1# News 2 3## 3.2.3 4 5This is a production release that fixes a bug in `gen/strgen.sh`. I recently 6changed `gen/strgen.c`, but I did not change `gen/strgen.sh`. 7 8Users that do not use `gen/strgen.sh` do not need to upgrade. 9 10## 3.2.2 11 12This is a production release that fixes a portability bug in `configure.sh`. The 13bug was using the GNU `find` extension `-wholename`. 14 15## 3.2.1 16 17This is a production release that has one fix for `bcl(3)`. It is technically 18not a bug fix since the behavior is undefined, but the `BclNumber`s that 19`bcl_divmod()` returns will be set to `BCL_ERROR_INVALID_NUM` if there is an 20error. Previously, they were not set. 21 22## 3.2.0 23 24This is a production release that has one bug fix and a major addition. 25 26The bug fix was a missing `auto` variable in the bessel `j()` function in the 27math library. 28 29The major addition is a way to build a version of `bc`'s math code as a library. 30This is done with the `-a` option to `configure.sh`. The API for the library can 31be read in `./manuals/bcl.3.md` or `man bcl` once the library is installed with 32`make install`. 33 34This library was requested by developers before I even finished version 1.0, but 35I could not figure out how to do it until now. 36 37If the library has API breaking changes, the major version of `bc` will be 38incremented. 39 40## 3.1.6 41 42This is a production release that fixes a new warning from Clang 12 for FreeBSD 43and also removes some possible undefined behavior found by UBSan that compilers 44did not seem to take advantage of. 45 46Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, if they do not want to. 47 48## 3.1.5 49 50This is a production release that fixes the Chinese locales (which caused `bc` 51to crash) and a crash caused by `bc` executing code when it should not have been 52able to. 53 54***ALL USERS SHOULD UPGRADE.*** 55 56## 3.1.4 57 58This is a production release that fixes one bug, changes two behaviors, and 59removes one environment variable. 60 61The bug is like the one in the last release except it applies if files are being 62executed. I also made the fix more general. 63 64The behavior that was changed is that `bc` now exits when given `-e`, `-f`, 65`--expression` or `--file`. However, if the last one of those is `-f-` (using 66`stdin` as the file), `bc` does not exit. If `-f-` exists and is not the last of 67the `-e` and `-f` options (and equivalents), `bc` gives a fatal error and exits. 68 69Next, I removed the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` and `DC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variables 70since their use is not needed with the behavior change. 71 72Finally, I made it so `bc` does not print the header, though the `-q` and 73`--quiet` options were kept for compatibility with GNU `bc`. 74 75## 3.1.3 76 77This is a production release that fixes one minor bug: if `bc` was invoked like 78the following, it would error: 79 80``` 81echo "if (1 < 3) 1" | bc 82``` 83 84Unless users run into this bug, they do not need to upgrade, but it is suggested 85that they do. 86 87## 3.1.2 88 89This is a production release that adds a way to install *all* locales. Users do 90***NOT*** need to upgrade. 91 92For package maintainers wishing to make use of the change, just pass `-l` to 93`configure.sh`. 94 95## 3.1.1 96 97This is a production release that adds two Spanish locales. Users do ***NOT*** 98need to upgrade, unless they want those locales. 99 100## 3.1.0 101 102This is a production release that adjusts one behavior, fixes eight bugs, and 103improves manpages for FreeBSD. Because this release fixes bugs, **users and 104package maintainers should update to this version as soon as possible**. 105 106The behavior that was adjusted was how code from the `-e` and `-f` arguments 107(and equivalents) were executed. They used to be executed as one big chunk, but 108in this release, they are now executed line-by-line. 109 110The first bug fix in how output to `stdout` was handled in `SIGINT`. If a 111`SIGINT` came in, the `stdout` buffer was not correctly flushed. In fact, a 112clean-up function was not getting called. This release fixes that bug. 113 114The second bug is in how `dc` handled input from `stdin`. This affected `bc` as 115well since it was a mishandling of the `stdin` buffer. 116 117The third fixed bug was that `bc` and `dc` could `abort()` (in debug mode) when 118receiving a `SIGTERM`. This one was a race condition with pushing and popping 119items onto and out of vectors. 120 121The fourth bug fixed was that `bc` could leave extra items on the stack and 122thus, not properly clean up some memory. (The memory would still get 123`free()`'ed, but it would not be `free()`'ed when it could have been.) 124 125The next two bugs were bugs in `bc`'s parser that caused crashes when executing 126the resulting code. 127 128The last two bugs were crashes in `dc` that resulted from mishandling of 129strings. 130 131The manpage improvement was done by switching from [ronn][20] to [Pandoc][21] to 132generate manpages. Pandoc generates much cleaner manpages and doesn't leave 133blank lines where they shouldn't be. 134 135## 3.0.3 136 137This is a production release that adds one new feature: specific manpages. 