On 10/1/19 8:32 PM, Dan Hitt wrote:
> I'm half-way looking for some shell wrappers for common trig functions like
> sin, cos, exp, log, and others.
>
> I'm aware of bc, but it seems cumbersome.
>
> I would like to just type 'sin 1' and get the sine (of 1 radian),
Perl one-liners are an option:
2019-10-01 19:25:59 dpchrist@tinkywinky ~
$ perl -e 'print sin 1'
0.841470984807897
> or type 'log 2'
2019-10-01 20:48:52 dpchrist@tinkywinky ~
$ perl -e 'print log 2'
0.693147180559945
> and get the natural or maybe common log of 2. (Probably any such
> program should do something intelligent when faced with multiple or zero
> arguments, such as computing the sine or log of each, so that they could be
> chained together. And maybe such a program would pay attention to
> environment variables or optional command line arguments to tune its
> behavior.)
>
> These kinds of programs would be super-easy to write in just about any
> language (i guess perhaps even just as bash functions which shell out to bc
> for at least some of the simpler functions) but before i actually do
> something like that, i wonder if somebody has already done it, whether
> there exist any standards or good ideas, etc. (Because if somebody has a
> good, thoughtful exp program, for example, then it could be cookie-cutter
> copied to a bunch of other functions.)
>
> There is a precedent of sorts in Paul Rubin's factor program, which is just
> oh-so-handy when you're wondering how an integer factors, but don't want to
> start up some heavy-weight system just to find out.
2019-10-01 20:49:17 dpchrist@tinkywinky ~
$ apt-cache search libmath-prime-util-perl
libmath-prime-util-perl - utilities related to prime numbers, including
fast sieves and factoring
> Thanks in advance for any pointers or advice! :)
>
> dan
David
Hi David,
Thanks so much for your reply, including the apt-cache searching part.
It does look like a way to quickly get values for sine (or any other function in perl).
However, i would like to dispense entirely with the 'perl -e' and 'print' part. I really would like stand-alone programs. This would absolutely minimize any typing, and if the programs had a set of good conventions, then they would provide a model for writing others if the functions i want are not already available in perl (or other interpreter).