xref: /freebsd/contrib/bc/NEWS.md (revision 2b833162)
1# News
2
3## 6.4.0
4
5This is a production release that fixes a `read()`/`?` bug and adds features to
6`bcl`.
7
8The bug was that multiple read calls could repeat old data.
9
10The new features in `bcl` are functions to preserve `BclNumber` arguments and
11not free them.
12
13***WARNING for `bcl` Users***: The `bcl_rand_seedWithNum()` function used to not
14consume its arguments. Now it does. This change could have made this version
15`7.0.0`, but I'm 99.9% confident that there are no `bcl` users, or if there are,
16they probably don't use the PRNG. So I took a risk and didn't update the major
17version.
18
19`bcl` now includes more capacity to check for invalid numbers when built to run
20under Valgrind.
21
22## 6.3.1
23
24This is a production release that fixes a `bc` dependency loop for minimal
25environments and Linux from Scratch.
26
27## 6.3.0
28
29This is a production release with a couple of fixes for manuals and a new
30feature for `dc`: there is now a command to query whether extended registers are
31enabled or not.
32
33Users who don't care do not need to upgrade.
34
35## 6.2.6
36
37This is a production release that fixes an install bug that affected locale
38installation of all locales when using `mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to
39upgrade if they don't use `mksh` and/or don't need to install all locales.
40
41## 6.2.5
42
43This is a production release that fixes a test bug that affected Android and
44`mksh`. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade unless they use `mksh` or another
45affected shell and need to run the test suite.
46
47## 6.2.4
48
49This is a production release that fixes a test failure that happens when
50`tests/bc/scripts/timeconst.bc` doesn't exist. This should only affect
51packagers.
52
53This bug happened because I forgot something I added in the previous release:
54better error checking in tests to help packagers. Unfortunately, I was too
55zealous with the error checking.
56
57## 6.2.3
58
59This is a production release that moves `bc` to <https://git.gavinhoward.com>.
60
61That's all it does: update links. Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade; there are
62redirects that will stay in place indefinitely. This release is only for new
63users.
64
65## 6.2.2
66
67This is a production release that fixes a bug.
68
69The bug was that if an array element was used as a parameter, and then a later
70parameter had the same name as the array whose element was used, `bc` would grab
71the element from the new array parameter, not the actual element from before the
72function call.
73
74## 6.2.1
75
76This is a production release with one bug fix for a memory bug in history.
77
78## 6.2.0
79
80This is a production release with a new feature and a few bug fixes.
81
82The bug fixes include:
83
84* A crash when `bc` and `dc` are built using editline, but history is not
85  activated.
86* A missing local in the `uint*()` family of functions in the extended math
87  library.
88* A failure to clear the tail call list in `dc` on error.
89* A crash when attempting to swap characters in command-line history when no
90  characters exist.
91* `SIGWINCH` was activated even when history was not.
92
93The new feature is that stack traces are now given for runtime errors. In debug
94mode, the C source file and line of errors are given as well.
95
96## 6.1.1
97
98This is a production release that fixes a build issue with predefined builds and
99generated tests.
100
101## 6.1.0
102
103This is a production release that fixes a discrepancy from the `bc` standard,
104a couple of memory bugs, and adds new features.
105
106The discrepancy from the `bc` standard was with regards to the behavior of the
107`quit` command. This `bc` used to quit whenever it encountered `quit` during
108parsing, even if it was parsing a full file. Now, `bc` only quits when
109encountering `quit` *after* it has executed all executable statements up to that
110point.
111
112This behavior is slightly different from GNU `bc`, but users will only notice
113the difference if they put `quit` on the same line as other statements.
114
115The first memory bug could be reproduced by assigning a string to a non-local
116variable in a function, then redefining the function with use of the same
117non-local variable, which would still refer to a string in the previous version
118of the function.
119
120The second memory bug was caused by passing an array argument to the `asciify()`
121built-in function. In certain cases, that was wrongly allowed, and the
122interpreter just assumed everything was correct and accessed memory. Now that
123arrays are allowed as arguments (see below), this is not an issue.
124
125The first feature was the addition of the `is_number()` built-in function (`u`
126in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a number and 0 otherwise.