138 139Before this release, `bc` and `dc` only used one manpage each that referred to 140various build options. This release changes it so there is one manpage set per 141relevant build type. Each manual only has information about its particular 142build, and `configure.sh` selects the correct set for install. 143 144## 3.0.2 145 146This is a production release that adds `utf8` locale symlinks and removes an 147unused `auto` variable from the `ceil()` function in the [extended math 148library][16]. 149 150Users do ***NOT*** need to update unless they want the locales. 151 152## 3.0.1 153 154This is a production release with two small changes. Users do ***NOT*** need to 155upgrade to this release; however, if they haven't upgraded to `3.0.0` yet, it 156may be worthwhile to upgrade to this release. 157 158The first change is fixing a compiler warning on FreeBSD with strict warnings 159on. 160 161The second change is to make the new implementation of `ceil()` in `lib2.bc` 162much more efficient. 163 164## 3.0.0 165 166*Notes for package maintainers:* 167 168*First, the `2.7.0` release series saw a change in the option parsing. This made 169me change one error message and add a few others. The error message that was 170changed removed one format specifier. This means that `printf()` will seqfault 171on old locale files. Unfortunately, `bc` cannot use any locale files except the 172global ones that are already installed, so it will use the previous ones while 173running tests during install. **If `bc` segfaults while running arg tests when 174updating, it is because the global locale files have not been replaced. Make 175sure to either prevent the test suite from running on update or remove the old 176locale files before updating.** (Removing the locale files can be done with 177`make uninstall` or by running the `locale_uninstall.sh` script.) Once this is 178done, `bc` should install without problems.* 179 180*Second, **the option to build without signal support has been removed**. See 181below for the reasons why.* 182 183This is a production release with some small bug fixes, a few improvements, 184three major bug fixes, and a complete redesign of `bc`'s error and signal 185handling. **Users and package maintainers should update to this version as soon 186as possible.** 187 188The first major bug fix was in how `bc` executed files. Previously, a whole file 189was parsed before it was executed, but if a function is defined *after* code, 190especially if the function definition was actually a redefinition, and the code 191before the definition referred to the previous function, this `bc` would replace 192the function before executing any code. The fix was to make sure that all code 193that existed before a function definition was executed. 194 195The second major bug fix was in `bc`'s `lib2.bc`. The `ceil()` function had a 196bug where a `0` in the decimal place after the truncation position, caused it to 197output the wrong numbers if there was any non-zero digit after. 198 199The third major bug is that when passing parameters to functions, if an 200expression included an array (not an array element) as a parameter, it was 201accepted, when it should have been rejected. It is now correctly rejected. 202 203Beyond that, this `bc` got several improvements that both sped it up, improved 204the handling of signals, and improved the error handling. 205 206First, the requirements for `bc` were pushed back to POSIX 2008. `bc` uses one 207function, `strdup()`, which is not in POSIX 2001, and it is in the X/Open System 208Interfaces group 2001. It is, however, in POSIX 2008, and since POSIX 2008 is 209old enough to be supported anywhere that I care, that should be the requirement. 210 211Second, the BcVm global variable was put into `bss`. This actually slightly 212reduces the size of the executable from a massive code shrink, and it will stop 213`bc` from allocating a large set of memory when `bc` starts. 214 215Third, the default Karatsuba length was updated from 64 to 32 after making the 216optimization changes below, since 32 is going to be better than 64 after the 217changes. 218 219Fourth, Spanish translations were added. 220 221Fifth, the interpreter received a speedup to make performance on non-math-heavy 222scripts more competitive with GNU `bc`. While improvements did, in fact, get it 223much closer (see the [benchmarks][19]), it isn't quite there. 224 225There were several things done to speed up the interpreter: 226 227First, several small inefficiencies were removed. These inefficiencies included 228calling the function `bc_vec_pop(v)` twice instead of calling 229`bc_vec_npop(v, 2)`. They also included an extra function call for checking the 230size of the stack and checking the size of the stack more than once on several 231operations. 232 233Second, since the current `bc` function is the one that stores constants and 234strings, the program caches pointers to the current function's vectors of 235constants and strings to prevent needing to grab the current function in order 236to grab a constant or a string. 237 238Third, `bc` tries to reuse `BcNum`'s (the internal representation of 239arbitary-precision numbers). If a `BcNum` has the default capacity of 240`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` (32 on 64-bit and 16 on 32-bit) when it is freed, it is added 241to a list of available `BcNum`'s. And then, when a `BcNum` is allocated with a 242capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` and any `BcNum`'s exist on the list of reusable 243ones, one of those ones is grabbed instead. 