need to upgrade.
158
159## 5.3.0
160
161This is a production release that adds features and has a few bug fixes.
162
163First, support for editline and readline history has been added. To use
164editline, pass `-e` to `configure.sh`, and to use readline, pass `-r`.
165
166Second, history support for Windows has been fixed and re-enabled.
167
168Third, command-line options to set `scale`, `ibase`, `obase`, and `seed` were
169added. This was requested long ago, and I originally disagreed with the idea.
170
171Fourth, the manuals had typos and were missing information. That has been fixed.
172
173Fifth, the manuals received different formatting to be more readable as
174manpages.
175
176## 5.2.5
177
178This is a production release that fixes this `bc`'s behavior on `^D` to match
179GNU `bc`.
180
181## 5.2.4
182
183This is a production release that fixes two bugs in history:
184
185* Without prompt, the cursor could not be placed on the first character in a
186  line.
187* Home and End key handling in `tmux` was fixed.
188
189Any users that do not care about these improvements do not need to upgrade.
190
191## 5.2.3
192
193This is a production release that fixes one bug, a parse error when passing a
194file to `bc` using `-f` if that file had a multiline comment or string in it.
195
196## 5.2.2
197
198This is a production release that fixes one bug, a segmentation fault if
199`argv[0]` equals `NULL`.
200
201This is not a critical bug; there will be no vulnerability as far as I can tell.
202There is no need to update if you do not wish to.
203
204## 5.2.1
205
206This is a production release that fixes two parse bugs when in POSIX standard
207mode. One of these bugs was due to a quirk of the POSIX grammar, and the other
208was because `bc` was too strict.
209
210## 5.2.0
211
212This is a production release that adds a new feature, fixes some bugs, and adds
213out-of-source builds and a `pkg-config` file for `bcl`.
214
215The new feature is the ability to turn off exiting on expressions. It is also
216possible to set the default using `configure.sh`. This behavior used to exist
217with the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variable, which is now used again.
218
219Bugs fixed include:
220
221* Some possible race conditions with error handling.
222* Install and uninstall targets for `bcl` did not work.
223
224## 5.1.1
225
226This is a production release that completes a bug fix from `5.1.0`. The bug
227exists in all versions of `bc`.
228
229The bug was that `if` statements without `else` statements would not be handled
230correctly at the end of files or right before a function definition.
231
232## 5.1.0
233
234This is a production release with some fixes and new features.
235
236* Fixed a bug where an `if` statement without an `else` before defining a
237  function caused an error.
238* Fixed a bug with the `bc` banner and `-q`.
239* Fixed a bug on Windows where files were not read correctly.
240* Added a command-line flag (`-z`) to make `bc` and `dc` print leading zeroes on
241  numbers `-1 < x < 1`.
242* Added four functions to `lib2.bc` (`plz()`, `plznl()`, `pnlz()`, and
243  `pnlznl()`) to allow printing numbers with or without leading zeros, despite
244  the use of `-z` or not.
245* Added builtin functions to query global state like line length, global stacks,
246  and leading zeroes.
247* Added a command-line flag (`-L`) to disable wrapping when printing numbers.
248* Improved builds on Windows.
249
250## 5.0.2
251
252This is a production release with one fix for a flaky test. If you have not
253experienced problems with the test suite, you do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
254
255The test was one that tested whether `bc` fails gracefully when it can't
256allocate memory. Unfortunately, there are cases when Linux and FreeBSD lie and
257pretend to allocate the memory.
258
259The reason they do this is because a lot of programs don't use all of the memory
260they allocate, so those OS's usually get away with it.
261
262However, this `bc` uses all of the memory it allocates (at least at page
263granularity), so when it tries to use the memory, FreeBSD and Linux kill it.
264
265This only happens sometimes, however. Other times (on my machine), they do, in
266fact, refuse the request.
267
268So I changed the test to not test for that because I think the graceful failure
269code won't really change much.
270
271## 5.0.1
272
273This is a production release with two fixes:
274
275* Fix for the build on Mac OSX.
276* Fix for the build on Android.
277
278Users that do not use those platforms do ***NOT*** need to update.
279
280## 5.0.0
281
282This is a major production release with several changes:
283
284* Added support for OpenBSD's `pledge()` and `unveil()`.
285* Fixed print bug where a backslash newline combo was printed even if only one
286  digit was left, something I blindly copied from GNU `bc`, like a fool.
287* Fixed bugs in the manuals.
288* Fixed a possible multiplication overflow in power.
289* Temporary numbers are garbage collected if allocation fails, and the
290  allocation is retried. This is to make `bc` and `dc` more resilient to running
291  out of memory.
292* Limited the number of temporary numbers and made the space for them static so
293  that allocating more space for them cannot fail.
294* Allowed integers with non-zero `scale` to be used with power, places, and
295  shift operators.
296* Added greatest common divisor and least common multiple to `lib2.bc`.
297* Added `SIGQUIT` handling to history.
298* Added a command to `dc` (`y`) to get the length of register stacks.
299* Fixed multi-digit bugs in `lib2.bc`.
300* Removed the no prompt build option.
301* Created settings that builders can set defaults for and users can set their
302  preferences for. This includes the `bc` banner, resetting on `SIGINT`, TTY
303  mode, and prompt.
304* Added history support to Windows.
305* Fixed bugs with the handling of register names in `dc`.
306* Fixed bugs with multi-line comments and strings in both calculators.
307* Added a new error type and message for `dc` when register stacks don't have
308  enough items.
309* Optimized string allocation.
310* Made `bc` and `dc` UTF-8 capable.
311* Fixed a bug with `void` functions.
312* Fixed a misspelled symbol in `bcl`. This is technically a breaking change,
313  which requires this to be `5.0.0`.
314* Added the ability for users to get the copyright banner back.
315* Added the ability for users to have `bc` and `dc` quit on `SIGINT`.
316* Added the ability for users to disable prompt and TTY mode by environment
317  variables.
318* Added the ability for users to redefine keywords. This is another reason this
319  is `5.0.0`.
320* Added `dc`'s modular exponentiation and divmod to `bc`.
