xref: /freebsd/contrib/bc/NEWS.md (revision c57dfd92c876fabc04e94945dd9534468520bbbf)
1# News
2
3## 6.3.1
4
5This is a production release that fixes a `bc` dependency loop for minimal
6environments and Linux from Scratch.
7
8## 6.3.0
9
10This is a production release with a couple of fixes for manuals and a new
11feature for `dc`: there is now a command to query whether extended registers are
12enabled or not.
13
14Users who don't care do not need to upgrade.
15
16## 6.2.6
17
18This is a production release that fixes an install bug that affected locale
19installation of all locales when using `mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to
20upgrade if they don't use `mksh` and/or don't need to install all locales.
21
22## 6.2.5
23
24This is a production release that fixes a test bug that affected Android and
25`mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade unless they use `mksh` or another
26affected shell and need to run the test suite.
27
28## 6.2.4
29
30This is a production release that fixes a test failure that happens when
31`tests/bc/scripts/timeconst.bc` doesn't exist. This should only affect
32packagers.
33
34This bug happened because I forgot something I added in the previous release:
35better error checking in tests to help packagers. Unfortunately, I was too
36zealous with the error checking.
37
38## 6.2.3
39
40This is a production release that moves `bc` to <https://git.gavinhoward.com>.
41
42That's all it does: update links. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade; there are
43redirects that will stay in place indefinitely. This release is only for new
44users.
45
46## 6.2.2
47
48This is a production release that fixes a bug.
49
50The bug was that if an array element was used as a parameter, and then a later
51parameter had the same name as the array whose element was used, `bc` would grab
52the element from the new array parameter, not the actual element from before the
53function call.
54
55## 6.2.1
56
57This is a production release with one bug fix for a memory bug in history.
58
59## 6.2.0
60
61This is a production release with a new feature and a few bug fixes.
62
63The bug fixes include:
64
65* A crash when `bc` and `dc` are built using editline, but history is not
66  activated.
67* A missing local in the `uint*()` family of functions in the extended math
68  library.
69* A failure to clear the tail call list in `dc` on error.
70* A crash when attempting to swap characters in command-line history when no
71  characters exist.
72* `SIGWINCH` was activated even when history was not.
73
74The new feature is that stack traces are now given for runtime errors. In debug
75mode, the C source file and line of errors are given as well.
76
77## 6.1.1
78
79This is a production release that fixes a build issue with predefined builds and
80generated tests.
81
82## 6.1.0
83
84This is a production release that fixes a discrepancy from the `bc` standard,
85a couple of memory bugs, and adds new features.
86
87The discrepancy from the `bc` standard was with regards to the behavior of the
88`quit` command. This `bc` used to quit whenever it encountered `quit` during
89parsing, even if it was parsing a full file. Now, `bc` only quits when
90encountering `quit` *after* it has executed all executable statements up to that
91point.
92
93This behavior is slightly different from GNU `bc`, but users will only notice
94the difference if they put `quit` on the same line as other statements.
95
96The first memory bug could be reproduced by assigning a string to a non-local
97variable in a function, then redefining the function with use of the same
98non-local variable, which would still refer to a string in the previous version
99of the function.
100
101The second memory bug was caused by passing an array argument to the `asciify()`
102built-in function. In certain cases, that was wrongly allowed, and the
103interpreter just assumed everything was correct and accessed memory. Now that
104arrays are allowed as arguments (see below), this is not an issue.
105
106The first feature was the addition of the `is_number()` built-in function (`u`
107in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a number and 0 otherwise.
108
109The second feature was the addition of the `is_string()` built-in function (`t`
110in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a string and 0 otherwise.
111
112These features were added because I realized that type-checking is necessary now
113that strings can be assigned to variables in `bc` and because they've always
114been assignable to variables in `dc`.
115
116The last added feature is the ability of the `asciify()` built-in function in
117`bc` to convert a full array of numbers into a string. This means that
118character-by-character printing will not be necessary, and more strings than
119just single-character ones will be able to be created.
120
121## 6.0.4
122
123This is a production release that most users will not need to upgrade to.
124
125This fixes a build bug for `bcl` only on OpenBSD. Users that do not need `bcl`
126or have not run into build errors with `bcl` do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
127
128## 6.0.3
129
130This is a production release that fixes a build bug for cross-compilation.
131
132Users that do not need cross-compilation do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
133
134## 6.0.2
135
136This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
137
138* The `-l` option overrode the `-S` option.
139* A double-free and crash when sending a `SIGINT` while executing expressions
140  given on the command-line.
141
142## 6.0.1
143
144This is a production release that fixes memory bugs and memory leaks in `bcl`.
145
146Users that do not use `bcl` (use only `bc` and/or `dc`) do ***NOT*** need to
147upgrade.
148
149These happened because I was unaware that the `bcl` test was not hooked into the
150Valgrind test infrastructure. Then, when I ran the release script, which tests
151everything under Valgrind (or so I thought), it caught nothing, and I thought it
152was safe.
153
154But it was not.
155
156Nevertheless, I have now run it under Valgrind and fixed all of the memory bugs
157(caused by not using `memset()` where I should have but previously didn't have
158to) and memory leaks.
159
160## 6.0.0
161
162This is a production release that fixes an oversight in the `bc` parser (that
163sometimes caused the wrong error message) and adds a feature for compatibility
164with the BSD `bc` and `dc`: turning off digit clamping when parsing numbers.
165
166The default for clamping can be set during the build (see the [build
167manual][13]), it can be set with the `BC_DIGIT_CLAMP` and `DC_DIGIT_CLAMP`
168environment variables, and it can be set with the `-c` and `-C` command-line
169options.
170
171Turning off clamping was also added to the `bcl` library.
172
173In addition, signal handling was removed from the `bcl` library in order to add
174the capability for multi-threading. This required a major version bump. I
175apologize to all library users (I don't know of any), but signals and threads do
176not play well together.
177
178To help with building, a convenience option (`-p`) to `configure.sh` was added
179to build a `bc` and `dc` that is by default compatible with either the BSD `bc`
180and `dc` or the GNU `bc` and `dc`.
181
182## 5.3.3
183
184This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
185system.
186
187All other users do **NOT** need to upgrade.
188
189## 5.3.2
190
191This is a production release that fixes prompt bugs with editline and readline
192where the `BC_PROMPT` environment variable was not being respected.
193
194This also fixes editline and readline output on `EOF`.
195
196## 5.3.1
197
198This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
199system, as well as a problem in the `en_US` locale. If you don't have problems
200with either, you do not need to upgrade.
201
202## 5.3.0
203
204This is a production release that adds features and has a few bug fixes.
205
206First, support for editline and readline history has been added. To use
207editline, pass `-e` to `configure.sh`, and to use readline, pass `-r`.
208
209Second, history support for Windows has been fixed and re-enabled.
210
211Third, command-line options to set `scale`, `ibase`, `obase`, and `seed` were
212added. This was requested long ago, and I originally disagreed with the idea.