244 245In order to support these changes, the `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` was changed. It used to 246be 16 bytes on all systems, but it was changed to more closely align with the 247minimum allocation size on Linux, which is either 32 bytes (64-bit musl), 24 248bytes (64-bit glibc), 16 bytes (32-bit musl), or 12 bytes (32-bit glibc). Since 249these are the minimum allocation sizes, these are the sizes that would be 250allocated anyway, making it worth it to just use the whole space, so the value 251of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` on 64-bit systems was changed to 32 bytes. 252 253On top of that, at least on 64-bit, `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` supports numbers with 254either 72 integer digits or 45 integer digits and 27 fractional digits. This 255should be more than enough for most cases since `bc`'s default `scale` values 256are 0 or 20, meaning that, by default, it has at most 20 fractional digits. And 25745 integer digits are *a lot*; it's enough to calculate the amount of mass in 258the Milky Way galaxy in kilograms. Also, 72 digits is enough to calculate the 259diameter of the universe in Planck lengths. 260 261(For 32-bit, these numbers are either 32 integer digits or 12 integer digits and 26220 fractional digits. These are also quite big, and going much bigger on a 26332-bit system seems a little pointless since 12 digits in just under a trillion 264and 20 fractional digits is still enough for about any use since `10^-20` light 265years is just under a millimeter.) 266 267All of this together means that for ordinary uses, and even uses in scientific 268work, the default number size will be all that is needed, which means that 269nearly all, if not all, numbers will be reused, relieving pressure on the system 270allocator. 271 272I did several experiments to find the changes that had the most impact, 273especially with regard to reusing `BcNum`'s. One was putting `BcNum`'s into 274buckets according to their capacity in powers of 2 up to 512. That performed 275worse than `bc` did in `2.7.2`. Another was putting any `BcNum` on the reuse 276list that had a capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE * 2` and reusing them for `BcNum`'s 277that requested `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`. This did reduce the amount of time spent, but 278it also spent a lot of time in the system allocator for an unknown reason. (When 279using `strace`, a bunch more `brk` calls showed up.) Just reusing `BcNum`'s that 280had exactly `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` capacity spent the smallest amount of time in both 281user and system time. This makes sense, especially with the changes to make 282`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` bigger on 64-bit systems, since the vast majority of numbers 283will only ever use numbers with a size less than or equal to `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`. 284 285Last of all, `bc`'s signal handling underwent a complete redesign. (This is the 286reason that this version is `3.0.0` and not `2.8.0`.) The change was to move 287from a polling approach to signal handling to an interrupt-based approach. 288 289Previously, every single loop condition had a check for signals. I suspect that 290this could be expensive when in tight loops. 291 292Now, the signal handler just uses `longjmp()` (actually `siglongjmp()`) to start 293an unwinding of the stack until it is stopped or the stack is unwound to 294`main()`, which just returns. If `bc` is currently executing code that cannot be 295safely interrupted (according to POSIX), then signals are "locked." The signal 296handler checks if the lock is taken, and if it is, it just sets the status to 297indicate that a signal arrived. Later, when the signal lock is released, the 298status is checked to see if a signal came in. If so, the stack unwinding starts. 299 300This design eliminates polling in favor of maintaining a stack of `jmp_buf`'s. 301This has its own performance implications, but it gives better interaction. And 302the cost of pushing and popping a `jmp_buf` in a function is paid at most twice. 303Most functions do not pay that price, and most of the rest only pay it once. 304(There are only some 3 functions in `bc` that push and pop a `jmp_buf` twice.) 305 306As a side effect of this change, I had to eliminate the use of `stdio.h` in `bc` 307because `stdio` does not play nice with signals and `longjmp()`. I implemented 308custom I/O buffer code that takes a fraction of the size. This means that static 309builds will be smaller, but non-static builds will be bigger, though they will 310have less linking time. 311 312This change is also good because my history implementation was already bypassing 313`stdio` for good reasons, and unifying the architecture was a win. 314 315Another reason for this change is that my `bc` should *always* behave correctly 316in the presence of signals like `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM`, and `SIGQUIT`. With the 317addition of my own I/O buffering, I needed to also make sure that the buffers 318were correctly flushed even when such signals happened. 319 320For this reason, I **removed the option to build without signal support**. 