127
128The second feature was the addition of the `is_string()` built-in function (`t`
129in `dc`) that returns 1 if the runtime argument is a string and 0 otherwise.
130
131These features were added because I realized that type-checking is necessary now
132that strings can be assigned to variables in `bc` and because they've always
133been assignable to variables in `dc`.
134
135The last added feature is the ability of the `asciify()` built-in function in
136`bc` to convert a full array of numbers into a string. This means that
137character-by-character printing will not be necessary, and more strings than
138just single-character ones will be able to be created.
139
140## 6.0.4
141
142This is a production release that most users will not need to upgrade to.
143
144This fixes a build bug for `bcl` only on OpenBSD. Users that do not need `bcl`
145or have not run into build errors with `bcl` do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
146
147## 6.0.3
148
149This is a production release that fixes a build bug for cross-compilation.
150
151Users that do not need cross-compilation do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
152
153## 6.0.2
154
155This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
156
157* The `-l` option overrode the `-S` option.
158* A double-free and crash when sending a `SIGINT` while executing expressions
159  given on the command-line.
160
161## 6.0.1
162
163This is a production release that fixes memory bugs and memory leaks in `bcl`.
164
165Users that do not use `bcl` (use only `bc` and/or `dc`) do ***NOT*** need to
166upgrade.
167
168These happened because I was unaware that the `bcl` test was not hooked into the
169Valgrind test infrastructure. Then, when I ran the release script, which tests
170everything under Valgrind (or so I thought), it caught nothing, and I thought it
171was safe.
172
173But it was not.
174
175Nevertheless, I have now run it under Valgrind and fixed all of the memory bugs
176(caused by not using `memset()` where I should have but previously didn't have
177to) and memory leaks.
178
179## 6.0.0
180
181This is a production release that fixes an oversight in the `bc` parser (that
182sometimes caused the wrong error message) and adds a feature for compatibility
183with the BSD `bc` and `dc`: turning off digit clamping when parsing numbers.
184
185The default for clamping can be set during the build (see the [build
186manual][13]), it can be set with the `BC_DIGIT_CLAMP` and `DC_DIGIT_CLAMP`
187environment variables, and it can be set with the `-c` and `-C` command-line
188options.
189
190Turning off clamping was also added to the `bcl` library.
191
192In addition, signal handling was removed from the `bcl` library in order to add
193the capability for multi-threading. This required a major version bump. I
194apologize to all library users (I don't know of any), but signals and threads do
195not play well together.
196
197To help with building, a convenience option (`-p`) to `configure.sh` was added
198to build a `bc` and `dc` that is by default compatible with either the BSD `bc`
199and `dc` or the GNU `bc` and `dc`.
200
201## 5.3.3
202
203This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
204system.
205
206All other users do **NOT** need to upgrade.
207
208## 5.3.2
209
210This is a production release that fixes prompt bugs with editline and readline
211where the `BC_PROMPT` environment variable was not being respected.
212
213This also fixes editline and readline output on `EOF`.
214
215## 5.3.1
216
217This is a production release that fixes a build problem in the FreeBSD base
218system, as well as a problem in the `en_US` locale. If you don't have problems
219with either, you do not need to upgrade.
220
221## 5.3.0
222
223This is a production release that adds features and has a few bug fixes.
224
225First, support for editline and readline history has been added. To use
226editline, pass `-e` to `configure.sh`, and to use readline, pass `-r`.
227
228Second, history support for Windows has been fixed and re-enabled.
229
230Third, command-line options to set `scale`, `ibase`, `obase`, and `seed` were
231added. This was requested long ago, and I originally disagreed with the idea.
232
233Fourth, the manuals had typos and were missing information. That has been fixed.
234
235Fifth, the manuals received different formatting to be more readable as
236manpages.
237
238## 5.2.5
239
240This is a production release that fixes this `bc`'s behavior on `^D` to match
241GNU `bc`.
242
243## 5.2.4
244
245This is a production release that fixes two bugs in history:
246
247* Without prompt, the cursor could not be placed on the first character in a
248  line.
249* Home and End key handling in `tmux` was fixed.