213
214Fourth, the manuals had typos and were missing information. That has been fixed.
215
216Fifth, the manuals received different formatting to be more readable as
217manpages.
218
219## 5.2.5
220
221This is a production release that fixes this `bc`'s behavior on `^D` to match
222GNU `bc`.
223
224## 5.2.4
225
226This is a production release that fixes two bugs in history:
227
228* Without prompt, the cursor could not be placed on the first character in a
229  line.
230* Home and End key handling in `tmux` was fixed.
231
232Any users that do not care about these improvements do not need to upgrade.
233
234## 5.2.3
235
236This is a production release that fixes one bug, a parse error when passing a
237file to `bc` using `-f` if that file had a multiline comment or string in it.
238
239## 5.2.2
240
241This is a production release that fixes one bug, a segmentation fault if
242`argv[0]` equals `NULL`.
243
244This is not a critical bug; there will be no vulnerability as far as I can tell.
245There is no need to update if you do not wish to.
246
247## 5.2.1
248
249This is a production release that fixes two parse bugs when in POSIX standard
250mode. One of these bugs was due to a quirk of the POSIX grammar, and the other
251was because `bc` was too strict.
252
253## 5.2.0
254
255This is a production release that adds a new feature, fixes some bugs, and adds
256out-of-source builds and a `pkg-config` file for `bcl`.
257
258The new feature is the ability to turn off exiting on expressions. It is also
259possible to set the default using `configure.sh`. This behavior used to exist
260with the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variable, which is now used again.
261
262Bugs fixed include:
263
264* Some possible race conditions with error handling.
265* Install and uninstall targets for `bcl` did not work.
266
267## 5.1.1
268
269This is a production release that completes a bug fix from `5.1.0`. The bug
270exists in all versions of `bc`.
271
272The bug was that `if` statements without `else` statements would not be handled
273correctly at the end of files or right before a function definition.
274
275## 5.1.0
276
277This is a production release with some fixes and new features.
278
279* Fixed a bug where an `if` statement without an `else` before defining a
280  function caused an error.
281* Fixed a bug with the `bc` banner and `-q`.
282* Fixed a bug on Windows where files were not read correctly.
283* Added a command-line flag (`-z`) to make `bc` and `dc` print leading zeroes on
284  numbers `-1 < x < 1`.
285* Added four functions to `lib2.bc` (`plz()`, `plznl()`, `pnlz()`, and
286  `pnlznl()`) to allow printing numbers with or without leading zeros, despite
287  the use of `-z` or not.
288* Added builtin functions to query global state like line length, global stacks,
289  and leading zeroes.
290* Added a command-line flag (`-L`) to disable wrapping when printing numbers.
291* Improved builds on Windows.
292
293## 5.0.2
294
295This is a production release with one fix for a flaky test. If you have not
296experienced problems with the test suite, you do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
297
298The test was one that tested whether `bc` fails gracefully when it can't
299allocate memory. Unfortunately, there are cases when Linux and FreeBSD lie and
300pretend to allocate the memory.
301
302The reason they do this is because a lot of programs don't use all of the memory
303they allocate, so those OS's usually get away with it.
304
305However, this `bc` uses all of the memory it allocates (at least at page
306granularity), so when it tries to use the memory, FreeBSD and Linux kill it.
307
308This only happens sometimes, however. Other times (on my machine), they do, in
309fact, refuse the request.
310
311So I changed the test to not test for that because I think the graceful failure
312code won't really change much.
313
314## 5.0.1
315
316This is a production release with two fixes:
317
318* Fix for the build on Mac OSX.
319* Fix for the build on Android.
320
321Users that do not use those platforms do ***NOT*** need to update.
322
323## 5.0.0
324
325This is a major production release with several changes:
326
327* Added support for OpenBSD's `pledge()` and `unveil()`.
328* Fixed print bug where a backslash newline combo was printed even if only one
329  digit was left, something I blindly copied from GNU `bc`, like a fool.
330* Fixed bugs in the manuals.
331* Fixed a possible multiplication overflow in power.
332* Temporary numbers are garbage collected if allocation fails, and the
333  allocation is retried. This is to make `bc` and `dc` more resilient to running
334  out of memory.
335* Limited the number of temporary numbers and made the space for them static so
336  that allocating more space for them cannot fail.
337* Allowed integers with non-zero `scale` to be used with power, places, and
338  shift operators.
339* Added greatest common divisor and least common multiple to `lib2.bc`.
340* Added `SIGQUIT` handling to history.
341* Added a command to `dc` (`y`) to get the length of register stacks.
342* Fixed multi-digit bugs in `lib2.bc`.
343* Removed the no prompt build option.
344* Created settings that builders can set defaults for and users can set their
345  preferences for. This includes the `bc` banner, resetting on `SIGINT`, TTY
346  mode, and prompt.
347* Added history support to Windows.
348* Fixed bugs with the handling of register names in `dc`.
349* Fixed bugs with multi-line comments and strings in both calculators.
350* Added a new error type and message for `dc` when register stacks don't have
351  enough items.
352* Optimized string allocation.
353* Made `bc` and `dc` UTF-8 capable.
354* Fixed a bug with `void` functions.
355* Fixed a misspelled symbol in `bcl`. This is technically a breaking change,
356  which requires this to be `5.0.0`.
357* Added the ability for users to get the copyright banner back.
358* Added the ability for users to have `bc` and `dc` quit on `SIGINT`.
359* Added the ability for users to disable prompt and TTY mode by environment
360  variables.
361* Added the ability for users to redefine keywords. This is another reason this
362  is `5.0.0`.
363* Added `dc`'s modular exponentiation and divmod to `bc`.
364* Added the ability to assign strings to variables and array elements and pass
365  them to functions in `bc`.
366* Added `dc`'s asciify command and stream printing to `bc`.
367* Added a command to `dc` (`Y`) to get the length of an array.
368* Added a command to `dc` (`,`) to get the depth of the execution stack.
369* Added bitwise and, or, xor, left shift, right shift, reverse, left rotate,
370  right rotate, and mod functions to `lib2.bc`.
371* Added the functions `s2u(x)` and `s2un(x,n)`, to `lib2.bc`.
372
373## 4.0.2
374
375This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
376
3771.	If no files are used and the first statement on `stdin` is invalid, `scale`
378	would not be set to `20` even if `-l` was used.
3792.	When using history, `bc` failed to respond properly to `SIGSTOP` and
380	`SIGTSTP`.
381
382## 4.0.1
383
384This is a production release that only adds one thing: flushing output when it
385is printed with a print statement.
386
387## 4.0.0
388
389This is a production release with many fixes, a new command-line option, and a
390big surprise:
391
392* A bug was fixed in `dc`'s `P` command where the item on the stack was *not*
393  popped.
394* Various bugs in the manuals have been fixed.
395* A known bug was fixed where history did not interact well with prompts printed
396  by user code without newlines.