321 322As a nice side effect of this change, the error handling code could be changed 323to take advantage of the stack unwinding that signals used. This means that 324signals and error handling use the same code paths, which means that the stack 325unwinding is well-tested. (Errors are tested heavily in the test suite.) 326 327It also means that functions do not need to return a status code that 328***every*** caller needs to check. This eliminated over 100 branches that simply 329checked return codes and then passed that return code up the stack if necessary. 330The code bloat savings from this is at least 1700 bytes on `x86_64`, *before* 331taking into account the extra code from removing `stdio.h`. 332 333## 2.7.2 334 335This is a production release with one major bug fix. 336 337The `length()` built-in function can take either a number or an array. If it 338takes an array, it returns the length of the array. Arrays can be passed by 339reference. The bug is that the `length()` function would not properly 340dereference arrays that were references. This is a bug that affects all users. 341 342**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**. 343 344## 2.7.1 345 346This is a production release with fixes for new locales and fixes for compiler 347warnings on FreeBSD. 348 349## 2.7.0 350 351This is a production release with a bug fix for Linux, new translations, and new 352features. 353 354Bug fixes: 355 356* Option parsing in `BC_ENV_ARGS` was broken on Linux in 2.6.1 because `glibc`'s 357 `getopt_long()` is broken. To get around that, and to support long options on 358 every platform, an adapted version of [`optparse`][17] was added. Now, `bc` 359 does not even use `getopt()`. 360* Parsing `BC_ENV_ARGS` with quotes now works. It isn't the smartest, but it 361 does the job if there are spaces in file names. 362 363The following new languages are supported: 364 365* Dutch 366* Polish 367* Russian 368* Japanes 369* Simplified Chinese 370 371All of these translations were generated using [DeepL][18], so improvements are 372welcome. 373 374There is only one new feature: **`bc` now has a built-in pseudo-random number 375generator** (PRNG). 376 377The PRNG is seeded, making it useful for applications where 378`/dev/urandom` does not work because output needs to be reproducible. However, 379it also uses `/dev/urandom` to seed itself by default, so it will start with a 380good seed by default. 381 382It also outputs 32 bits on 32-bit platforms and 64 bits on 64-bit platforms, far 383better than the 15 bits of C's `rand()` and `bash`'s `$RANDOM`. 384 385In addition, the PRNG can take a bound, and when it gets a bound, it 386automatically adjusts to remove bias. It can also generate numbers of arbitrary 387size. (As of the time of release, the largest pseudo-random number generated by 388this `bc` was generated with a bound of `2^(2^20)`.) 389 390***IMPORTANT: read the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] to find out 391exactly what guarantees the PRNG provides. The underlying implementation is not 392guaranteed to stay the same, but the guarantees that it provides are guaranteed 393to stay the same regardless of the implementation.*** 394 395On top of that, four functions were added to `bc`'s [extended math library][16] 396to make using the PRNG easier: 397 398* `frand(p)`: Generates a number between `[0,1)` to `p` decimal places. 399* `ifrand(i, p)`: Generates an integer with bound `i` and adds it to `frand(p)`. 400* `srand(x)`: Randomizes the sign of `x`. In other words, it flips the sign of 401 `x` with probability `0.5`. 402* `brand()`: Returns a random boolean value (either `0` or `1`). 403 404## 2.6.1 405 406This is a production release with a bug fix for FreeBSD. 407 408The bug was that when `bc` was built without long options, it would give a fatal 409error on every run. This was caused by a mishandling of `optind`. 410 411## 2.6.0 412 413This release is a production release ***with no bugfixes***. If you do not want 414to upgrade, you don't have to. 415 416No source code changed; the only thing that changed was `lib2.bc`. 417 418This release adds one function to the [extended math library][16]: `p(x, y)`, 419which calculates `x` to the power of `y`, whether or not `y` is an integer. (The 420`^` operator can only accept integer powers.) 421 422This release also includes a couple of small tweaks to the [extended math 423library][16], mostly to fix returning numbers with too high of `scale`. 424 425## 2.5.3 426 427This release is a production release which addresses inconsistencies in the 428Portuguese locales. No `bc` code was changed. 429 430The issues were that the ISO files used different naming, and also that the 431files that should have been symlinks were not. I did not catch that because 432GitHub rendered them the exact same way. 433 434## 2.5.2 435 436This release is a production release. 437 438No code was changed, but the build system was changed to allow `CFLAGS` to be 439given to `CC`, like this: 440 441``` 442CC="gcc -O3 -march=native" ./configure.sh 443``` 444 445If this happens, the flags are automatically put into `CFLAGS`, and the compiler 446is set appropriately. In the example above this means that `CC` will be "gcc" 447and `CFLAGS` will be "-O3 -march=native". 448 449This behavior was added to conform to GNU autotools practices. 