321* Added the ability to assign strings to variables and array elements and pass
322  them to functions in `bc`.
323* Added `dc`'s asciify command and stream printing to `bc`.
324* Added a command to `dc` (`Y`) to get the length of an array.
325* Added a command to `dc` (`,`) to get the depth of the execution stack.
326* Added bitwise and, or, xor, left shift, right shift, reverse, left rotate,
327  right rotate, and mod functions to `lib2.bc`.
328* Added the functions `s2u(x)` and `s2un(x,n)`, to `lib2.bc`.
329
330## 4.0.2
331
332This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
333
3341.	If no files are used and the first statement on `stdin` is invalid, `scale`
335	would not be set to `20` even if `-l` was used.
3362.	When using history, `bc` failed to respond properly to `SIGSTOP` and
337	`SIGTSTP`.
338
339## 4.0.1
340
341This is a production release that only adds one thing: flushing output when it
342is printed with a print statement.
343
344## 4.0.0
345
346This is a production release with many fixes, a new command-line option, and a
347big surprise:
348
349* A bug was fixed in `dc`'s `P` command where the item on the stack was *not*
350  popped.
351* Various bugs in the manuals have been fixed.
352* A known bug was fixed where history did not interact well with prompts printed
353  by user code without newlines.
354* A new command-line option, `-R` and `--no-read-prompt` was added to disable
355  just the prompt when using `read()` (`bc`) or `?` (`dc`).
356* And finally, **official support for Windows was added**.
357
358The last item is why this is a major version bump.
359
360Currently, only one set of build options (extra math and prompt enabled, history
361and NLS/locale support disabled, both calculators enabled) is supported on
362Windows. However, both debug and release builds are supported.
363
364In addition, Windows builds are supported for the the library (`bcl`).
365
366For more details about how to build on Windows, see the [README][5] or the
367[build manual][13].
368
369## 3.3.4
370
371This is a production release that fixes a small bug.
372
373The bug was that output was not flushed before a `read()` call, so prompts
374without a newline on the end were not flushed before the `read()` call.
375
376This is such a tiny bug that users only need to upgrade if they are affected.
377
378## 3.3.3
379
380This is a production release with one tweak and fixes for manuals.
381
382The tweak is that `length(0)` returns `1` instead of `0`. In `3.3.1`, I changed
383it so `length(0.x)`, where `x` could be any number of digits, returned the
384`scale`, but `length(0)` still returned `0` because I believe that `0` has `0`
385significant digits.
386
387After request of FreeBSD and considering the arguments of a mathematician,
388compatibility with other `bc`'s, and the expectations of users, I decided to
389make the change.
390
391The fixes for manuals fixed a bug where `--` was rendered as `-`.
392
393## 3.3.2
394
395This is a production release that fixes a divide-by-zero bug in `root()` in the
396[extended math library][16]. All previous versions with `root()` have the bug.
397
398## 3.3.1
399
400This is a production release that fixes a bug.
401
402The bug was in the reporting of number length when the value was 0.
403
404## 3.3.0
405
406This is a production release that changes one behavior and fixes documentation
407bugs.
408
409The changed behavior is the treatment of `-e` and `-f` when given through
410`BC_ENV_ARGS` or `DC_ENV_ARGS`. Now `bc` and `dc` do not exit when those options
411(or their equivalents) are given through those environment variables. However,
412`bc` and `dc` still exit when they or their equivalents are given on the
413command-line.
414
415## 3.2.7
416
417This is a production release that removes a small non-portable shell operation
418in `configure.sh`. This problem was only noticed on OpenBSD, not FreeBSD or
419Linux.
420
421Non-OpenBSD users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, although NetBSD users may also
422need to upgrade.
423
424## 3.2.6
425
426This is a production release that fixes the build on FreeBSD.
427
428There was a syntax error in `configure.sh` that the Linux shell did not catch,
429and FreeBSD depends on the existence of `tests/all.sh`.
430
431All users that already upgraded to `3.2.5` should update to this release, with
432my apologies for the poor release of `3.2.5`. Other users should skip `3.2.5` in
433favor of this version.
434
435## 3.2.5
436
437This is a production release that fixes several bugs and adds a couple small
438things.
439
440The two most important bugs were bugs that causes `dc` to access memory
441out-of-bounds (crash in debug builds). This was found by upgrading to `afl++`
442from `afl`. Both were caused by a failure to distinguish between the same two
443cases.
444
445Another bug was the failure to put all of the licenses in the `LICENSE.md` file.
446
447Third, some warnings by `scan-build` were found and eliminated. This needed one
448big change: `bc` and `dc` now bail out as fast as possible on fatal errors
449instead of unwinding the stack.
450
451Fourth, the pseudo-random number now attempts to seed itself with `/dev/random`
452if `/dev/urandom` fails.
453
454Finally, this release has a few quality-of-life changes to the build system. The
455usage should not change at all; the only thing that changed was making sure the
456`Makefile.in` was written to rebuild properly when headers changed and to not
457rebuild when not necessary.
458
459## 3.2.4
460
461This is a production release that fixes a warning on `gcc` 6 or older, which
462does not have an attribute that is used.
463
464Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade if they don't use `gcc` 6 or older.
465
466## 3.2.3
467
468This is a production release that fixes a bug in `gen/strgen.sh`. I recently
469changed `gen/strgen.c`, but I did not change `gen/strgen.sh`.
470
471Users that do not use `gen/strgen.sh` do not need to upgrade.
472
473## 3.2.2
474
475This is a production release that fixes a portability bug in `configure.sh`. The
476bug was using the GNU `find` extension `-wholename`.
477
478## 3.2.1
479
480This is a production release that has one fix for `bcl(3)`. It is technically
481not a bug fix since the behavior is undefined, but the `BclNumber`s that
482`bcl_divmod()` returns will be set to `BCL_ERROR_INVALID_NUM` if there is an
483error. Previously, they were not set.
484
485## 3.2.0
486
487This is a production release that has one bug fix and a major addition.
488
489The bug fix was a missing `auto` variable in the bessel `j()` function in the
490math library.
491
492The major addition is a way to build a version of `bc`'s math code as a library.