397* A new command-line option, `-R` and `--no-read-prompt` was added to disable
398  just the prompt when using `read()` (`bc`) or `?` (`dc`).
399* And finally, **official support for Windows was added**.
400
401The last item is why this is a major version bump.
402
403Currently, only one set of build options (extra math and prompt enabled, history
404and NLS/locale support disabled, both calculators enabled) is supported on
405Windows. However, both debug and release builds are supported.
406
407In addition, Windows builds are supported for the the library (`bcl`).
408
409For more details about how to build on Windows, see the [README][5] or the
410[build manual][13].
411
412## 3.3.4
413
414This is a production release that fixes a small bug.
415
416The bug was that output was not flushed before a `read()` call, so prompts
417without a newline on the end were not flushed before the `read()` call.
418
419This is such a tiny bug that users only need to upgrade if they are affected.
420
421## 3.3.3
422
423This is a production release with one tweak and fixes for manuals.
424
425The tweak is that `length(0)` returns `1` instead of `0`. In `3.3.1`, I changed
426it so `length(0.x)`, where `x` could be any number of digits, returned the
427`scale`, but `length(0)` still returned `0` because I believe that `0` has `0`
428significant digits.
429
430After request of FreeBSD and considering the arguments of a mathematician,
431compatibility with other `bc`'s, and the expectations of users, I decided to
432make the change.
433
434The fixes for manuals fixed a bug where `--` was rendered as `-`.
435
436## 3.3.2
437
438This is a production release that fixes a divide-by-zero bug in `root()` in the
439[extended math library][16]. All previous versions with `root()` have the bug.
440
441## 3.3.1
442
443This is a production release that fixes a bug.
444
445The bug was in the reporting of number length when the value was 0.
446
447## 3.3.0
448
449This is a production release that changes one behavior and fixes documentation
450bugs.
451
452The changed behavior is the treatment of `-e` and `-f` when given through
453`BC_ENV_ARGS` or `DC_ENV_ARGS`. Now `bc` and `dc` do not exit when those options
454(or their equivalents) are given through those environment variables. However,
455`bc` and `dc` still exit when they or their equivalents are given on the
456command-line.
457
458## 3.2.7
459
460This is a production release that removes a small non-portable shell operation
461in `configure.sh`. This problem was only noticed on OpenBSD, not FreeBSD or
462Linux.
463
464Non-OpenBSD users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, although NetBSD users may also
465need to upgrade.
466
467## 3.2.6
468
469This is a production release that fixes the build on FreeBSD.
470
471There was a syntax error in `configure.sh` that the Linux shell did not catch,
472and FreeBSD depends on the existence of `tests/all.sh`.
473
474All users that already upgraded to `3.2.5` should update to this release, with
475my apologies for the poor release of `3.2.5`. Other users should skip `3.2.5` in
476favor of this version.
477
478## 3.2.5
479
480This is a production release that fixes several bugs and adds a couple small
481things.
482
483The two most important bugs were bugs that causes `dc` to access memory
484out-of-bounds (crash in debug builds). This was found by upgrading to `afl++`
485from `afl`. Both were caused by a failure to distinguish between the same two
486cases.
487
488Another bug was the failure to put all of the licenses in the `LICENSE.md` file.
489
490Third, some warnings by `scan-build` were found and eliminated. This needed one
491big change: `bc` and `dc` now bail out as fast as possible on fatal errors
492instead of unwinding the stack.
493
494Fourth, the pseudo-random number now attempts to seed itself with `/dev/random`
495if `/dev/urandom` fails.
496
497Finally, this release has a few quality-of-life changes to the build system. The
498usage should not change at all; the only thing that changed was making sure the
499`Makefile.in` was written to rebuild properly when headers changed and to not
500rebuild when not necessary.
501
502## 3.2.4
503
504This is a production release that fixes a warning on `gcc` 6 or older, which
505does not have an attribute that is used.
506
507Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade if they don't use `gcc` 6 or older.
508
509## 3.2.3
510
511This is a production release that fixes a bug in `gen/strgen.sh`. I recently
512changed `gen/strgen.c`, but I did not change `gen/strgen.sh`.
513
514Users that do not use `gen/strgen.sh` do not need to upgrade.
515
516## 3.2.2
517
518This is a production release that fixes a portability bug in `configure.sh`. The
519bug was using the GNU `find` extension `-wholename`.
520
521## 3.2.1
522
523This is a production release that has one fix for `bcl(3)`. It is technically
524not a bug fix since the behavior is undefined, but the `BclNumber`s that
525`bcl_divmod()` returns will be set to `BCL_ERROR_INVALID_NUM` if there is an
526error. Previously, they were not set.
527
528## 3.2.0
529
530This is a production release that has one bug fix and a major addition.
531
532The bug fix was a missing `auto` variable in the bessel `j()` function in the
533math library.
534
535The major addition is a way to build a version of `bc`'s math code as a library.
536This is done with the `-a` option to `configure.sh`. The API for the library can
537be read in `./manuals/bcl.3.md` or `man bcl` once the library is installed with
538`make install`.
539
540This library was requested by developers before I even finished version 1.0, but
541I could not figure out how to do it until now.
542
543If the library has API breaking changes, the major version of `bc` will be
544incremented.
545
546## 3.1.6
547
548This is a production release that fixes a new warning from Clang 12 for FreeBSD
549and also removes some possible undefined behavior found by UBSan that compilers
550did not seem to take advantage of.
551
552Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, if they do not want to.
553
554## 3.1.5
555
556This is a production release that fixes the Chinese locales (which caused `bc`
557to crash) and a crash caused by `bc` executing code when it should not have been
558able to.
559
560***ALL USERS SHOULD UPGRADE.***
561
562## 3.1.4
563
564This is a production release that fixes one bug, changes two behaviors, and
565removes one environment variable.
566
567The bug is like the one in the last release except it applies if files are being
568executed. I also made the fix more general.
569
570The behavior that was changed is that `bc` now exits when given `-e`, `-f`,
571`--expression` or `--file`. However, if the last one of those is `-f-` (using
572`stdin` as the file), `bc` does not exit. If `-f-` exists and is not the last of
573the `-e` and `-f` options (and equivalents), `bc` gives a fatal error and exits.
574
575Next, I removed the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` and `DC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variables
576since their use is not needed with the behavior change.
577
578Finally, I made it so `bc` does not print the header, though the `-q` and
579`--quiet` options were kept for compatibility with GNU `bc`.
580
581## 3.1.3
582
583This is a production release that fixes one minor bug: if `bc` was invoked like
584the following, it would error:
585
586```
587echo "if (1 < 3) 1" | bc
588```
589
590Unless users run into this bug, they do not need to upgrade, but it is suggested
591that they do.
592
593## 3.1.2
594
595This is a production release that adds a way to install *all* locales. Users do
596***NOT*** need to upgrade.
597
598For package maintainers wishing to make use of the change, just pass `-l` to
599`configure.sh`.
