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@@ -1,19 +1,58 @@ -mate-calc GTK3 version +# Introduction. -1. Introduction. ----------------- +This is `mate-calc`, a fork of `gnome-calc`, the calculator application +that was previously in the OpenWindows Deskset of the Solaris 8 +operating system. -This is mate-calc, a fork of gnome-calc, the calculator application that was -previously in the OpenWindows Deskset of the Solaris 8 operating system. - -It incorporates a multiple precision arithmetic packages based on the work -of Professor Richard Brent, who has also kindly given me permission to make -it available. +It incorporates a multiple precision arithmetic packages based on the +work of Professor Richard Brent, who has also kindly given me +permission to make it available. There is a single graphics driver for Gtk3 included with this release. +## Getting started. + +The manual pages also describe how to use `mate-calc` in detail. + + +## Calctool history. + +Calctool was a project I worked on before I joined the OpenWindows +DeskSet engineering group at Sun. It was originally released to +comp.sources.unix in the late 1980's, and worked with many different +graphics packages including SunView, X11, Xview, NeWS and MGR. There +was also a version that worked on dumb tty terminals. + +It used a double-precision maths library that was a combination of the +work of Fred Fish and various routines that were in the BSD 4.3 maths +library. + +A lot of people in the community provided feedback in the form of +comments, bug reports and fixes. In 1990, I started working in the +DeskSet engineering group. I was working for Sun Microsystems in +Australia at the time, (having moved there from England in 1983). + +I searched around looking for multiple precision maths libraries and +found a package called MP written in FORTRAN by Richard Brent. I +converted it to C, adjusted the glue between the resultant code and the +calctool code, and this went on to be the basis of the calculator that +was in the OpenWindows DeskSet. I also added scientific, financial and +logical modes. This calctool was also the basis of the dtcalc +application that is a part of CDE (albeit I had nothing to do with +that). + +With its inclusion in the MATE CVS repository, it was renamed to +`mate-calc`. + +More recently, Sami Pietila provided arithmetic precedence support and +Robert Ancell converted the UI to use Glade. + + +## Acknowledgements. + +See the AUTHORS file. -2. Getting started. -------------------- +Suggestions for further improvement would be most welcome, plus bug +reports and comments. -The manual pages also describe how to use mate-calc in detail. +The Mate Team.
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