493This is done with the `-a` option to `configure.sh`. The API for the library can
494be read in `./manuals/bcl.3.md` or `man bcl` once the library is installed with
495`make install`.
496
497This library was requested by developers before I even finished version 1.0, but
498I could not figure out how to do it until now.
499
500If the library has API breaking changes, the major version of `bc` will be
501incremented.
502
503## 3.1.6
504
505This is a production release that fixes a new warning from Clang 12 for FreeBSD
506and also removes some possible undefined behavior found by UBSan that compilers
507did not seem to take advantage of.
508
509Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, if they do not want to.
510
511## 3.1.5
512
513This is a production release that fixes the Chinese locales (which caused `bc`
514to crash) and a crash caused by `bc` executing code when it should not have been
515able to.
516
517***ALL USERS SHOULD UPGRADE.***
518
519## 3.1.4
520
521This is a production release that fixes one bug, changes two behaviors, and
522removes one environment variable.
523
524The bug is like the one in the last release except it applies if files are being
525executed. I also made the fix more general.
526
527The behavior that was changed is that `bc` now exits when given `-e`, `-f`,
528`--expression` or `--file`. However, if the last one of those is `-f-` (using
529`stdin` as the file), `bc` does not exit. If `-f-` exists and is not the last of
530the `-e` and `-f` options (and equivalents), `bc` gives a fatal error and exits.
531
532Next, I removed the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` and `DC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variables
533since their use is not needed with the behavior change.
534
535Finally, I made it so `bc` does not print the header, though the `-q` and
536`--quiet` options were kept for compatibility with GNU `bc`.
537
538## 3.1.3
539
540This is a production release that fixes one minor bug: if `bc` was invoked like
541the following, it would error:
542
543```
544echo "if (1 < 3) 1" | bc
545```
546
547Unless users run into this bug, they do not need to upgrade, but it is suggested
548that they do.
549
550## 3.1.2
551
552This is a production release that adds a way to install *all* locales. Users do
553***NOT*** need to upgrade.
554
555For package maintainers wishing to make use of the change, just pass `-l` to
556`configure.sh`.
557
558## 3.1.1
559
560This is a production release that adds two Spanish locales. Users do ***NOT***
561need to upgrade, unless they want those locales.
562
563## 3.1.0
564
565This is a production release that adjusts one behavior, fixes eight bugs, and
566improves manpages for FreeBSD. Because this release fixes bugs, **users and
567package maintainers should update to this version as soon as possible**.
568
569The behavior that was adjusted was how code from the `-e` and `-f` arguments
570(and equivalents) were executed. They used to be executed as one big chunk, but
571in this release, they are now executed line-by-line.
572
573The first bug fix in how output to `stdout` was handled in `SIGINT`. If a
574`SIGINT` came in, the `stdout` buffer was not correctly flushed. In fact, a
575clean-up function was not getting called. This release fixes that bug.
576
577The second bug is in how `dc` handled input from `stdin`. This affected `bc` as
578well since it was a mishandling of the `stdin` buffer.
579
580The third fixed bug was that `bc` and `dc` could `abort()` (in debug mode) when
581receiving a `SIGTERM`. This one was a race condition with pushing and popping
582items onto and out of vectors.
583
584The fourth bug fixed was that `bc` could leave extra items on the stack and
585thus, not properly clean up some memory. (The memory would still get
586`free()`'ed, but it would not be `free()`'ed when it could have been.)
587
588The next two bugs were bugs in `bc`'s parser that caused crashes when executing
589the resulting code.
590
591The last two bugs were crashes in `dc` that resulted from mishandling of
592strings.
593
594The manpage improvement was done by switching from [ronn][20] to [Pandoc][21] to
595generate manpages. Pandoc generates much cleaner manpages and doesn't leave
596blank lines where they shouldn't be.
597
598## 3.0.3
599
600This is a production release that adds one new feature: specific manpages.
601
602Before this release, `bc` and `dc` only used one manpage each that referred to
603various build options. This release changes it so there is one manpage set per
604relevant build type. Each manual only has information about its particular
605build, and `configure.sh` selects the correct set for install.
606
607## 3.0.2
608
609This is a production release that adds `utf8` locale symlinks and removes an
610unused `auto` variable from the `ceil()` function in the [extended math
611library][16].
612
613Users do ***NOT*** need to update unless they want the locales.
614
615## 3.0.1
616
617This is a production release with two small changes. Users do ***NOT*** need to
618upgrade to this release; however, if they haven't upgraded to `3.0.0` yet, it
619may be worthwhile to upgrade to this release.
620
621The first change is fixing a compiler warning on FreeBSD with strict warnings
622on.
623
624The second change is to make the new implementation of `ceil()` in `lib2.bc`
625much more efficient.
626
627## 3.0.0
628
629*Notes for package maintainers:*
630
631*First, the `2.7.0` release series saw a change in the option parsing. This made
632me change one error message and add a few others. The error message that was
633changed removed one format specifier. This means that `printf()` will seqfault
634on old locale files. Unfortunately, `bc` cannot use any locale files except the
635global ones that are already installed, so it will use the previous ones while
636running tests during install. **If `bc` segfaults while running arg tests when
637updating, it is because the global locale files have not been replaced. Make
638sure to either prevent the test suite from running on update or remove the old
639locale files before updating.** (Removing the locale files can be done with
640`make uninstall` or by running the [`locale_uninstall.sh`][22] script.) Once
641this is done, `bc` should install without problems.*
642
643*Second, **the option to build without signal support has been removed**. See
644below for the reasons why.*
645
646This is a production release with some small bug fixes, a few improvements,
647three major bug fixes, and a complete redesign of `bc`'s error and signal
648handling. **Users and package maintainers should update to this version as soon
649as possible.**
650
651The first major bug fix was in how `bc` executed files. Previously, a whole file
652was parsed before it was executed, but if a function is defined *after* code,
653especially if the function definition was actually a redefinition, and the code
654before the definition referred to the previous function, this `bc` would replace
655the function before executing any code. The fix was to make sure that all code
656that existed before a function definition was executed.