600
601## 3.1.1
602
603This is a production release that adds two Spanish locales. Users do ***NOT***
604need to upgrade, unless they want those locales.
605
606## 3.1.0
607
608This is a production release that adjusts one behavior, fixes eight bugs, and
609improves manpages for FreeBSD. Because this release fixes bugs, **users and
610package maintainers should update to this version as soon as possible**.
611
612The behavior that was adjusted was how code from the `-e` and `-f` arguments
613(and equivalents) were executed. They used to be executed as one big chunk, but
614in this release, they are now executed line-by-line.
615
616The first bug fix in how output to `stdout` was handled in `SIGINT`. If a
617`SIGINT` came in, the `stdout` buffer was not correctly flushed. In fact, a
618clean-up function was not getting called. This release fixes that bug.
619
620The second bug is in how `dc` handled input from `stdin`. This affected `bc` as
621well since it was a mishandling of the `stdin` buffer.
622
623The third fixed bug was that `bc` and `dc` could `abort()` (in debug mode) when
624receiving a `SIGTERM`. This one was a race condition with pushing and popping
625items onto and out of vectors.
626
627The fourth bug fixed was that `bc` could leave extra items on the stack and
628thus, not properly clean up some memory. (The memory would still get
629`free()`'ed, but it would not be `free()`'ed when it could have been.)
630
631The next two bugs were bugs in `bc`'s parser that caused crashes when executing
632the resulting code.
633
634The last two bugs were crashes in `dc` that resulted from mishandling of
635strings.
636
637The manpage improvement was done by switching from [ronn][20] to [Pandoc][21] to
638generate manpages. Pandoc generates much cleaner manpages and doesn't leave
639blank lines where they shouldn't be.
640
641## 3.0.3
642
643This is a production release that adds one new feature: specific manpages.
644
645Before this release, `bc` and `dc` only used one manpage each that referred to
646various build options. This release changes it so there is one manpage set per
647relevant build type. Each manual only has information about its particular
648build, and `configure.sh` selects the correct set for install.
649
650## 3.0.2
651
652This is a production release that adds `utf8` locale symlinks and removes an
653unused `auto` variable from the `ceil()` function in the [extended math
654library][16].
655
656Users do ***NOT*** need to update unless they want the locales.
657
658## 3.0.1
659
660This is a production release with two small changes. Users do ***NOT*** need to
661upgrade to this release; however, if they haven't upgraded to `3.0.0` yet, it
662may be worthwhile to upgrade to this release.
663
664The first change is fixing a compiler warning on FreeBSD with strict warnings
665on.
666
667The second change is to make the new implementation of `ceil()` in `lib2.bc`
668much more efficient.
669
670## 3.0.0
671
672*Notes for package maintainers:*
673
674*First, the `2.7.0` release series saw a change in the option parsing. This made
675me change one error message and add a few others. The error message that was
676changed removed one format specifier. This means that `printf()` will seqfault
677on old locale files. Unfortunately, `bc` cannot use any locale files except the
678global ones that are already installed, so it will use the previous ones while
679running tests during install. **If `bc` segfaults while running arg tests when
680updating, it is because the global locale files have not been replaced. Make
681sure to either prevent the test suite from running on update or remove the old
682locale files before updating.** (Removing the locale files can be done with
683`make uninstall` or by running the [`locale_uninstall.sh`][22] script.) Once
684this is done, `bc` should install without problems.*
685
686*Second, **the option to build without signal support has been removed**. See
687below for the reasons why.*
688
689This is a production release with some small bug fixes, a few improvements,
690three major bug fixes, and a complete redesign of `bc`'s error and signal
691handling. **Users and package maintainers should update to this version as soon
692as possible.**
693
694The first major bug fix was in how `bc` executed files. Previously, a whole file
695was parsed before it was executed, but if a function is defined *after* code,
696especially if the function definition was actually a redefinition, and the code
697before the definition referred to the previous function, this `bc` would replace
698the function before executing any code. The fix was to make sure that all code
699that existed before a function definition was executed.
700
701The second major bug fix was in `bc`'s `lib2.bc`. The `ceil()` function had a
702bug where a `0` in the decimal place after the truncation position, caused it to
703output the wrong numbers if there was any non-zero digit after.
704
705The third major bug is that when passing parameters to functions, if an
706expression included an array (not an array element) as a parameter, it was
707accepted, when it should have been rejected. It is now correctly rejected.
708
709Beyond that, this `bc` got several improvements that both sped it up, improved
710the handling of signals, and improved the error handling.
711
712First, the requirements for `bc` were pushed back to POSIX 2008. `bc` uses one
713function, `strdup()`, which is not in POSIX 2001, and it is in the X/Open System
714Interfaces group 2001. It is, however, in POSIX 2008, and since POSIX 2008 is
715old enough to be supported anywhere that I care, that should be the requirement.
716
717Second, the BcVm global variable was put into `bss`. This actually slightly
718reduces the size of the executable from a massive code shrink, and it will stop
719`bc` from allocating a large set of memory when `bc` starts.
720
721Third, the default Karatsuba length was updated from 64 to 32 after making the
722optimization changes below, since 32 is going to be better than 64 after the
723changes.
724
725Fourth, Spanish translations were added.
726
727Fifth, the interpreter received a speedup to make performance on non-math-heavy
728scripts more competitive with GNU `bc`. While improvements did, in fact, get it
729much closer (see the [benchmarks][19]), it isn't quite there.
730
731There were several things done to speed up the interpreter:
732
733First, several small inefficiencies were removed. These inefficiencies included
734calling the function `bc_vec_pop(v)` twice instead of calling
735`bc_vec_npop(v, 2)`. They also included an extra function call for checking the
736size of the stack and checking the size of the stack more than once on several
737operations.
738
739Second, since the current `bc` function is the one that stores constants and
740strings, the program caches pointers to the current function's vectors of
741constants and strings to prevent needing to grab the current function in order
742to grab a constant or a string.
743
744Third, `bc` tries to reuse `BcNum`'s (the internal representation of
745arbitary-precision numbers). If a `BcNum` has the default capacity of
746`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` (32 on 64-bit and 16 on 32-bit) when it is freed, it is added
747to a list of available `BcNum`'s. And then, when a `BcNum` is allocated with a
748capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` and any `BcNum`'s exist on the list of reusable
749ones, one of those ones is grabbed instead.
750
751In order to support these changes, the `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` was changed. It used to
752be 16 bytes on all systems, but it was changed to more closely align with the
753minimum allocation size on Linux, which is either 32 bytes (64-bit musl), 24
754bytes (64-bit glibc), 16 bytes (32-bit musl), or 12 bytes (32-bit glibc). Since
755these are the minimum allocation sizes, these are the sizes that would be
756allocated anyway, making it worth it to just use the whole space, so the value
757of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` on 64-bit systems was changed to 32 bytes.
