NAME 
xcalc - scientific calculator for X
SYNOPSIS 
xcalc [-stipple] [-rpn] [-toolkitoption...]
DESCRIPTION 
xcalc is a scientific calculator desktop accessory that can
emulate a TI-30 or an HP-10C.
OPTIONS 
xcalc accepts all of the standard toolkit command line 
options along with two additional options:
-stipple 
This option indicates that the background of the 
calculator should be drawn using a stipple of the 
foreground and background colors. On monochrome 
displays improves the appearance.
-rpn This option indicates that
Reverse Polish Notation 
should be used. In this mode the calculator will 
look and behave like an HP-10C. Without this flag, 
it will emulate a TI-30.
OPERATION 
Pointer Usage: Operations may be performed with pointer but-
ton 1, or in some cases, with the keyboard. Many common cal-
culator operations have keyboard accelerators. To quit, 
press pointer button 3 on the AC key of the TI calculator,
or the ON key of the HP calculator.
Calculator Key Usage (TI mode):
The numbered keys, the +/- 
key, and the +, -, *, /, and = keys all do exactly what you
would expect them to. It should be noted that the operators
obey the standard rules of precedence. Thus, entering 
"3+4*5=" results in "23", not
"35". The parentheses can be 
used to override this. For example,
"(1+2+3)*(4+5+6)=" 
results in "6*15=90".
The entire number in the
calculator display can be selected, 
in order to paste the result of a calculation into text.
The action procedures associated
with each function are 
given below. These are useful if you are interested in 
defining a custom calculator. The action used for all digit
keys is digit(n), where n is the corresponding digit,
0..9.
1/x Replaces the number in the
display with its 
reciprocal. The corresponding action procedure is 
reciprocal().
x^2 Squares the number in the
display. The 
corresponding action procedure is square().
SQRT Takes the square root of
the number in the 
display. The corresponding action procedure is 
squareRoot().
CE/C When pressed once, clears
the number in the 
display without clearing the state of the machine. 
Allows you to re-enter a number if you make a mis- 
take. Pressing it twice clears the state, also. 
The corresponding action procedure for TI mode is 
clear().
AC Clears the display, the
state, and the memory. 
Pressing it with the third pointer button turns 
off the calculator, in that it exits the program. 
The action procedure to clear the state is off(); 
to quit, quit().
INV Invert function. See the
individual function keys 
for details. The corresponding action procedure 
is inverse().
sin Computes the sine of the
number in the display, as 
interpreted by the current DRG mode (see DRG, 
below). If inverted, it computes the arcsine. 
The corresponding action procedure is sine().
cos Computes the cosine, or
arccosine when inverted. 
The corresponding action procedure is cosine().
tan Computes the tangent, or
arctangent when inverted. 
The corresponding action procedure is tangent().
DRG Changes the DRG mode, as
indicated by ’DEG’, 
’RAD’, or ’GRAD’ at the bottom of of
the calcula- 
tor "liquid crystal" display. When in
’DEG’ 
mode, numbers in the display are taken as being 
degrees. In ’RAD’ mode, numbers are in radians,
and in ’GRAD’ mode, numbers are in grads. When
inverted, the DRG key has a feature of converting 
degrees to radians to grads and vice-versa. Exam- 
ple: put the calculator into ’DEG’ mode, and
enter "45 INV DRG". The display should now show
something along the lines of ".785398", which is
45 degrees converted to radians. The correspond- 
ing action procedure is degree().
e The constant ’e’.
(2.7182818...). The 
corresponding action procedure is e().
EE Used for entering exponential
numbers. For exam- 
ple, to get "-2.3E-4" you’d enter "2 .