657
658The second major bug fix was in `bc`'s `lib2.bc`. The `ceil()` function had a
659bug where a `0` in the decimal place after the truncation position, caused it to
660output the wrong numbers if there was any non-zero digit after.
661
662The third major bug is that when passing parameters to functions, if an
663expression included an array (not an array element) as a parameter, it was
664accepted, when it should have been rejected. It is now correctly rejected.
665
666Beyond that, this `bc` got several improvements that both sped it up, improved
667the handling of signals, and improved the error handling.
668
669First, the requirements for `bc` were pushed back to POSIX 2008. `bc` uses one
670function, `strdup()`, which is not in POSIX 2001, and it is in the X/Open System
671Interfaces group 2001. It is, however, in POSIX 2008, and since POSIX 2008 is
672old enough to be supported anywhere that I care, that should be the requirement.
673
674Second, the BcVm global variable was put into `bss`. This actually slightly
675reduces the size of the executable from a massive code shrink, and it will stop
676`bc` from allocating a large set of memory when `bc` starts.
677
678Third, the default Karatsuba length was updated from 64 to 32 after making the
679optimization changes below, since 32 is going to be better than 64 after the
680changes.
681
682Fourth, Spanish translations were added.
683
684Fifth, the interpreter received a speedup to make performance on non-math-heavy
685scripts more competitive with GNU `bc`. While improvements did, in fact, get it
686much closer (see the [benchmarks][19]), it isn't quite there.
687
688There were several things done to speed up the interpreter:
689
690First, several small inefficiencies were removed. These inefficiencies included
691calling the function `bc_vec_pop(v)` twice instead of calling
692`bc_vec_npop(v, 2)`. They also included an extra function call for checking the
693size of the stack and checking the size of the stack more than once on several
694operations.
695
696Second, since the current `bc` function is the one that stores constants and
697strings, the program caches pointers to the current function's vectors of
698constants and strings to prevent needing to grab the current function in order
699to grab a constant or a string.
700
701Third, `bc` tries to reuse `BcNum`'s (the internal representation of
702arbitary-precision numbers). If a `BcNum` has the default capacity of
703`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` (32 on 64-bit and 16 on 32-bit) when it is freed, it is added
704to a list of available `BcNum`'s. And then, when a `BcNum` is allocated with a
705capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` and any `BcNum`'s exist on the list of reusable
706ones, one of those ones is grabbed instead.
707
708In order to support these changes, the `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` was changed. It used to
709be 16 bytes on all systems, but it was changed to more closely align with the
710minimum allocation size on Linux, which is either 32 bytes (64-bit musl), 24
711bytes (64-bit glibc), 16 bytes (32-bit musl), or 12 bytes (32-bit glibc). Since
712these are the minimum allocation sizes, these are the sizes that would be
713allocated anyway, making it worth it to just use the whole space, so the value
714of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` on 64-bit systems was changed to 32 bytes.
715
716On top of that, at least on 64-bit, `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` supports numbers with
717either 72 integer digits or 45 integer digits and 27 fractional digits. This
718should be more than enough for most cases since `bc`'s default `scale` values
719are 0 or 20, meaning that, by default, it has at most 20 fractional digits. And
72045 integer digits are *a lot*; it's enough to calculate the amount of mass in
721the Milky Way galaxy in kilograms. Also, 72 digits is enough to calculate the
722diameter of the universe in Planck lengths.
723
724(For 32-bit, these numbers are either 32 integer digits or 12 integer digits and
72520 fractional digits. These are also quite big, and going much bigger on a
72632-bit system seems a little pointless since 12 digits is just under a trillion
727and 20 fractional digits is still enough for about any use since `10^-20` light
728years is just under a millimeter.)
729
730All of this together means that for ordinary uses, and even uses in scientific
731work, the default number size will be all that is needed, which means that
732nearly all, if not all, numbers will be reused, relieving pressure on the system
733allocator.
734
735I did several experiments to find the changes that had the most impact,
736especially with regard to reusing `BcNum`'s. One was putting `BcNum`'s into
737buckets according to their capacity in powers of 2 up to 512. That performed
738worse than `bc` did in `2.7.2`. Another was putting any `BcNum` on the reuse
739list that had a capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE * 2` and reusing them for `BcNum`'s
740that requested `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`. This did reduce the amount of time spent, but
741it also spent a lot of time in the system allocator for an unknown reason. (When
742using `strace`, a bunch more `brk` calls showed up.) Just reusing `BcNum`'s that
743had exactly `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` capacity spent the smallest amount of time in both
744user and system time. This makes sense, especially with the changes to make
745`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` bigger on 64-bit systems, since the vast majority of numbers
746will only ever use numbers with a size less than or equal to `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`.
747
748Last of all, `bc`'s signal handling underwent a complete redesign. (This is the
749reason that this version is `3.0.0` and not `2.8.0`.) The change was to move
750from a polling approach to signal handling to an interrupt-based approach.
751
752Previously, every single loop condition had a check for signals. I suspect that
753this could be expensive when in tight loops.
754
755Now, the signal handler just uses `longjmp()` (actually `siglongjmp()`) to start
756an unwinding of the stack until it is stopped or the stack is unwound to
757`main()`, which just returns. If `bc` is currently executing code that cannot be
758safely interrupted (according to POSIX), then signals are "locked." The signal
759handler checks if the lock is taken, and if it is, it just sets the status to
760indicate that a signal arrived. Later, when the signal lock is released, the
761status is checked to see if a signal came in. If so, the stack unwinding starts.
762
763This design eliminates polling in favor of maintaining a stack of `jmp_buf`'s.
764This has its own performance implications, but it gives better interaction. And
765the cost of pushing and popping a `jmp_buf` in a function is paid at most twice.
766Most functions do not pay that price, and most of the rest only pay it once.
767(There are only some 3 functions in `bc` that push and pop a `jmp_buf` twice.)
768
769As a side effect of this change, I had to eliminate the use of `stdio.h` in `bc`
770because `stdio` does not play nice with signals and `longjmp()`. I implemented
771custom I/O buffer code that takes a fraction of the size. This means that static
772builds will be smaller, but non-static builds will be bigger, though they will
773have less linking time.
