Re: dc and bc in Important?

[andersee@et.byu.edu (Erik B. Andersen)]

> 
> On Jun 23, John Goerzen wrote
> > It seems to me that dc and bc aren't vital to the workings of a
> > system (when I deselect them, dselect doesn't warn about any
> > dependencies), yet they are in Important.  Why?
> 
> In addition to what everyone else has said about what "Important"
> Really Means, please realize that bc/dc are ideal for doing 
> arithmetic in shell scripts.  [Sure, you can use awk, just as 
> you can use awk to replace grep -- but it's awkward.]
> 
> -- 
> Raul
> 

For most math, expr works just fine.  Of course, expr is limited
to integer math, but it works and is portable.

 -Erik

--
Erik B. Andersen   Web:    http://www.inconnect.com/~andersen/ 
                   email:  andersee@debian.org
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