Talk:Bc programming language
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Just to head off any claims that the external link is self-promotion, I've got nothing to do with the CyrexSoft site. I spent about an hour implementing arccosine in bc before finding this link, so it would have helped me greatly. --Dantheox 06:20, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
A paragraph and additional reference relating to the dialect C-BC have been added. -- Mark Hopkins, 5 February 2006
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[edit] Actual usage
It would be nice to see a list of its actual uses and users today.
Is it actually used by anyone for practical purposes? I've seen that it's called "an arbitrary precision calculator dating back from Unix stone age" (in the Parrot virtual machine source tree). --Amir E. Aharoni 11:01, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
- I may be a little biased, since I developed C-BC. But, in fact, I use the language more frequently than C, itself, because of its interpretative ability and high precision math. Often, I will also use it for prototyping C programs or for writing elaborate shell scripts. A link to the source code for the larger language C-BC was not provided on the main page. But a copy of the source can be found in alt.sources from October 3, 1993, by doing a search in Google's USENET archive (Google groups).
-- Mark, 13 September 2006
[edit] not everyone knows C
Can we drop the references to C.
I am sure this can be described without referencing a language many people don't know.
PS I use occasionally, but like most unix tools , I am sure I'd use it more if I udnerstood it better.
DGerman 00:05, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
- That would be a little difficult, since BC is based on C and was intently designed as a stripped down version of C, originally to provide a front-end for DC with a syntax more amenable for C programmers.
-- Mark, 12 December 2006
[edit] Requested move
Bc programming language → Bc (Unix) — The current article name doesnt conform to the naming conventions. Bc is a Unix command line utility and is not a complete programming language, so I consider Bc (Unix) to be a better move than Bc (programming language). John Vandenberg 02:45, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Survey
- Add # '''Support''' or # '''Oppose''' on a new line in the appropriate section followed by a brief explanation, then sign your opinion using ~~~~. Please remember that this survey is not a vote, and please provide an explanation for your recommendation.
[edit] Survey - in support of the move
[edit] Survey - in opposition to the move
[edit] Discussion
Are there non-unix implementations of bc? If so, that would resolve this immediately. bc is most certainly a complete programming language. It can be thought of as a simplified variant of C with built-in support for arbitrary-precision arithmetic. --dantheox 08:55, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
- I dont think that merely having non-unix implementations would be sufficient on its own. e.g. sort (Unix) is also part of MSYS. If there were pre-Unix impl. of bc, that would definately mean "(Unix)" isnt the right tail.
- OTOH, I'm not really overly concerned about what name is chosen, so I'm happy to go with bc (programming language) if you think that's the more reasonable name. John Vandenberg 09:41, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