774
775This change is also good because my history implementation was already bypassing
776`stdio` for good reasons, and unifying the architecture was a win.
777
778Another reason for this change is that my `bc` should *always* behave correctly
779in the presence of signals like `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM`, and `SIGQUIT`. With the
780addition of my own I/O buffering, I needed to also make sure that the buffers
781were correctly flushed even when such signals happened.
782
783For this reason, I **removed the option to build without signal support**.
784
785As a nice side effect of this change, the error handling code could be changed
786to take advantage of the stack unwinding that signals used. This means that
787signals and error handling use the same code paths, which means that the stack
788unwinding is well-tested. (Errors are tested heavily in the test suite.)
789
790It also means that functions do not need to return a status code that
791***every*** caller needs to check. This eliminated over 100 branches that simply
792checked return codes and then passed that return code up the stack if necessary.
793The code bloat savings from this is at least 1700 bytes on `x86_64`, *before*
794taking into account the extra code from removing `stdio.h`.
795
796## 2.7.2
797
798This is a production release with one major bug fix.
799
800The `length()` built-in function can take either a number or an array. If it
801takes an array, it returns the length of the array. Arrays can be passed by
802reference. The bug is that the `length()` function would not properly
803dereference arrays that were references. This is a bug that affects all users.
804
805**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
806
807## 2.7.1
808
809This is a production release with fixes for new locales and fixes for compiler
810warnings on FreeBSD.
811
812## 2.7.0
813
814This is a production release with a bug fix for Linux, new translations, and new
815features.
816
817Bug fixes:
818
819* Option parsing in `BC_ENV_ARGS` was broken on Linux in 2.6.1 because `glibc`'s
820  `getopt_long()` is broken. To get around that, and to support long options on
821  every platform, an adapted version of [`optparse`][17] was added. Now, `bc`
822  does not even use `getopt()`.
823* Parsing `BC_ENV_ARGS` with quotes now works. It isn't the smartest, but it
824  does the job if there are spaces in file names.
825
826The following new languages are supported:
827
828* Dutch
829* Polish
830* Russian
831* Japanes
832* Simplified Chinese
833
834All of these translations were generated using [DeepL][18], so improvements are
835welcome.
836
837There is only one new feature: **`bc` now has a built-in pseudo-random number
838generator** (PRNG).
839
840The PRNG is seeded, making it useful for applications where
841`/dev/urandom` does not work because output needs to be reproducible. However,
842it also uses `/dev/urandom` to seed itself by default, so it will start with a
843good seed by default.
844
845It also outputs 32 bits on 32-bit platforms and 64 bits on 64-bit platforms, far
846better than the 15 bits of C's `rand()` and `bash`'s `$RANDOM`.
847
848In addition, the PRNG can take a bound, and when it gets a bound, it
849automatically adjusts to remove bias. It can also generate numbers of arbitrary
850size. (As of the time of release, the largest pseudo-random number generated by
851this `bc` was generated with a bound of `2^(2^20)`.)
852
853***IMPORTANT: read the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] to find out
854exactly what guarantees the PRNG provides. The underlying implementation is not
855guaranteed to stay the same, but the guarantees that it provides are guaranteed
856to stay the same regardless of the implementation.***
857
858On top of that, four functions were added to `bc`'s [extended math library][16]
859to make using the PRNG easier:
860
861* `frand(p)`: Generates a number between `[0,1)` to `p` decimal places.
862* `ifrand(i, p)`: Generates an integer with bound `i` and adds it to `frand(p)`.
863* `srand(x)`: Randomizes the sign of `x`. In other words, it flips the sign of
864  `x` with probability `0.5`.
865* `brand()`: Returns a random boolean value (either `0` or `1`).
866
867## 2.6.1
868
869This is a production release with a bug fix for FreeBSD.
870
871The bug was that when `bc` was built without long options, it would give a fatal
872error on every run. This was caused by a mishandling of `optind`.
873
874## 2.6.0
875
876This release is a production release ***with no bugfixes***. If you do not want
877to upgrade, you don't have to.
878
879No source code changed; the only thing that changed was `lib2.bc`.
880
881This release adds one function to the [extended math library][16]: `p(x, y)`,
882which calculates `x` to the power of `y`, whether or not `y` is an integer. (The
883`^` operator can only accept integer powers.)
884
885This release also includes a couple of small tweaks to the [extended math
886library][16], mostly to fix returning numbers with too high of `scale`.
887
888## 2.5.3
889
890This release is a production release which addresses inconsistencies in the
891Portuguese locales. No `bc` code was changed.
892
893The issues were that the ISO files used different naming, and also that the
894files that should have been symlinks were not. I did not catch that because
895GitHub rendered them the exact same way.
896
897## 2.5.2
898
899This release is a production release.
900
901No code was changed, but the build system was changed to allow `CFLAGS` to be
902given to `CC`, like this:
903
904```
905CC="gcc -O3 -march=native" ./configure.sh
906```
907
908If this happens, the flags are automatically put into `CFLAGS`, and the compiler
909is set appropriately. In the example above this means that `CC` will be "gcc"
910and `CFLAGS` will be "-O3 -march=native".
911
912This behavior was added to conform to GNU autotools practices.
913
914## 2.5.1
915
916This is a production release which addresses portability concerns discovered
917in the `bc` build system. No `bc` code was changed.
918
919* Support for Solaris SPARC and AIX were added.
920* Minor documentations edits were performed.
921* An option for `configure.sh` was added to disable long options if
922  `getopt_long()` is missing.
923
924## 2.5.0
925
926This is a production release with new translations. No code changed.
927
928The translations were contributed by [bugcrazy][15], and they are for
929Portuguese, both Portugal and Brazil locales.
930
931## 2.4.0
932
933This is a production release primarily aimed at improving `dc`.
934
935* A couple of copy and paste errors in the [`dc` manual][10] were fixed.
936* `dc` startup was optimized by making sure it didn't have to set up `bc`-only
937  things.
938* The `bc` `&&` and `||` operators were made available to `dc` through the `M`
939  and `m` commands, respectively.
940* `dc` macros were changed to be tail call-optimized.