250
251Any users that do not care about these improvements do not need to upgrade.
252
253## 5.2.3
254
255This is a production release that fixes one bug, a parse error when passing a
256file to `bc` using `-f` if that file had a multiline comment or string in it.
257
258## 5.2.2
259
260This is a production release that fixes one bug, a segmentation fault if
261`argv[0]` equals `NULL`.
262
263This is not a critical bug; there will be no vulnerability as far as I can tell.
264There is no need to update if you do not wish to.
265
266## 5.2.1
267
268This is a production release that fixes two parse bugs when in POSIX standard
269mode. One of these bugs was due to a quirk of the POSIX grammar, and the other
270was because `bc` was too strict.
271
272## 5.2.0
273
274This is a production release that adds a new feature, fixes some bugs, and adds
275out-of-source builds and a `pkg-config` file for `bcl`.
276
277The new feature is the ability to turn off exiting on expressions. It is also
278possible to set the default using `configure.sh`. This behavior used to exist
279with the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variable, which is now used again.
280
281Bugs fixed include:
282
283* Some possible race conditions with error handling.
284* Install and uninstall targets for `bcl` did not work.
285
286## 5.1.1
287
288This is a production release that completes a bug fix from `5.1.0`. The bug
289exists in all versions of `bc`.
290
291The bug was that `if` statements without `else` statements would not be handled
292correctly at the end of files or right before a function definition.
293
294## 5.1.0
295
296This is a production release with some fixes and new features.
297
298* Fixed a bug where an `if` statement without an `else` before defining a
299  function caused an error.
300* Fixed a bug with the `bc` banner and `-q`.
301* Fixed a bug on Windows where files were not read correctly.
302* Added a command-line flag (`-z`) to make `bc` and `dc` print leading zeroes on
303  numbers `-1 < x < 1`.
304* Added four functions to `lib2.bc` (`plz()`, `plznl()`, `pnlz()`, and
305  `pnlznl()`) to allow printing numbers with or without leading zeros, despite
306  the use of `-z` or not.
307* Added builtin functions to query global state like line length, global stacks,
308  and leading zeroes.
309* Added a command-line flag (`-L`) to disable wrapping when printing numbers.
310* Improved builds on Windows.
311
312## 5.0.2
313
314This is a production release with one fix for a flaky test. If you have not
315experienced problems with the test suite, you do ***NOT*** need to upgrade.
316
317The test was one that tested whether `bc` fails gracefully when it can't
318allocate memory. Unfortunately, there are cases when Linux and FreeBSD lie and
319pretend to allocate the memory.
320
321The reason they do this is because a lot of programs don't use all of the memory
322they allocate, so those OS's usually get away with it.
323
324However, this `bc` uses all of the memory it allocates (at least at page
325granularity), so when it tries to use the memory, FreeBSD and Linux kill it.
326
327This only happens sometimes, however. Other times (on my machine), they do, in
328fact, refuse the request.
329
330So I changed the test to not test for that because I think the graceful failure
331code won't really change much.
332
333## 5.0.1
334
335This is a production release with two fixes:
336
337* Fix for the build on Mac OSX.
338* Fix for the build on Android.
339
340Users that do not use those platforms do ***NOT*** need to update.
341
342## 5.0.0
343
344This is a major production release with several changes:
345
346* Added support for OpenBSD's `pledge()` and `unveil()`.
347* Fixed print bug where a backslash newline combo was printed even if only one
348  digit was left, something I blindly copied from GNU `bc`, like a fool.
349* Fixed bugs in the manuals.
350* Fixed a possible multiplication overflow in power.
351* Temporary numbers are garbage collected if allocation fails, and the
352  allocation is retried. This is to make `bc` and `dc` more resilient to running
353  out of memory.
354* Limited the number of temporary numbers and made the space for them static so
355  that allocating more space for them cannot fail.
356* Allowed integers with non-zero `scale` to be used with power, places, and
357  shift operators.
358* Added greatest common divisor and least common multiple to `lib2.bc`.
359* Added `SIGQUIT` handling to history.
360* Added a command to `dc` (`y`) to get the length of register stacks.