758
759On top of that, at least on 64-bit, `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` supports numbers with
760either 72 integer digits or 45 integer digits and 27 fractional digits. This
761should be more than enough for most cases since `bc`'s default `scale` values
762are 0 or 20, meaning that, by default, it has at most 20 fractional digits. And
76345 integer digits are *a lot*; it's enough to calculate the amount of mass in
764the Milky Way galaxy in kilograms. Also, 72 digits is enough to calculate the
765diameter of the universe in Planck lengths.
766
767(For 32-bit, these numbers are either 32 integer digits or 12 integer digits and
76820 fractional digits. These are also quite big, and going much bigger on a
76932-bit system seems a little pointless since 12 digits is just under a trillion
770and 20 fractional digits is still enough for about any use since `10^-20` light
771years is just under a millimeter.)
772
773All of this together means that for ordinary uses, and even uses in scientific
774work, the default number size will be all that is needed, which means that
775nearly all, if not all, numbers will be reused, relieving pressure on the system
776allocator.
777
778I did several experiments to find the changes that had the most impact,
779especially with regard to reusing `BcNum`'s. One was putting `BcNum`'s into
780buckets according to their capacity in powers of 2 up to 512. That performed
781worse than `bc` did in `2.7.2`. Another was putting any `BcNum` on the reuse
782list that had a capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE * 2` and reusing them for `BcNum`'s
783that requested `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`. This did reduce the amount of time spent, but
784it also spent a lot of time in the system allocator for an unknown reason. (When
785using `strace`, a bunch more `brk` calls showed up.) Just reusing `BcNum`'s that
786had exactly `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` capacity spent the smallest amount of time in both
787user and system time. This makes sense, especially with the changes to make
788`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` bigger on 64-bit systems, since the vast majority of numbers
789will only ever use numbers with a size less than or equal to `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`.
790
791Last of all, `bc`'s signal handling underwent a complete redesign. (This is the
792reason that this version is `3.0.0` and not `2.8.0`.) The change was to move
793from a polling approach to signal handling to an interrupt-based approach.
794
795Previously, every single loop condition had a check for signals. I suspect that
796this could be expensive when in tight loops.
797
798Now, the signal handler just uses `longjmp()` (actually `siglongjmp()`) to start
799an unwinding of the stack until it is stopped or the stack is unwound to
800`main()`, which just returns. If `bc` is currently executing code that cannot be
801safely interrupted (according to POSIX), then signals are "locked." The signal
802handler checks if the lock is taken, and if it is, it just sets the status to
803indicate that a signal arrived. Later, when the signal lock is released, the
804status is checked to see if a signal came in. If so, the stack unwinding starts.
805
806This design eliminates polling in favor of maintaining a stack of `jmp_buf`'s.
807This has its own performance implications, but it gives better interaction. And
808the cost of pushing and popping a `jmp_buf` in a function is paid at most twice.
809Most functions do not pay that price, and most of the rest only pay it once.
810(There are only some 3 functions in `bc` that push and pop a `jmp_buf` twice.)
811
812As a side effect of this change, I had to eliminate the use of `stdio.h` in `bc`
813because `stdio` does not play nice with signals and `longjmp()`. I implemented
814custom I/O buffer code that takes a fraction of the size. This means that static
815builds will be smaller, but non-static builds will be bigger, though they will
816have less linking time.
817
818This change is also good because my history implementation was already bypassing
819`stdio` for good reasons, and unifying the architecture was a win.
820
821Another reason for this change is that my `bc` should *always* behave correctly
822in the presence of signals like `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM`, and `SIGQUIT`. With the
823addition of my own I/O buffering, I needed to also make sure that the buffers
824were correctly flushed even when such signals happened.
825
826For this reason, I **removed the option to build without signal support**.
827
828As a nice side effect of this change, the error handling code could be changed
829to take advantage of the stack unwinding that signals used. This means that
830signals and error handling use the same code paths, which means that the stack
831unwinding is well-tested. (Errors are tested heavily in the test suite.)
832
833It also means that functions do not need to return a status code that
834***every*** caller needs to check. This eliminated over 100 branches that simply
835checked return codes and then passed that return code up the stack if necessary.
836The code bloat savings from this is at least 1700 bytes on `x86_64`, *before*
837taking into account the extra code from removing `stdio.h`.
838
839## 2.7.2
840
841This is a production release with one major bug fix.
842
843The `length()` built-in function can take either a number or an array. If it
844takes an array, it returns the length of the array. Arrays can be passed by
845reference. The bug is that the `length()` function would not properly
846dereference arrays that were references. This is a bug that affects all users.
847
848**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
849
850## 2.7.1
851
852This is a production release with fixes for new locales and fixes for compiler
853warnings on FreeBSD.
854
855## 2.7.0
856
857This is a production release with a bug fix for Linux, new translations, and new
858features.
859
860Bug fixes:
861
862* Option parsing in `BC_ENV_ARGS` was broken on Linux in 2.6.1 because `glibc`'s
863  `getopt_long()` is broken. To get around that, and to support long options on
864  every platform, an adapted version of [`optparse`][17] was added. Now, `bc`
865  does not even use `getopt()`.
866* Parsing `BC_ENV_ARGS` with quotes now works. It isn't the smartest, but it
867  does the job if there are spaces in file names.
868
869The following new languages are supported:
870
871* Dutch
872* Polish
873* Russian
874* Japanes
875* Simplified Chinese
876
877All of these translations were generated using [DeepL][18], so improvements are
878welcome.
879
880There is only one new feature: **`bc` now has a built-in pseudo-random number
881generator** (PRNG).
882
883The PRNG is seeded, making it useful for applications where
884`/dev/urandom` does not work because output needs to be reproducible. However,
885it also uses `/dev/urandom` to seed itself by default, so it will start with a
886good seed by default.
887
888It also outputs 32 bits on 32-bit platforms and 64 bits on 64-bit platforms, far
889better than the 15 bits of C's `rand()` and `bash`'s `$RANDOM`.
890
891In addition, the PRNG can take a bound, and when it gets a bound, it
892automatically adjusts to remove bias. It can also generate numbers of arbitrary
893size. (As of the time of release, the largest pseudo-random number generated by
894this `bc` was generated with a bound of `2^(2^20)`.)
895
896***IMPORTANT: read the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] to find out
897exactly what guarantees the PRNG provides. The underlying implementation is not
898guaranteed to stay the same, but the guarantees that it provides are guaranteed
899to stay the same regardless of the implementation.***
900
901On top of that, four functions were added to `bc`'s [extended math library][16]
902to make using the PRNG easier:
903
904* `frand(p)`: Generates a number between `[0,1)` to `p` decimal places.
905* `ifrand(i, p)`: Generates an integer with bound `i` and adds it to `frand(p)`.
906* `srand(x)`: Randomizes the sign of `x`. In other words, it flips the sign of
907  `x` with probability `0.5`.
908* `brand()`: Returns a random boolean value (either `0` or `1`).