941
942The last item, tail call optimization, means that if the last thing in a macro
943is a call to another macro, then the old macro is popped before executing the
944new macro. This change was made to stop `dc` from consuming more and more memory
945as macros are executed in a loop.
946
947The `q` and `Q` commands still respect the "hidden" macros by way of recording
948how many macros were removed by tail call optimization.
949
950## 2.3.2
951
952This is a production release meant to fix warnings in the Gentoo `ebuild` by
953making it possible to disable binary stripping. Other users do *not* need to
954upgrade.
955
956## 2.3.1
957
958This is a production release. It fixes a bug that caused `-1000000000 < -1` to
959return `0`. This only happened with negative numbers and only if the value on
960the left was more negative by a certain amount. That said, this bug *is* a bad
961bug, and needs to be fixed.
962
963**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
964
965## 2.3.0
966
967This is a production release with changes to the build system.
968
969## 2.2.0
970
971This release is a production release. It only has new features and performance
972improvements.
973
9741.	The performance of `sqrt(x)` was improved.
9752.	The new function `root(x, n)` was added to the extended math library to
976	calculate `n`th roots.
9773.	The new function `cbrt(x)` was added to the extended math library to
978	calculate cube roots.
979
980## 2.1.3
981
982This is a non-critical release; it just changes the build system, and in
983non-breaking ways:
984
9851.	Linked locale files were changed to link to their sources with a relative
986	link.
9872.	A bug in `configure.sh` that caused long option parsing to fail under `bash`
988	was fixed.
989
990## 2.1.2
991
992This release is not a critical release.
993
9941.	A few codes were added to history.
9952.	Multiplication was optimized a bit more.
9963.	Addition and subtraction were both optimized a bit more.
997
998## 2.1.1
999
1000This release contains a fix for the test suite made for Linux from Scratch: now
1001the test suite prints `pass` when a test is passed.
1002
1003Other than that, there is no change in this release, so distros and other users
1004do not need to upgrade.
1005
1006## 2.1.0
1007
1008This release is a production release.
1009
1010The following bugs were fixed:
1011
10121.	A `dc` bug that caused stack mishandling was fixed.
10132.	A warning on OpenBSD was fixed.
10143.	Bugs in `ctrl+arrow` operations in history were fixed.
10154.	The ability to paste multiple lines in history was added.
10165.	A `bc` bug, mishandling of array arguments to functions, was fixed.
10176.	A crash caused by freeing the wrong pointer was fixed.
10187.	A `dc` bug where strings, in a rare case, were mishandled in parsing was
1019	fixed.
1020
1021In addition, the following changes were made:
1022
10231.	Division was slightly optimized.
10242.	An option was added to the build to disable printing of prompts.
10253.	The special case of empty arguments is now handled. This is to prevent
1026	errors in scripts that end up passing empty arguments.
10274.	A harmless bug was fixed. This bug was that, with the pop instructions
1028	(mostly) removed (see below), `bc` would leave extra values on its stack for
1029	`void` functions and in a few other cases. These extra items would not
1030	affect anything put on the stack and would not cause any sort of crash or
1031	even buggy behavior, but they would cause `bc` to take more memory than it
1032	needed.
1033
1034On top of the above changes, the following optimizations were added:
1035
10361.	The need for pop instructions in `bc` was removed.
10372.	Extra tests on every iteration of the interpreter loop were removed.
10383.	Updating function and code pointers on every iteration of the interpreter
1039	loop was changed to only updating them when necessary.
10404.	Extra assignments to pointers were removed.
1041
1042Altogether, these changes sped up the interpreter by around 2x.
1043
1044***NOTE***: This is the last release with new features because this `bc` is now
1045considered complete. From now on, only bug fixes and new translations will be
1046added to this `bc`.
1047
1048## 2.0.3
1049
1050This is a production, bug-fix release.
1051
1052Two bugs were fixed in this release:
1053
10541.	A rare and subtle signal handling bug was fixed.
10552.	A misbehavior on `0` to a negative power was fixed.
1056
1057The last bug bears some mentioning.
1058
1059When I originally wrote power, I did not thoroughly check its error cases;
1060instead, I had it check if the first number was `0` and then if so, just return
1061`0`. However, `0` to a negative power means that `1` will be divided by `0`,
1062which is an error.
1063
1064I caught this, but only after I stopped being cocky. You see, sometime later, I
1065had noticed that GNU `bc` returned an error, correctly, but I thought it was
1066wrong simply because that's not what my `bc` did. I saw it again later and had a
1067double take. I checked for real, finally, and found out that my `bc` was wrong
1068all along.
1069
1070That was bad on me. But the bug was easy to fix, so it is fixed now.
1071
1072There are two other things in this release:
1073
10741.	Subtraction was optimized by [Stefan Eßer][14].
10752.	Division was also optimized, also by Stefan Eßer.
1076
1077## 2.0.2
1078
1079This release contains a fix for a possible overflow in the signal handling. I
1080would be surprised if any users ran into it because it would only happen after 2
1081billion (`2^31-1`) `SIGINT`'s, but I saw it and had to fix it.
1082
1083## 2.0.1
1084
1085This release contains very few things that will apply to any users.
1086
10871.	A slight bug in `dc`'s interactive mode was fixed.
10882.	A bug in the test suite that was only triggered on NetBSD was fixed.
10893.	**The `-P`/`--no-prompt` option** was added for users that do not want a
1090	prompt.
10914.	A `make check` target was added as an alias for `make test`.
10925.	`dc` got its own read prompt: `?> `.
1093
1094## 2.0.0
1095
1096This release is a production release.
1097
1098This release is also a little different from previous releases. From here on
1099out, I do not plan on adding any more features to this `bc`; I believe that it
1100is complete. However, there may be bug fix releases in the future, if I or any
1101others manage to find bugs.
1102
1103This release has only a few new features:
1104
11051.	`atan2(y, x)` was added to the extended math library as both `a2(y, x)` and
1106	`atan2(y, x)`.
11072.	Locales were fixed.
11083.	A **POSIX shell-compatible script was added as an alternative to compiling
1109	`gen/strgen.c`** on a host machine. More details about making the choice
1110	between the two can be found by running `./configure.sh --help` or reading
1111	the [build manual][13].