3 +/- EE 4 
+/-". The corresponding action procedure is 
scientific().
log Calculates the log (base 10)
of the number in the 
display. When inverted, it raises "10.0" to the
number in the display. For example, entering "3 
INV log" should result in "1000". The
correspond- 
ing action procedure is logarithm().
ln Calculates the log (base e)
of the number in the 
display. When inverted, it raises "e" to the 
number in the display. For example, entering "e 
ln" should result in "1". The corresponding
action procedure is naturalLog().
y^x Raises the number on the
left to the power of the 
number on the right. For example "2 y^x 3 =" 
results in "8", which is 2^3. For a further exam-
ple, "(1+2+3) y^x (1+2) =" equals "6 y^x
3" which 
equals "216". The corresponding action procedure
is power().
PI The constant
’pi’. (3.1415927....) The 
corresponding action procedure is pi().
x! Computes the factorial of the
number in the 
display. The number in the display must be an 
integer in the range 0-500, though, depending on 
your math library, it might overflow long before 
that. The corresponding action procedure is fac- 
torial().
( Left parenthesis. The
corresponding action pro- 
cedure for TI calculators is leftParen().
) Right parenthesis. The
corresponding action pro- 
cedure for TI calculators is rightParen().
/ Division. The corresponding
action procedure is 
divide().
* Multiplication. The
corresponding action pro- 
cedure is multiply().
- Subtraction. The corresponding
action procedure 
is subtract().
+ Addition. The corresponding
action procedure is 
add().
= Perform calculation. The
TI-specific action pro- 
cedure is equal().
STO Copies the number in the
display to the memory 
location. The corresponding action procedure is 
store().
RCL Copies the number from the
memory location to the 
display. The corresponding action procedure is 
recall().
SUM Adds the number in the
display to the number in 
the memory location. The corresponding action 
procedure is sum().
EXC Swaps the number in the
display with the number in 
the memory location. The corresponding action 
procedure for the TI calculator is exchange().
+/- Negate; change sign. The
corresponding action 
procedure is negate().
. Decimal point. The action procedure is decimal().
Calculator Key Usage (RPN mode):
The number keys, CHS 
(change sign), +, -, *, /, and ENTR keys all do exactly what
you would expect them to do. Many of the remaining keys are
the same as in TI mode. The differences are detailed below.
The action procedure for the ENTR key is enter().
<- This is a backspace key
that can be used if you 
make a mistake while entering a number. It will 
erase digits from the display. (See BUGS). 
Inverse backspace will clear the X register. The 
corresponding action procedure is back().
ON Clears the display, the
state, and the memory. 
Pressing it with the third pointer button turns 
off the calculator, in that it exits the program. 
To clear state, the action procedure is off; to 
quit, quit().
INV Inverts the meaning of the
function keys. This 
would be the f key on an HP calculator, but xcalc 
does not display multiple legends on each key. 
See the individual function keys for details.
10^x Raises "10.0" to
the number in the top of the 
stack. When inverted, it calculates the log (base 
10) of the number in the display. The correspond- 
ing action procedure is tenpower().
e^x Raises "e" to the
number in the top of the stack. 
When inverted, it calculates the log (base e) of 
the number in the display. The action procedure 
is epower().
STO Copies the number in the top
of the stack to a 
memory location. There are 10 memory locations. 
The desired memory is specified by following this 
key with a digit key.
RCL Pushes the number from the
specified memory loca- 
tion onto the stack.
SUM Adds the number on top of
the stack to the number 
in the specified memory location.
x:y Exchanges the numbers in the
top two stack posi- 
tions, the X and Y registers. The corresponding 
action procedure is XexchangeY().
R v Rolls the stack downward.
When inverted, it rolls 
the stack upward. The corresponding action pro- 
cedure is roll().
blank These keys were used for
programming functions on 
the HP-10C. Their functionality has not been 
duplicated in xcalc.
Finally, there are two
additional action procedures: bell(), 
which rings the bell; and selection(), which performs a cut
on the entire number in the calculator’s "liquid
crystal" 
display.
