Bug#173433: xbase-clients: [xcalc] RPN stack behaviour is wrong
Package: xbase-clients
Version: 4.2.1-4
Severity: normal
Tags: upstream
The following calculations should all give 21, but give different
results:
Operations to carry out xcalc result
------------------------------------------------------
9.8 Enter 2 * 0.7 Enter 2 * + 21
2 Enter 9.8 * 0.7 Enter 2 * + 21
9.8 Enter 2 * 2 Enter 0.7 * + 3.4
2 Enter 9.8 * 2 Enter 0.7 * + 3.4
The latter two cases are definitely wrong. It seems that the xcalc
result is taken from something like '2 Enter 2 Enter 0.7 * +' i.e. it
seems that the '2' is pushed onto the stack 2 times. It is strange
however, that this is not the case in the former two cases (the result
should have been 2.1 then, instead of 21).
A possibly related bug report is 93665. This bug report is already 1
year and 250 days old and sent upstream. Apparently, upstream does not
intend to fix this bug.
If you ask me, this application (xcalc) should be removed if possible
(I don't know how it fits into the build system for xbase-clients as a
whole) as with these two bug reports, I consider this application
useless because the results cannot be trusted. Anyway, there are lots
of other calculators in Debian: dc, rpncalc, bc, ... .
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux pluto 2.4.17 #1 Fri Jan 18 21:13:29 CET 2002 i686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C
Versions of packages xbase-clients depends on:
ii cpp 2:2.95.4-17 The GNU C preprocessor.
ii debconf 1.2.12 Debian configuration management sy
ii libc6 2.3.1-3 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii libdps1 4.2.1-3 Display PostScript (DPS) client li
ii libfreetype6 2.1.2-10 FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii libncurses5 5.3.20021109-1 Shared libraries for terminal hand
ii libxaw7 4.2.1-3 X Athena widget set library
ii mesag3 [libgl1] 3.4.2.1-4 A 3-D graphics library which uses
ii xlibs 4.2.1-3 X Window System client libraries
-- debconf information excluded
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