bionic (1) intercalc.1p.gz

NAME

       intercalc - CLC-INTERCAL desk calculator

SYNOPSIS

       intercalc [options]

DESCRIPTION

       intercalc is a simple desk calculator, allowing the user to enter INTERCAL statements (to see what they
       do) and expressions (to see what value they produce); it uses an interpreter object from CLC-INTERCAL to
       provide immediate feedback.

       The desk calculator accepts several options, some of which are documented here.

   User Interface Options
       -X / --graphic
           Enters X-based graphical user interface. Requires Perl-GTK. This is the default if Perl-GTK is
           installed, the environment variable $DISPLAY is set and the opening of the X display succeeds.

       -c / --curses
           Enters full screen, curses-based interface. This is the default if the X based interface cannot be
           started, the environment variable $TERM is set and the terminal name is known.

       --line
           Enters the line-mode user interface. This is the default if the X based and the curses based
           interfaces do not work.

           In this mode, the program executes each line from standard input according to the current mode and
           language, and prints results to standard output.  A line starting with a backspark is interpreted as
           a command to the calculator. Use backspark-g to GIVE UP (you'll need to do it twice), or backspark-h
           to display the ehm, help page. Things which are available via menu entries on the Curses and X
           interfaces are also available via the backspark. For now, you can refer to the source code for a
           list.

           Command-line editing and command history is provided by the readline library. Command completion
           works if the underlying compiler supports it (the compilers provided with the distributions do).

       --batch
           Avoids entering interactive mode. This is the default if the standard input and output are not
           connected to a terminal and the X based interface cannot be started. This mode is very similar to the
           line mode except that command-line editing and command history are not implemented. Backspark escapes
           work just the same.

       -itype / --interface=type
           Selects the user interface type. Currently, only X, Curses, Line and None are defined, but more can
           be installed as compiler plug-ins. If the interface selected is None, intercalc will work in batch
           mode. In addition, an empty string will reinstate the default behaviour.

   Source language and compilation options
       --bug=number
           Selects a different probability for the compiler bug. The compiler bug is implemented by initialising
           the compiler's state with the required probability: when a statement is compiled (usually at
           runtime), a "BUG" instruction is emitted with the required probability. The default is 1%.

       --ubug=number
           Selects a probability for the unexplainable compiler bug. This is the compiler bug which occurs when
           the probability of a (explainable) compiler bug is zero.  Only wimps would use this option. The
           default is 0.01%.

       -Ipath / --include=path
           Adds a directory before the standard search path for compiler objects and source code. If a file is
           accessible from the current directory, it is never searched in any include path.

           If this option is repeated, the given paths will be searched in the order given, followed by the
           standard paths.

       -llanguage / --language=language
           Selects the language to use when interpreting user input. This should correspond to the name of a
           compiler, which is an INTERCAL object which was originally built by iacc. Only the expression and
           statement parsers are used, so it is possible to test incomplete compilers by loading them into
           intercalc even if they don't work with sick. The default is obtained from the sickrc option
           .INTERCALC.LANGUAGE.

       --ooption ---option=option
           Adds a language option. For example, --o3 selects base 3 calculation, and --owimp selects wimp mode.
           If no options are provided, and the default language was taken from the sickrc file, the default
           options are taken from the sickrc file. Note that if an option or a language is specified on the
           command line, the sickrc defaults are ignored.

           Unlike previous versions of intercalc, this version checks that the options make sense in the context
           of the calculator; for example trying to load a compiler as an option will cause an error, but a
           compiler extension will be OK.

       -mmode / --mode=mode
           Select operation mode. Currently, the only valid modes are full, expr and one. See "Operating Modes".
           If this is not specified, the default is taken from the sickrc option ..INTERCALC.MODE.

   Misc Options
       -rname / --rcfile=name
           Executes commands from file name before starting to accept input.  This option can be repeated, to
           execute more than one file. If it is not specified, the standard library, the current directory, and
           the current user's home directory are searched for files with name system.sickrc or .sickrc, which
           are then executed. The order for this search is: specified library (--include), system library, home
           directory, current directory. This is different from the search order used when looking for objects
           or source code. If a directory contains both .sickrc and system.sickrc, the system.sickrc is executed
           first, followed by .sickrc. Also note that if the current directory or the home directory appear in
           the search path and contain one of these files, they will be executed twice.

           If filenames are explicitely specified, they must be fully qualified: the search path is not used to
           find them.

       --nouserrc
           Prevents loading a user rcfile (.sickrc); also limits loading of system.sickrc to the first one
           found. This option is normally only used when testing the installation, to prevent interference from
           previous versions of CLC-INTERCAL.

Operating Modes

       The calculator can operate in the following modes:

       full Fully functional INTERCAL interpreter.
            The calculator can parse and execute any statement or expression.

            Statements are compiled as a one-statement program, and executed; any register value etc. will be
            preserved between statements, so entering a list of statements is equivalent to running a program in
            which all these statements are executed in sequence.

            It is important to note that some statements will not execute in the normal manner. For example, a
            COME FROM will be parsed but have no effect, unless it is something like:

                (1) PLEASE COME FROM (1)

            which causes the calculator to hang. On the other hand, an ABSTAIN FROM or a REINSTATE will work as
            expected, as will CREATE and DESTROY.  A GIVE UP does not cause the calculator to terminate. One
            final difference is that comments are not parsed, and therefore you get a "Syntax Error" from the
            calculator rather than a splat *000 from the INTERCAL interpreter.

            For expressions, the calculator READs OUT the expression's result.  Any side effects will be
            remembered, so if the expression contains overloads they will remain to haunt the calculator.

       expr INTERCAL expression interpreter
            The calculator can only parse expressions or assignments. In either case, the calculated values are
            READ OUT; assignments will also store the value to the destination, while expressions will then
            discard the result.

       oic The One Instruction Calculator.
            This is something we've made up one early morning while discussing desk calculators (as one does).
            It is not INTERCAL at all, in fact it is inspired from the One Instruction Set Computer.

            The calculator has a number of memories (default 100 - these can be changed by appending a number to
            the operating mode, for example oic10 will use a 10-memory calculator). These memories are
            identified by the letter m followed by a number; in the default 100-memory version, the first two
            digits after m are the memory, and any subsequent digit forms part of the next operand. At the
            start, all memories are initialised to 0.

            Since there is only one operation, there is no need to specify it, so an "operation" is a sequence
            of three operands and a result. The result must be a memory, while each operand can be a number or a
            memory, with the limitation that consecutive numbers are acceptable only if the parser can determine
            where one ends and the next one starts. So for example "1-0" is two numeric operands, 1 and -0 (aka
            0); "1.2.3" is also two operands, 1.2 and 3; "12" is a single operand, even if you intended it to be
            two operands, 1 and 2, and even if you put spaces: "1 2" is still interpreted as the single operand
            12.

            The operation performed is the difference between the first two operands, divided by the third. For
            example, the three operations:

                7 m01 2 M01
                1 m02 1 m02
                m1 .5 m2 m03

            will produce results m01=3.5 ((7-0)/2); m02=1 ((1-0)/1); m03=3 ((3.5-.5)/1).  and will produce the
            following output if the calculator is running in batch mode:

                m01                  3.5     (7 - m01) / 2
                m02                    1     (1 - m02) / 1
                m03                    3     (m01 - .5) / m02

SEE ALSO

       The INTERCAL on-line documentation, by running intercalc and finding the "help" menu or key (X and
       Curses) or backspark escape (Line and None).