ACCELERATORS 
Accelerators are shortcuts for entering commands. xcalc 
provides some sample keyboard accelerators; also users can
customize accelerators. The numeric keypad accelerators 
provided by xcalc should be intuitively correct. The 
accelerators defined by xcalc on the main keyboard are given
below:
TI Key HP Key Keyboard Accelerator TI Function HP Function
SQRT SQRT r squareRoot()
squareRoot() 
AC ON space clear() clear() 
AC <- Delete clear() back() 
AC <- Backspace clear() back() 
AC <- Control-H clear() back() 
AC Clear clear() 
AC ON q quit() quit() 
AC ON Control-C quit() quit()
INV i i inverse() inverse() 
sin s s sine() sine() 
cos c c cosine() cosine() 
tan t t tangent() tangent() 
DRG DRG d degree() degree()
e e e() 
ln ln l naturalLog() naturalLog() 
y^x y^x ^ power() power()
PI PI p pi() pi() 
x! x! ! factorial() factorial() 
( ( leftParen() 
) ) rightParen()
/ / / divide() divide() 
* * * multiply() multiply() 
- - - subtract() subtract() 
+ + + add() add() 
= = equal()
0..9 0..9 0..9 digit() digit()
. . . decimal() decimal() 
+/- CHS n negate() negate()
x:y x XexchangeY() 
ENTR Return enter() 
ENTR Linefeed enter()
CUSTOMIZATION 
The application class name is XCalc.
xcalc has an enormous
application defaults file which speci- 
fies the position, label, and function of each key on the
calculator. It also gives translations to serve as keyboard
accelerators. Because these resources are not specified in
the source code, you can create a customized calculator by
writing a private application defaults file, using the 
Athena Command and Form widget resources to specify the size
and position of buttons, the label for each button, and the
function of each button.
The foreground and background
colors of each calculator key 
can be individually specified. For the TI calculator, a 
classical color resource specification might be:
XCalc.ti.Command.background:
gray50 
XCalc.ti.Command.foreground: white
For each of buttons 20, 25, 30,
35, and 40, specify: 
XCalc.ti.button20.background: black 
XCalc.ti.button20.foreground: white
For each of buttons 22, 23, 24,
27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 37, 
38, and 39: 
XCalc.ti.button22.background: white 
XCalc.ti.button22.foreground: black
WIDGET HIERARCHY 
In order to specify resources, it is useful to know the 
hierarchy of the widgets which compose xcalc. In the 
notation below, indentation indicates hierarchical struc-
ture. The widget class name is given first, followed by the
widget instance name.
XCalc xcalc 
Form ti or hp (the name depends on the mode) 
Form bevel 
Form screen 
Label M 
Toggle LCD 
Label INV 
Label DEG 
Label RAD 
Label GRAD 
Label P 
Command button1 
Command button2 
Command button3 
and so on, ... 
Command button38 
Command button39 
Command button40
APPLICATION RESOURCES 
rpn (Class Rpn) 
Specifies that the rpn mode should be used. The 
default is TI mode.
stipple (Class Stipple) 
Indicates that the background should be stippled. 
The default is "on" for monochrome displays, and
"off" for color displays.
cursor (Class Cursor) 
The name of the symbol used to represent the 
pointer. The default is "hand2".
COLORS 
If you would like xcalc to use its ti colors, include the
following in the #ifdef COLOR section of the file you read
with xrdb:
*customization: -color
This will cause xcalc to pick up
the colors in the app- 
defaults color customization file:
<XRoot>/lib/X11/app- 
defaults/XCalc-color.
SEE ALSO 
X(1), xrdb(1), the Athena Widget Set
BUGS 
HP mode: A bug report claims that the sequence of keys 5,
ENTER, <- should clear the display, but it
doesn’t.
COPYRIGHT 
Copyright ([,*) X Consortium 
See X(1) for a full statement of rights and permissions.
AUTHORS 
John Bradley, University of Pennsylvania 
Mark Rosenstein, MIT Project Athena 
Donna Converse, MIT X Consortium