450 451## 2.5.1 452 453This is a production release which addresses portability concerns discovered 454in the `bc` build system. No `bc` code was changed. 455 456* Support for Solaris SPARC and AIX were added. 457* Minor documentations edits were performed. 458* An option for `configure.sh` was added to disable long options if 459 `getopt_long()` is missing. 460 461## 2.5.0 462 463This is a production release with new translations. No code changed. 464 465The translations were contributed by [bugcrazy][15], and they are for 466Portuguese, both Portugal and Brazil locales. 467 468## 2.4.0 469 470This is a production release primarily aimed at improving `dc`. 471 472* A couple of copy and paste errors in the [`dc` manual][10] were fixed. 473* `dc` startup was optimized by making sure it didn't have to set up `bc`-only 474 things. 475* The `bc` `&&` and `||` operators were made available to `dc` through the `M` 476 and `m` commands, respectively. 477* `dc` macros were changed to be tail call-optimized. 478 479The last item, tail call optimization, means that if the last thing in a macro 480is a call to another macro, then the old macro is popped before executing the 481new macro. This change was made to stop `dc` from consuming more and more memory 482as macros are executed in a loop. 483 484The `q` and `Q` commands still respect the "hidden" macros by way of recording 485how many macros were removed by tail call optimization. 486 487## 2.3.2 488 489This is a production release meant to fix warnings in the Gentoo `ebuild` by 490making it possible to disable binary stripping. Other users do *not* need to 491upgrade. 492 493## 2.3.1 494 495This is a production release. It fixes a bug that caused `-1000000000 < -1` to 496return `0`. This only happened with negative numbers and only if the value on 497the left was more negative by a certain amount. That said, this bug *is* a bad 498bug, and needs to be fixed. 499 500**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**. 501 502## 2.3.0 503 504This is a production release with changes to the build system. 505 506## 2.2.0 507 508This release is a production release. It only has new features and performance 509improvements. 510 5111. The performance of `sqrt(x)` was improved. 5122. The new function `root(x, n)` was added to the extended math library to 513 calculate `n`th roots. 5143. The new function `cbrt(x)` was added to the extended math library to 515 calculate cube roots. 516 517## 2.1.3 518 519This is a non-critical release; it just changes the build system, and in 520non-breaking ways: 521 5221. Linked locale files were changed to link to their sources with a relative 523 link. 5242. A bug in `configure.sh` that caused long option parsing to fail under `bash` 525 was fixed. 526 527## 2.1.2 528 529This release is not a critical release. 530 5311. A few codes were added to history. 5322. Multiplication was optimized a bit more. 5333. Addition and subtraction were both optimized a bit more. 534 535## 2.1.1 536 537This release contains a fix for the test suite made for Linux from Scratch: now 538the test suite prints `pass` when a test is passed. 539 540Other than that, there is no change in this release, so distros and other users 541do not need to upgrade. 542 543## 2.1.0 544 545This release is a production release. 546 547The following bugs were fixed: 548 5491. A `dc` bug that caused stack mishandling was fixed. 5502. A warning on OpenBSD was fixed. 5513. Bugs in `ctrl+arrow` operations in history were fixed. 5524. The ability to paste multiple lines in history was added. 5535. A `bc` bug, mishandling of array arguments to functions, was fixed. 5546. A crash caused by freeing the wrong pointer was fixed. 5557. A `dc` bug where strings, in a rare case, were mishandled in parsing was 556 fixed. 557 558In addition, the following changes were made: 559 5601. Division was slightly optimized. 5612. An option was added to the build to disable printing of prompts. 5623. The special case of empty arguments is now handled. This is to prevent 563 errors in scripts that end up passing empty arguments. 5644. A harmless bug was fixed. This bug was that, with the pop instructions 565 (mostly) removed (see below), `bc` would leave extra values on its stack for 566 `void` functions and in a few other cases. These extra items would not 567 affect anything put on the stack and would not cause any sort of crash or 568 even buggy behavior, but they would cause `bc` to take more memory than it 569 needed. 570 571On top of the above changes, the following optimizations were added: 572 5731. The need for pop instructions in `bc` was removed. 5742. Extra tests on every iteration of the interpreter loop were removed. 5753. Updating function and code pointers on every iteration of the interpreter 576 loop was changed to only updating them when necessary. 5774. Extra assignments to pointers were removed. 578 579Altogether, these changes sped up the interpreter by around 2x. 580 581***NOTE***: This is the last release with new features because this `bc` is now 582considered complete. From now on, only bug fixes and new translations will be 583added to this `bc`. 584 585## 2.0.3 586 587This is a production, bug-fix release. 588 589Two bugs were fixed in this release: 590 5911. A rare and subtle signal handling bug was fixed. 5922. A misbehavior on `0` to a negative power was fixed. 593 594The last bug bears some mentioning. 