11124.	Multiplication was optimized by using **diagonal multiplication**, rather
1113	than straight brute force.
11145.	The `locale_install.sh` script was fixed.
11156.	`dc` was given the ability to **use the environment variable
1116	`DC_ENV_ARGS`**.
11177.	`dc` was also given the ability to **use the `-i` or `--interactive`**
1118	options.
11198.	Printing the prompt was fixed so that it did not print when it shouldn't.
11209.	Signal handling was fixed.
112110.	**Handling of `SIGTERM` and `SIGQUIT`** was fixed.
112211.	The **built-in functions `maxibase()`, `maxobase()`, and `maxscale()`** (the
1123	commands `T`, `U`, `V` in `dc`, respectively) were added to allow scripts to
1124	query for the max allowable values of those globals.
112512.	Some incompatibilities with POSIX were fixed.
1126
1127In addition, this release is `2.0.0` for a big reason: the internal format for
1128numbers changed. They used to be a `char` array. Now, they are an array of
1129larger integers, packing more decimal digits into each integer. This has
1130delivered ***HUGE*** performance improvements, especially for multiplication,
1131division, and power.
1132
1133This `bc` should now be the fastest `bc` available, but I may be wrong.
1134
1135## 1.2.8
1136
1137This release contains a fix for a harmless bug (it is harmless in that it still
1138works, but it just copies extra data) in the [`locale_install.sh`][12] script.
1139
1140## 1.2.7
1141
1142This version contains fixes for the build on Arch Linux.
1143
1144## 1.2.6
1145
1146This release removes the use of `local` in shell scripts because it's not POSIX
1147shell-compatible, and also updates a man page that should have been updated a
1148long time ago but was missed.
1149
1150## 1.2.5
1151
1152This release contains some missing locale `*.msg` files.
1153
1154## 1.2.4
1155
1156This release contains a few bug fixes and new French translations.
1157
1158## 1.2.3
1159
1160This release contains a fix for a bug: use of uninitialized data. Such data was
1161only used when outputting an error message, but I am striving for perfection. As
1162Michelangelo said, "Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."
1163
1164## 1.2.2
1165
1166This release contains fixes for OpenBSD.
1167
1168## 1.2.1
1169
1170This release contains bug fixes for some rare bugs.
1171
1172## 1.2.0
1173
1174This is a production release.
1175
1176There have been several changes since `1.1.0`:
1177
11781.	The build system had some changes.
11792.	Locale support has been added. (Patches welcome for translations.)
11803.	**The ability to turn `ibase`, `obase`, and `scale` into stacks** was added
1181	with the `-g` command-line option. (See the [`bc` manual][9] for more
1182	details.)
11834.	Support for compiling on Mac OSX out of the box was added.
11845.	The extended math library got `t(x)`, `ceil(x)`, and some aliases.
11856.	The extended math library also got `r2d(x)` (for converting from radians to
1186	degrees) and `d2r(x)` (for converting from degrees to radians). This is to
1187	allow using degrees with the standard library.
11887.	Both calculators now accept numbers in **scientific notation**. See the
1189	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
11908.	Both calculators can **output in either scientific or engineering
1191	notation**. See the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
11929.	Some inefficiencies were removed.
119310.	Some bugs were fixed.
119411.	Some bugs in the extended library were fixed.
119512.	Some defects from [Coverity Scan][11] were fixed.
1196
1197## 1.1.4
1198
1199This release contains a fix to the build system that allows it to build on older
1200versions of `glibc`.
1201
1202## 1.1.3
1203
1204This release contains a fix for a bug in the test suite where `bc` tests and
1205`dc` tests could not be run in parallel.
1206
1207## 1.1.2
1208
1209This release has a fix for a history bug; the down arrow did not work.
1210
1211## 1.1.1
1212
1213This release fixes a bug in the `1.1.0` build system. The source is exactly the
1214same.
1215
1216The bug that was fixed was a failure to install if no `EXECSUFFIX` was used.
1217
1218## 1.1.0
1219
1220This is a production release. However, many new features were added since `1.0`.
1221
12221.	**The build system has been changed** to use a custom, POSIX
1223	shell-compatible configure script ([`configure.sh`][6]) to generate a POSIX
1224	make-compatible `Makefile`, which means that `bc` and `dc` now build out of
1225	the box on any POSIX-compatible system.
12262.	Out-of-memory and output errors now cause the `bc` to report the error,
1227	clean up, and die, rather than just reporting and trying to continue.
12283.	**Strings and constants are now garbage collected** when possible.
12294.	Signal handling and checking has been made more simple and more thorough.
12305.	`BcGlobals` was refactored into `BcVm` and `BcVm` was made global. Some
1231	procedure names were changed to reflect its difference to everything else.
12326.	Addition got a speed improvement.
12337.	Some common code for addition and multiplication was refactored into its own
1234	procedure.
12358.	A bug was removed where `dc` could have been selected, but the internal
1236	`#define` that returned `true` for a query about `dc` would not have
1237	returned `true`.
12389.	Useless calls to `bc_num_zero()` were removed.
123910.	**History support was added.** The history support is based off of a
1240	[UTF-8 aware fork][7] of [`linenoise`][8], which has been customized with
1241	`bc`'s own data structures and signal handling.
124211.	Generating C source from the math library now removes tabs from the library,
1243	shrinking the size of the executable.
124412.	The math library was shrunk.
124513.	Error handling and reporting was improved.
124614.	Reallocations were reduced by giving access to the request size for each
1247	operation.
124815.	**`abs()` (`b` command for `dc`) was added as a builtin.**
124916.	Both calculators were tested on FreeBSD.
125017.	Many obscure parse bugs were fixed.
125118.	Markdown and man page manuals were added, and the man pages are installed by
1252	`make install`.
125319.	Executable size was reduced, though the added features probably made the
1254	executable end up bigger.