909
910## 2.6.1
911
912This is a production release with a bug fix for FreeBSD.
913
914The bug was that when `bc` was built without long options, it would give a fatal
915error on every run. This was caused by a mishandling of `optind`.
916
917## 2.6.0
918
919This release is a production release ***with no bugfixes***. If you do not want
920to upgrade, you don't have to.
921
922No source code changed; the only thing that changed was `lib2.bc`.
923
924This release adds one function to the [extended math library][16]: `p(x, y)`,
925which calculates `x` to the power of `y`, whether or not `y` is an integer. (The
926`^` operator can only accept integer powers.)
927
928This release also includes a couple of small tweaks to the [extended math
929library][16], mostly to fix returning numbers with too high of `scale`.
930
931## 2.5.3
932
933This release is a production release which addresses inconsistencies in the
934Portuguese locales. No `bc` code was changed.
935
936The issues were that the ISO files used different naming, and also that the
937files that should have been symlinks were not. I did not catch that because
938GitHub rendered them the exact same way.
939
940## 2.5.2
941
942This release is a production release.
943
944No code was changed, but the build system was changed to allow `CFLAGS` to be
945given to `CC`, like this:
946
947```
948CC="gcc -O3 -march=native" ./configure.sh
949```
950
951If this happens, the flags are automatically put into `CFLAGS`, and the compiler
952is set appropriately. In the example above this means that `CC` will be "gcc"
953and `CFLAGS` will be "-O3 -march=native".
954
955This behavior was added to conform to GNU autotools practices.
956
957## 2.5.1
958
959This is a production release which addresses portability concerns discovered
960in the `bc` build system. No `bc` code was changed.
961
962* Support for Solaris SPARC and AIX were added.
963* Minor documentations edits were performed.
964* An option for `configure.sh` was added to disable long options if
965  `getopt_long()` is missing.
966
967## 2.5.0
968
969This is a production release with new translations. No code changed.
970
971The translations were contributed by [bugcrazy][15], and they are for
972Portuguese, both Portugal and Brazil locales.
973
974## 2.4.0
975
976This is a production release primarily aimed at improving `dc`.
977
978* A couple of copy and paste errors in the [`dc` manual][10] were fixed.
979* `dc` startup was optimized by making sure it didn't have to set up `bc`-only
980  things.
981* The `bc` `&&` and `||` operators were made available to `dc` through the `M`
982  and `m` commands, respectively.
983* `dc` macros were changed to be tail call-optimized.
984
985The last item, tail call optimization, means that if the last thing in a macro
986is a call to another macro, then the old macro is popped before executing the
987new macro. This change was made to stop `dc` from consuming more and more memory
988as macros are executed in a loop.
989
990The `q` and `Q` commands still respect the "hidden" macros by way of recording
991how many macros were removed by tail call optimization.
992
993## 2.3.2
994
995This is a production release meant to fix warnings in the Gentoo `ebuild` by
996making it possible to disable binary stripping. Other users do *not* need to
997upgrade.
998
999## 2.3.1
1000
1001This is a production release. It fixes a bug that caused `-1000000000 < -1` to
1002return `0`. This only happened with negative numbers and only if the value on
1003the left was more negative by a certain amount. That said, this bug *is* a bad
1004bug, and needs to be fixed.
1005
1006**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
1007
1008## 2.3.0
1009
1010This is a production release with changes to the build system.
1011
1012## 2.2.0
1013
1014This release is a production release. It only has new features and performance
1015improvements.
1016
10171.	The performance of `sqrt(x)` was improved.
10182.	The new function `root(x, n)` was added to the extended math library to
1019	calculate `n`th roots.
10203.	The new function `cbrt(x)` was added to the extended math library to
1021	calculate cube roots.
1022
1023## 2.1.3
1024
1025This is a non-critical release; it just changes the build system, and in
1026non-breaking ways:
1027
10281.	Linked locale files were changed to link to their sources with a relative
1029	link.
10302.	A bug in `configure.sh` that caused long option parsing to fail under `bash`
1031	was fixed.
1032
1033## 2.1.2
1034
1035This release is not a critical release.
1036
10371.	A few codes were added to history.
10382.	Multiplication was optimized a bit more.
10393.	Addition and subtraction were both optimized a bit more.
1040
1041## 2.1.1
1042
1043This release contains a fix for the test suite made for Linux from Scratch: now
1044the test suite prints `pass` when a test is passed.
1045
1046Other than that, there is no change in this release, so distros and other users
1047do not need to upgrade.
1048
1049## 2.1.0
1050
1051This release is a production release.
1052
1053The following bugs were fixed:
1054
10551.	A `dc` bug that caused stack mishandling was fixed.
10562.	A warning on OpenBSD was fixed.
10573.	Bugs in `ctrl+arrow` operations in history were fixed.
10584.	The ability to paste multiple lines in history was added.
10595.	A `bc` bug, mishandling of array arguments to functions, was fixed.
10606.	A crash caused by freeing the wrong pointer was fixed.
10617.	A `dc` bug where strings, in a rare case, were mishandled in parsing was
1062	fixed.
1063
1064In addition, the following changes were made:
1065
10661.	Division was slightly optimized.
10672.	An option was added to the build to disable printing of prompts.
10683.	The special case of empty arguments is now handled. This is to prevent
1069	errors in scripts that end up passing empty arguments.
10704.	A harmless bug was fixed. This bug was that, with the pop instructions
1071	(mostly) removed (see below), `bc` would leave extra values on its stack for
1072	`void` functions and in a few other cases. These extra items would not
1073	affect anything put on the stack and would not cause any sort of crash or
1074	even buggy behavior, but they would cause `bc` to take more memory than it
1075	needed.
1076
1077On top of the above changes, the following optimizations were added:
1078
10791.	The need for pop instructions in `bc` was removed.
10802.	Extra tests on every iteration of the interpreter loop were removed.
10813.	Updating function and code pointers on every iteration of the interpreter
1082	loop was changed to only updating them when necessary.
10834.	Extra assignments to pointers were removed.
1084
1085Altogether, these changes sped up the interpreter by around 2x.
1086
1087***NOTE***: This is the last release with new features because this `bc` is now
1088considered complete. From now on, only bug fixes and new translations will be
1089added to this `bc`.
1090
1091## 2.0.3
1092
1093This is a production, bug-fix release.
1094
1095Two bugs were fixed in this release:
1096
10971.	A rare and subtle signal handling bug was fixed.
10982.	A misbehavior on `0` to a negative power was fixed.
1099
1100The last bug bears some mentioning.
1101
1102When I originally wrote power, I did not thoroughly check its error cases;
1103instead, I had it check if the first number was `0` and then if so, just return
1104`0`. However, `0` to a negative power means that `1` will be divided by `0`,
1105which is an error.
1106
1107I caught this, but only after I stopped being cocky. You see, sometime later, I
1108had noticed that GNU `bc` returned an error, correctly, but I thought it was
1109wrong simply because that's not what my `bc` did. I saw it again later and had a
1110double take. I checked for real, finally, and found out that my `bc` was wrong
1111all along.