595 596When I originally wrote power, I did not thoroughly check its error cases; 597instead, I had it check if the first number was `0` and then if so, just return 598`0`. However, `0` to a negative power means that `1` will be divided by `0`, 599which is an error. 600 601I caught this, but only after I stopped being cocky. You see, sometime later, I 602had noticed that GNU `bc` returned an error, correctly, but I thought it was 603wrong simply because that's not what my `bc` did. I saw it again later and had a 604double take. I checked for real, finally, and found out that my `bc` was wrong 605all along. 606 607That was bad on me. But the bug was easy to fix, so it is fixed now. 608 609There are two other things in this release: 610 6111. Subtraction was optimized by [Stefan Eßer][14]. 6122. Division was also optimized, also by Stefan Eßer. 613 614## 2.0.2 615 616This release contains a fix for a possible overflow in the signal handling. I 617would be surprised if any users ran into it because it would only happen after 2 618billion (`2^31-1`) `SIGINT`'s, but I saw it and had to fix it. 619 620## 2.0.1 621 622This release contains very few things that will apply to any users. 623 6241. A slight bug in `dc`'s interactive mode was fixed. 6252. A bug in the test suite that was only triggered on NetBSD was fixed. 6263. **The `-P`/`--no-prompt` option** was added for users that do not want a 627 prompt. 6284. A `make check` target was added as an alias for `make test`. 6295. `dc` got its own read prompt: `?> `. 630 631## 2.0.0 632 633This release is a production release. 634 635This release is also a little different from previous releases. From here on 636out, I do not plan on adding any more features to this `bc`; I believe that it 637is complete. However, there may be bug fix releases in the future, if I or any 638others manage to find bugs. 639 640This release has only a few new features: 641 6421. `atan2(y, x)` was added to the extended math library as both `a2(y, x)` and 643 `atan2(y, x)`. 6442. Locales were fixed. 6453. A **POSIX shell-compatible script was added as an alternative to compiling 646 `gen/strgen.c`** on a host machine. More details about making the choice 647 between the two can be found by running `./configure.sh --help` or reading 648 the [build manual][13]. 6494. Multiplication was optimized by using **diagonal multiplication**, rather 650 than straight brute force. 6515. The `locale_install.sh` script was fixed. 6526. `dc` was given the ability to **use the environment variable 653 `DC_ENV_ARGS`**. 6547. `dc` was also given the ability to **use the `-i` or `--interactive`** 655 options. 6568. Printing the prompt was fixed so that it did not print when it shouldn't. 6579. Signal handling was fixed. 65810. **Handling of `SIGTERM` and `SIGQUIT`** was fixed. 65911. The **built-in functions `maxibase()`, `maxobase()`, and `maxscale()`** (the 660 commands `T`, `U`, `V` in `dc`, respectively) were added to allow scripts to 661 query for the max allowable values of those globals. 66212. Some incompatibilities with POSIX were fixed. 663 664In addition, this release is `2.0.0` for a big reason: the internal format for 665numbers changed. They used to be a `char` array. Now, they are an array of 666larger integers, packing more decimal digits into each integer. This has 667delivered ***HUGE*** performance improvements, especially for multiplication, 668division, and power. 669 670This `bc` should now be the fastest `bc` available, but I may be wrong. 671 672## 1.2.8 673 674This release contains a fix for a harmless bug (it is harmless in that it still 675works, but it just copies extra data) in the [`locale_install.sh`][12] script. 676 677## 1.2.7 678 679This version contains fixes for the build on Arch Linux. 680 681## 1.2.6 682 683This release removes the use of `local` in shell scripts because it's not POSIX 684shell-compatible, and also updates a man page that should have been updated a 685long time ago but was missed. 686 687## 1.2.5 688 689This release contains some missing locale `*.msg` files. 690 691## 1.2.4 692 693This release contains a few bug fixes and new French translations. 694 695## 1.2.3 696 697This release contains a fix for a bug: use of uninitialized data. Such data was 698only used when outputting an error message, but I am striving for perfection. As 699Michelangelo said, "Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle." 700 701## 1.2.2 702 703This release contains fixes for OpenBSD. 704 705## 1.2.1 706 707This release contains bug fixes for some rare bugs. 708 709## 1.2.0 710 711This is a production release. 712 713There have been several changes since `1.1.0`: 714 7151. The build system had some changes. 7162. Locale support has been added. (Patches welcome for translations.) 7173. **The ability to turn `ibase`, `obase`, and `scale` into stacks** was added 718 with the `-g` command-line option. (See the [`bc` manual][9] for more 719 details.) 7204. Support for compiling on Mac OSX out of the box was added. 7215. The extended math library got `t(x)`, `ceil(x)`, and some aliases. 7226. The extended math library also got `r2d(x)` (for converting from radians to 723 degrees) and `d2r(x)` (for converting from degrees to radians). This is to 724 allow using degrees with the standard library. 7257. Both calculators now accept numbers in **scientific notation**. See the 726 [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details. 