125520.	**GNU-style array references were added as a supported feature.**
125621.	Allocations were reduced.
125722.	**New operators were added**: `$` (`$` for `dc`), `@` (`@` for `dc`), `@=`,
1258	`<<` (`H` for `dc`), `<<=`, `>>` (`h` for `dc`), and `>>=`. See the
1259	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for more details.
126023.	**An extended math library was added.** This library contains code that
1261	makes it so I can replace my desktop calculator with this `bc`. See the
1262	[`bc` manual][3] for more details.
126324.	Support for all capital letters as numbers was added.
126425.	**Support for GNU-style void functions was added.**
126526.	A bug fix for improper handling of function parameters was added.
126627.	Precedence for the or (`||`) operator was changed to match GNU `bc`.
126728.	`dc` was given an explicit negation command.
126829.	`dc` was changed to be able to handle strings in arrays.
1269
1270## 1.1 Release Candidate 3
1271
1272This release is the eighth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1273release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1274been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1275
1276## 1.1 Release Candidate 2
1277
1278This release is the seventh release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1279release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1280been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1281
1282## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 5
1283
1284This release is the sixth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fifth
1285release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1286code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1287
1288## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 4
1289
1290This release is the fifth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fourth
1291release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1292code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1293
1294## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 3
1295
1296This release is the fourth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1297release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1298code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1299
1300## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 2
1301
1302This release is the third release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1303release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1304code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1305
1306## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 1
1307
1308This release is the second release candidate for 1.1, though it is meant
1309specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new code has not been tested as
1310thoroughly as it should for release.
1311
1312## 1.1 Release Candidate 1
1313
1314This is the first release candidate for 1.1. The new code has not been tested as
1315thoroughly as it should for release.
1316
1317## 1.0
1318
1319This is the first non-beta release. `bc` is ready for production use.
1320
1321As such, a lot has changed since 0.5.
1322
13231.	`dc` has been added. It has been tested even more thoroughly than `bc` was
1324	for `0.5`. It does not have the `!` command, and for security reasons, it
1325	never will, so it is complete.
13262.	`bc` has been more thoroughly tested. An entire section of the test suite
1327	(for both programs) has been added to test for errors.
13283.	A prompt (`>>> `) has been added for interactive mode, making it easier to
1329	see inputs and outputs.
13304.	Interrupt handling has been improved, including elimination of race
1331	conditions (as much as possible).
13325.	MinGW and [Windows Subsystem for Linux][1] support has been added (see
1333	[xstatic][2] for binaries).
13346.	Memory leaks and errors have been eliminated (as far as ASan and Valgrind
1335	can tell).
13367.	Crashes have been eliminated (as far as [afl][3] can tell).
13378.	Karatsuba multiplication was added (and thoroughly) tested, speeding up
1338	multiplication and power by orders of magnitude.
13399.	Performance was further enhanced by using a "divmod" function to reduce
1340	redundant divisions and by removing superfluous `memset()` calls.
134110.	To switch between Karatsuba and `O(n^2)` multiplication, the config variable
1342	`BC_NUM_KARATSUBA_LEN` was added. It is set to a sane default, but the
1343	optimal number can be found with [`karatsuba.py`][4] (requires Python 3)
1344	and then configured through `make`.
134511.	The random math test generator script was changed to Python 3 and improved.
1346	`bc` and `dc` have together been run through 30+ million random tests.
134712.	All known math bugs have been fixed, including out of control memory
1348	allocations in `sine` and `cosine` (that was actually a parse bug), certain
1349	cases of infinite loop on square root, and slight inaccuracies (as much as
1350	possible; see the [README][5]) in transcendental functions.
135113.	Parsing has been fixed as much as possible.
135214.	Test coverage was improved to 94.8%. The only paths not covered are ones
1353	that happen when `malloc()` or `realloc()` fails.
135415.	An extension to get the length of an array was added.
135516.	The boolean not (`!`) had its precedence change to match negation.
135617.	Data input was hardened.
135718.	`bc` was made fully compliant with POSIX when the `-s` flag is used or
1358	`POSIXLY_CORRECT` is defined.
135919.	Error handling was improved.
136020.	`bc` now checks that files it is given are not directories.
1361
1362## 1.0 Release Candidate 7
1363
1364This is the seventh release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0
1365Release Candidate 6.
1366
1367## 1.0 Release Candidate 6
1368
1369This is the sixth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1370Candidate 5.
1371
1372## 1.0 Release Candidate 5
1373
1374This is the fifth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1375Candidate 4.
1376
1377## 1.0 Release Candidate 4
1378
1379This is the fourth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1380Candidate 3.
1381
1382## 1.0 Release Candidate 3
1383
1384This is the third release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1385Candidate 2.
1386
1387## 1.0 Release Candidate 2
1388
1389This is the second release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1390Candidate 1.
1391
1392## 1.0 Release Candidate 1
1393
1394This is the first Release Candidate for 1.0. `bc` is complete, with `dc`, but it
1395is not tested.
1396
1397## 0.5
1398
1399This beta release completes more features, but it is still not complete nor
1400tested as thoroughly as necessary.
1401
1402## 0.4.1
1403
1404This beta release fixes a few bugs in 0.4.
1405
1406## 0.4
1407
1408This is a beta release. It does not have the complete set of features, and it is
1409not thoroughly tested.
1410
1411[1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
1412[2]: https://pkg.musl.cc/bc/
1413[3]: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/
1414[4]: ./scripts/karatsuba.py
1415[5]: ./README.md
1416[6]: ./configure.sh
1417[7]: https://github.com/rain-1/linenoise-mob
1418[8]: https://github.com/antirez/linenoise
1419[9]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md
1420[10]: ./manuals/dc/A.1.md
1421[11]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/gavinhoward-bc
1422[12]: ./scripts/locale_install.sh
1423[13]: ./manuals/build.md
1424[14]: https://github.com/stesser
1425[15]: https://github.com/bugcrazy
1426[16]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md#extended-library
1427[17]: https://github.com/skeeto/optparse
1428[18]: https://www.deepl.com/translator
1429[19]: ./manuals/benchmarks.md
1430[20]: https://github.com/apjanke/ronn-ng
1431[21]: https://pandoc.org/
1432[22]: ./scripts/locale_uninstall.sh
1433