1112
1113That was bad on me. But the bug was easy to fix, so it is fixed now.
1114
1115There are two other things in this release:
1116
11171.	Subtraction was optimized by [Stefan Eßer][14].
11182.	Division was also optimized, also by Stefan Eßer.
1119
1120## 2.0.2
1121
1122This release contains a fix for a possible overflow in the signal handling. I
1123would be surprised if any users ran into it because it would only happen after 2
1124billion (`2^31-1`) `SIGINT`'s, but I saw it and had to fix it.
1125
1126## 2.0.1
1127
1128This release contains very few things that will apply to any users.
1129
11301.	A slight bug in `dc`'s interactive mode was fixed.
11312.	A bug in the test suite that was only triggered on NetBSD was fixed.
11323.	**The `-P`/`--no-prompt` option** was added for users that do not want a
1133	prompt.
11344.	A `make check` target was added as an alias for `make test`.
11355.	`dc` got its own read prompt: `?> `.
1136
1137## 2.0.0
1138
1139This release is a production release.
1140
1141This release is also a little different from previous releases. From here on
1142out, I do not plan on adding any more features to this `bc`; I believe that it
1143is complete. However, there may be bug fix releases in the future, if I or any
1144others manage to find bugs.
1145
1146This release has only a few new features:
1147
11481.	`atan2(y, x)` was added to the extended math library as both `a2(y, x)` and
1149	`atan2(y, x)`.
11502.	Locales were fixed.
11513.	A **POSIX shell-compatible script was added as an alternative to compiling
1152	`gen/strgen.c`** on a host machine. More details about making the choice
1153	between the two can be found by running `./configure.sh --help` or reading
1154	the [build manual][13].
11554.	Multiplication was optimized by using **diagonal multiplication**, rather
1156	than straight brute force.
11575.	The `locale_install.sh` script was fixed.
11586.	`dc` was given the ability to **use the environment variable
1159	`DC_ENV_ARGS`**.
11607.	`dc` was also given the ability to **use the `-i` or `--interactive`**
1161	options.
11628.	Printing the prompt was fixed so that it did not print when it shouldn't.
11639.	Signal handling was fixed.
116410.	**Handling of `SIGTERM` and `SIGQUIT`** was fixed.
116511.	The **built-in functions `maxibase()`, `maxobase()`, and `maxscale()`** (the
1166	commands `T`, `U`, `V` in `dc`, respectively) were added to allow scripts to
1167	query for the max allowable values of those globals.
116812.	Some incompatibilities with POSIX were fixed.
1169
1170In addition, this release is `2.0.0` for a big reason: the internal format for
1171numbers changed. They used to be a `char` array. Now, they are an array of
1172larger integers, packing more decimal digits into each integer. This has
1173delivered ***HUGE*** performance improvements, especially for multiplication,
1174division, and power.
1175
1176This `bc` should now be the fastest `bc` available, but I may be wrong.
1177
1178## 1.2.8
1179
1180This release contains a fix for a harmless bug (it is harmless in that it still
1181works, but it just copies extra data) in the [`locale_install.sh`][12] script.
1182
1183## 1.2.7
1184
1185This version contains fixes for the build on Arch Linux.
1186
1187## 1.2.6
1188
1189This release removes the use of `local` in shell scripts because it's not POSIX
1190shell-compatible, and also updates a man page that should have been updated a
1191long time ago but was missed.
1192
1193## 1.2.5
1194
1195This release contains some missing locale `*.msg` files.
1196
1197## 1.2.4
1198
1199This release contains a few bug fixes and new French translations.
1200
1201## 1.2.3
1202
1203This release contains a fix for a bug: use of uninitialized data. Such data was
1204only used when outputting an error message, but I am striving for perfection. As
1205Michelangelo said, "Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."
1206
1207## 1.2.2
1208
1209This release contains fixes for OpenBSD.
1210
1211## 1.2.1
1212
1213This release contains bug fixes for some rare bugs.
1214
1215## 1.2.0
1216
1217This is a production release.
1218
1219There have been several changes since `1.1.0`:
1220
12211.	The build system had some changes.
12222.	Locale support has been added. (Patches welcome for translations.)
12233.	**The ability to turn `ibase`, `obase`, and `scale` into stacks** was added
1224	with the `-g` command-line option. (See the [`bc` manual][9] for more
1225	details.)
12264.	Support for compiling on Mac OSX out of the box was added.
12275.	The extended math library got `t(x)`, `ceil(x)`, and some aliases.
12286.	The extended math library also got `r2d(x)` (for converting from radians to
1229	degrees) and `d2r(x)` (for converting from degrees to radians). This is to
1230	allow using degrees with the standard library.
12317.	Both calculators now accept numbers in **scientific notation**. See the
1232	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
12338.	Both calculators can **output in either scientific or engineering
1234	notation**. See the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
12359.	Some inefficiencies were removed.
123610.	Some bugs were fixed.
123711.	Some bugs in the extended library were fixed.
123812.	Some defects from [Coverity Scan][11] were fixed.
1239
1240## 1.1.4
1241
1242This release contains a fix to the build system that allows it to build on older
1243versions of `glibc`.
1244
1245## 1.1.3
1246
1247This release contains a fix for a bug in the test suite where `bc` tests and
1248`dc` tests could not be run in parallel.
1249
1250## 1.1.2
1251
1252This release has a fix for a history bug; the down arrow did not work.
1253
1254## 1.1.1
1255
1256This release fixes a bug in the `1.1.0` build system. The source is exactly the
1257same.
1258
1259The bug that was fixed was a failure to install if no `EXECSUFFIX` was used.
1260
1261## 1.1.0
1262
1263This is a production release. However, many new features were added since `1.0`.
1264
12651.	**The build system has been changed** to use a custom, POSIX
1266	shell-compatible configure script ([`configure.sh`][6]) to generate a POSIX
1267	make-compatible `Makefile`, which means that `bc` and `dc` now build out of
1268	the box on any POSIX-compatible system.
12692.	Out-of-memory and output errors now cause the `bc` to report the error,
1270	clean up, and die, rather than just reporting and trying to continue.
12713.	**Strings and constants are now garbage collected** when possible.
12724.	Signal handling and checking has been made more simple and more thorough.
12735.	`BcGlobals` was refactored into `BcVm` and `BcVm` was made global. Some
1274	procedure names were changed to reflect its difference to everything else.
12756.	Addition got a speed improvement.
12767.	Some common code for addition and multiplication was refactored into its own
1277	procedure.
12788.	A bug was removed where `dc` could have been selected, but the internal
1279	`#define` that returned `true` for a query about `dc` would not have
1280	returned `true`.
12819.	Useless calls to `bc_num_zero()` were removed.
128210.	**History support was added.** The history support is based off of a
1283	[UTF-8 aware fork][7] of [`linenoise`][8], which has been customized with
1284	`bc`'s own data structures and signal handling.