7278. Both calculators can **output in either scientific or engineering 728 notation**. See the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details. 7299. Some inefficiencies were removed. 73010. Some bugs were fixed. 73111. Some bugs in the extended library were fixed. 73212. Some defects from [Coverity Scan][11] were fixed. 733 734## 1.1.4 735 736This release contains a fix to the build system that allows it to build on older 737versions of `glibc`. 738 739## 1.1.3 740 741This release contains a fix for a bug in the test suite where `bc` tests and 742`dc` tests could not be run in parallel. 743 744## 1.1.2 745 746This release has a fix for a history bug; the down arrow did not work. 747 748## 1.1.1 749 750This release fixes a bug in the `1.1.0` build system. The source is exactly the 751same. 752 753The bug that was fixed was a failure to install if no `EXECSUFFIX` was used. 754 755## 1.1.0 756 757This is a production release. However, many new features were added since `1.0`. 758 7591. **The build system has been changed** to use a custom, POSIX 760 shell-compatible configure script ([`configure.sh`][6]) to generate a POSIX 761 make-compatible `Makefile`, which means that `bc` and `dc` now build out of 762 the box on any POSIX-compatible system. 7632. Out-of-memory and output errors now cause the `bc` to report the error, 764 clean up, and die, rather than just reporting and trying to continue. 7653. **Strings and constants are now garbage collected** when possible. 7664. Signal handling and checking has been made more simple and more thorough. 7675. `BcGlobals` was refactored into `BcVm` and `BcVm` was made global. Some 768 procedure names were changed to reflect its difference to everything else. 7696. Addition got a speed improvement. 7707. Some common code for addition and multiplication was refactored into its own 771 procedure. 7728. A bug was removed where `dc` could have been selected, but the internal 773 `#define` that returned `true` for a query about `dc` would not have 774 returned `true`. 7759. Useless calls to `bc_num_zero()` were removed. 77610. **History support was added.** The history support is based off of a 777 [UTF-8 aware fork][7] of [`linenoise`][8], which has been customized with 778 `bc`'s own data structures and signal handling. 77911. Generating C source from the math library now removes tabs from the library, 780 shrinking the size of the executable. 78112. The math library was shrunk. 78213. Error handling and reporting was improved. 78314. Reallocations were reduced by giving access to the request size for each 784 operation. 78515. **`abs()` (`b` command for `dc`) was added as a builtin.** 78616. Both calculators were tested on FreeBSD. 78717. Many obscure parse bugs were fixed. 78818. Markdown and man page manuals were added, and the man pages are installed by 789 `make install`. 79019. Executable size was reduced, though the added features probably made the 791 executable end up bigger. 79220. **GNU-style array references were added as a supported feature.** 79321. Allocations were reduced. 79422. **New operators were added**: `$` (`$` for `dc`), `@` (`@` for `dc`), `@=`, 795 `<<` (`H` for `dc`), `<<=`, `>>` (`h` for `dc`), and `>>=`. See the 796 [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for more details. 79723. **An extended math library was added.** This library contains code that 798 makes it so I can replace my desktop calculator with this `bc`. See the 799 [`bc` manual][3] for more details. 80024. Support for all capital letters as numbers was added. 80125. **Support for GNU-style void functions was added.** 80226. A bug fix for improper handling of function parameters was added. 80327. Precedence for the or (`||`) operator was changed to match GNU `bc`. 80428. `dc` was given an explicit negation command. 80529. `dc` was changed to be able to handle strings in arrays. 806 807## 1.1 Release Candidate 3 808 809This release is the eighth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third 810release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not 811been tested as thoroughly as it should for release. 812 813## 1.1 Release Candidate 2 814 815This release is the seventh release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second 816release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not 817been tested as thoroughly as it should for release. 818 819## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 5 820 821This release is the sixth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fifth 822release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new 823code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release. 824 825## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 4 826 827This release is the fifth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fourth 828release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new 829code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release. 830 831## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 3 832 833This release is the fourth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third 834release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new 835code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release. 836 837## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 2 838 839This release is the third release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second 840release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new 841code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release. 842 843## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 1 844 845This release is the second release candidate for 1.1, though it is meant 846specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new code has not been tested as 847thoroughly as it should for release. 848 849## 1.1 Release Candidate 1 850 851This is the first release candidate for 1.1. The new code has not been tested as 852thoroughly as it should for release. 853 854## 1.0 855 856This is the first non-beta release. `bc` is ready for production use. 857 858As such, a lot has changed since 0.5. 859 8601. `dc` has been added. It has been tested even more thoroughly than `bc` was 861 for `0.5`. It does not have the `!` command, and for security reasons, it 862 never will, so it is complete. 8632. `bc` has been more thoroughly tested. An entire section of the test suite 864 (for both programs) has been added to test for errors. 8653. A prompt (`>>> `) has been added for interactive mode, making it easier to 866 see inputs and outputs. 8674. Interrupt handling has been improved, including elimination of race 868 conditions (as much as possible). 8695. MinGW and [Windows Subsystem for Linux][1] support has been added (see 870 [xstatic][2] for binaries). 8716. Memory leaks and errors have been eliminated (as far as ASan and Valgrind 872 can tell). 8737. Crashes have been eliminated (as far as [afl][3] can tell). 8748. Karatsuba multiplication was added (and thoroughly) tested, speeding up 875 multiplication and power by orders of magnitude. 8769. Performance was further enhanced by using a "divmod" function to reduce 877 redundant divisions and by removing superfluous `memset()` calls. 87810. To switch between Karatsuba and `O(n^2)` multiplication, the config variable 879 `BC_NUM_KARATSUBA_LEN` was added. It is set to a sane default, but the 880 optimal number can be found with [`karatsuba.py`][4] (requires Python 3) 881 and then configured through `make`. 88211. The random math test generator script was changed to Python 3 and improved. 883 `bc` and `dc` have together been run through 30+ million random tests. 88412. All known math bugs have been fixed, including out of control memory 885 allocations in `sine` and `cosine` (that was actually a parse bug), certain 886 cases of infinite loop on square root, and slight inaccuracies (as much as 887 possible; see the [README][5]) in transcendental functions. 88813. Parsing has been fixed as much as possible. 88914. Test coverage was improved to 94.8%. The only paths not covered are ones 890 that happen when `malloc()` or `realloc()` fails. 89115. An extension to get the length of an array was added. 89216. The boolean not (`!`) had its precedence change to match negation. 89317. Data input was hardened. 89418. `bc` was made fully compliant with POSIX when the `-s` flag is used or 895 `POSIXLY_CORRECT` is defined. 89619. Error handling was improved. 89720. `bc` now checks that files it is given are not directories. 898 899## 1.0 Release Candidate 7 900 901This is the seventh release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 902Release Candidate 6. 903 904## 1.0 Release Candidate 6 905 906This is the sixth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release 907Candidate 5. 908 909## 1.0 Release Candidate 5 910 911This is the fifth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release 912Candidate 4. 913 914## 1.0 Release Candidate 4 915 916This is the fourth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release 917Candidate 3. 918 919## 1.0 Release Candidate 3 920 921This is the third release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release 922Candidate 2. 923 924## 1.0 Release Candidate 2 925 926This is the second release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release 927Candidate 1. 928 929## 1.0 Release Candidate 1 930 931This is the first Release Candidate for 1.0. `bc` is complete, with `dc`, but it 932is not tested. 933 934## 0.5 935 936This beta release completes more features, but it is still not complete nor 937tested as thoroughly as necessary. 938 939## 0.4.1 940 941This beta release fixes a few bugs in 0.4. 942 943## 0.4 944 945This is a beta release. It does not have the complete set of features, and it is 946not thoroughly tested. 947 948[1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10 949[2]: https://pkg.musl.cc/bc/ 950[3]: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/ 951[4]: ./karatsuba.py 952[5]: ./README.md 953[6]: ./configure.sh 954[7]: https://github.com/rain-1/linenoise-mob 955[8]: https://github.com/antirez/linenoise 956[9]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md 957[10]: ./manuals/dc/A.1.md 958[11]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/gavinhoward-bc 959[12]: ./locale_install.sh 960[13]: ./manuals/build.md 961[14]: https://github.com/stesser 962[15]: https://github.com/bugcrazy 963[16]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md#extended-library 964[17]: https://github.com/skeeto/optparse 965[18]: https://www.deepl.com/translator 966[19]: ./manuals/benchmarks.md 967[20]: https://github.com/apjanke/ronn-ng 968[21]: https://pandoc.org/ 969