128511.	Generating C source from the math library now removes tabs from the library,
1286	shrinking the size of the executable.
128712.	The math library was shrunk.
128813.	Error handling and reporting was improved.
128914.	Reallocations were reduced by giving access to the request size for each
1290	operation.
129115.	**`abs()` (`b` command for `dc`) was added as a builtin.**
129216.	Both calculators were tested on FreeBSD.
129317.	Many obscure parse bugs were fixed.
129418.	Markdown and man page manuals were added, and the man pages are installed by
1295	`make install`.
129619.	Executable size was reduced, though the added features probably made the
1297	executable end up bigger.
129820.	**GNU-style array references were added as a supported feature.**
129921.	Allocations were reduced.
130022.	**New operators were added**: `$` (`$` for `dc`), `@` (`@` for `dc`), `@=`,
1301	`<<` (`H` for `dc`), `<<=`, `>>` (`h` for `dc`), and `>>=`. See the
1302	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for more details.
130323.	**An extended math library was added.** This library contains code that
1304	makes it so I can replace my desktop calculator with this `bc`. See the
1305	[`bc` manual][3] for more details.
130624.	Support for all capital letters as numbers was added.
130725.	**Support for GNU-style void functions was added.**
130826.	A bug fix for improper handling of function parameters was added.
130927.	Precedence for the or (`||`) operator was changed to match GNU `bc`.
131028.	`dc` was given an explicit negation command.
131129.	`dc` was changed to be able to handle strings in arrays.
1312
1313## 1.1 Release Candidate 3
1314
1315This release is the eighth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1316release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1317been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1318
1319## 1.1 Release Candidate 2
1320
1321This release is the seventh release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1322release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1323been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1324
1325## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 5
1326
1327This release is the sixth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fifth
1328release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1329code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1330
1331## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 4
1332
1333This release is the fifth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fourth
1334release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1335code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1336
1337## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 3
1338
1339This release is the fourth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1340release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1341code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1342
1343## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 2
1344
1345This release is the third release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1346release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1347code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1348
1349## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 1
1350
1351This release is the second release candidate for 1.1, though it is meant
1352specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new code has not been tested as
1353thoroughly as it should for release.
1354
1355## 1.1 Release Candidate 1
1356
1357This is the first release candidate for 1.1. The new code has not been tested as
1358thoroughly as it should for release.
1359
1360## 1.0
1361
1362This is the first non-beta release. `bc` is ready for production use.
1363
1364As such, a lot has changed since 0.5.
1365
13661.	`dc` has been added. It has been tested even more thoroughly than `bc` was
1367	for `0.5`. It does not have the `!` command, and for security reasons, it
1368	never will, so it is complete.
13692.	`bc` has been more thoroughly tested. An entire section of the test suite
1370	(for both programs) has been added to test for errors.
13713.	A prompt (`>>> `) has been added for interactive mode, making it easier to
1372	see inputs and outputs.
13734.	Interrupt handling has been improved, including elimination of race
1374	conditions (as much as possible).
13755.	MinGW and [Windows Subsystem for Linux][1] support has been added (see
1376	[xstatic][2] for binaries).
13776.	Memory leaks and errors have been eliminated (as far as ASan and Valgrind
1378	can tell).
13797.	Crashes have been eliminated (as far as [afl][3] can tell).
13808.	Karatsuba multiplication was added (and thoroughly) tested, speeding up
1381	multiplication and power by orders of magnitude.
13829.	Performance was further enhanced by using a "divmod" function to reduce
1383	redundant divisions and by removing superfluous `memset()` calls.
138410.	To switch between Karatsuba and `O(n^2)` multiplication, the config variable
1385	`BC_NUM_KARATSUBA_LEN` was added. It is set to a sane default, but the
1386	optimal number can be found with [`karatsuba.py`][4] (requires Python 3)
1387	and then configured through `make`.
138811.	The random math test generator script was changed to Python 3 and improved.
1389	`bc` and `dc` have together been run through 30+ million random tests.
139012.	All known math bugs have been fixed, including out of control memory
1391	allocations in `sine` and `cosine` (that was actually a parse bug), certain
1392	cases of infinite loop on square root, and slight inaccuracies (as much as
1393	possible; see the [README][5]) in transcendental functions.
139413.	Parsing has been fixed as much as possible.
139514.	Test coverage was improved to 94.8%. The only paths not covered are ones
1396	that happen when `malloc()` or `realloc()` fails.
139715.	An extension to get the length of an array was added.
139816.	The boolean not (`!`) had its precedence change to match negation.
139917.	Data input was hardened.
140018.	`bc` was made fully compliant with POSIX when the `-s` flag is used or
1401	`POSIXLY_CORRECT` is defined.
140219.	Error handling was improved.
140320.	`bc` now checks that files it is given are not directories.
1404
1405## 1.0 Release Candidate 7
1406
1407This is the seventh release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0
1408Release Candidate 6.
1409
1410## 1.0 Release Candidate 6
1411
1412This is the sixth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1413Candidate 5.
1414
1415## 1.0 Release Candidate 5
1416
1417This is the fifth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1418Candidate 4.
1419
1420## 1.0 Release Candidate 4
1421
1422This is the fourth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1423Candidate 3.
1424
1425## 1.0 Release Candidate 3
1426
1427This is the third release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1428Candidate 2.
1429
1430## 1.0 Release Candidate 2
1431
1432This is the second release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1433Candidate 1.
1434
1435## 1.0 Release Candidate 1
1436
1437This is the first Release Candidate for 1.0. `bc` is complete, with `dc`, but it
1438is not tested.
1439
1440## 0.5
1441
1442This beta release completes more features, but it is still not complete nor
1443tested as thoroughly as necessary.
1444
1445## 0.4.1
1446
1447This beta release fixes a few bugs in 0.4.
1448
1449## 0.4
1450
1451This is a beta release. It does not have the complete set of features, and it is
1452not thoroughly tested.
1453
1454[1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
1455[2]: https://pkg.musl.cc/bc/
1456[3]: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/
1457[4]: ./scripts/karatsuba.py
1458[5]: ./README.md
1459[6]: ./configure.sh
1460[7]: https://github.com/rain-1/linenoise-mob
1461[8]: https://github.com/antirez/linenoise
1462[9]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md
1463[10]: ./manuals/dc/A.1.md
1464[11]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/gavinhoward-bc
1465[12]: ./scripts/locale_install.sh
1466[13]: ./manuals/build.md
1467[14]: https://github.com/stesser
1468[15]: https://github.com/bugcrazy
1469[16]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md#extended-library
1470[17]: https://github.com/skeeto/optparse
1471[18]: https://www.deepl.com/translator
1472[19]: ./manuals/benchmarks.md
1473[20]: https://github.com/apjanke/ronn-ng
1474[21]: https://pandoc.org/
1475[22]: ./scripts/locale_uninstall.sh
1476