361* Fixed multi-digit bugs in `lib2.bc`.
362* Removed the no prompt build option.
363* Created settings that builders can set defaults for and users can set their
364  preferences for. This includes the `bc` banner, resetting on `SIGINT`, TTY
365  mode, and prompt.
366* Added history support to Windows.
367* Fixed bugs with the handling of register names in `dc`.
368* Fixed bugs with multi-line comments and strings in both calculators.
369* Added a new error type and message for `dc` when register stacks don't have
370  enough items.
371* Optimized string allocation.
372* Made `bc` and `dc` UTF-8 capable.
373* Fixed a bug with `void` functions.
374* Fixed a misspelled symbol in `bcl`. This is technically a breaking change,
375  which requires this to be `5.0.0`.
376* Added the ability for users to get the copyright banner back.
377* Added the ability for users to have `bc` and `dc` quit on `SIGINT`.
378* Added the ability for users to disable prompt and TTY mode by environment
379  variables.
380* Added the ability for users to redefine keywords. This is another reason this
381  is `5.0.0`.
382* Added `dc`'s modular exponentiation and divmod to `bc`.
383* Added the ability to assign strings to variables and array elements and pass
384  them to functions in `bc`.
385* Added `dc`'s asciify command and stream printing to `bc`.
386* Added a command to `dc` (`Y`) to get the length of an array.
387* Added a command to `dc` (`,`) to get the depth of the execution stack.
388* Added bitwise and, or, xor, left shift, right shift, reverse, left rotate,
389  right rotate, and mod functions to `lib2.bc`.
390* Added the functions `s2u(x)` and `s2un(x,n)`, to `lib2.bc`.
391
392## 4.0.2
393
394This is a production release that fixes two bugs:
395
3961.	If no files are used and the first statement on `stdin` is invalid, `scale`
397	would not be set to `20` even if `-l` was used.
3982.	When using history, `bc` failed to respond properly to `SIGSTOP` and
399	`SIGTSTP`.
400
401## 4.0.1
402
403This is a production release that only adds one thing: flushing output when it
404is printed with a print statement.
405
406## 4.0.0
407
408This is a production release with many fixes, a new command-line option, and a
409big surprise:
410
411* A bug was fixed in `dc`'s `P` command where the item on the stack was *not*
412  popped.
413* Various bugs in the manuals have been fixed.
414* A known bug was fixed where history did not interact well with prompts printed
415  by user code without newlines.
416* A new command-line option, `-R` and `--no-read-prompt` was added to disable
417  just the prompt when using `read()` (`bc`) or `?` (`dc`).
418* And finally, **official support for Windows was added**.
419
420The last item is why this is a major version bump.
421
422Currently, only one set of build options (extra math and prompt enabled, history
423and NLS/locale support disabled, both calculators enabled) is supported on
424Windows. However, both debug and release builds are supported.
425
426In addition, Windows builds are supported for the the library (`bcl`).
427
428For more details about how to build on Windows, see the [README][5] or the
429[build manual][13].
430
431## 3.3.4
432
433This is a production release that fixes a small bug.
434
435The bug was that output was not flushed before a `read()` call, so prompts
436without a newline on the end were not flushed before the `read()` call.
437
438This is such a tiny bug that users only need to upgrade if they are affected.
439
440## 3.3.3
441
442This is a production release with one tweak and fixes for manuals.
443
444The tweak is that `length(0)` returns `1` instead of `0`. In `3.3.1`, I changed
445it so `length(0.x)`, where `x` could be any number of digits, returned the
446`scale`, but `length(0)` still returned `0` because I believe that `0` has `0`
447significant digits.
448
449After request of FreeBSD and considering the arguments of a mathematician,
450compatibility with other `bc`'s, and the expectations of users, I decided to
451make the change.
452
453The fixes for manuals fixed a bug where `--` was rendered as `-`.
454
455## 3.3.2
456
457This is a production release that fixes a divide-by-zero bug in `root()` in the
458[extended math library][16]. All previous versions with `root()` have the bug.
459
460## 3.3.1
461
462This is a production release that fixes a bug.
463
464The bug was in the reporting of number length when the value was 0.
465
466## 3.3.0
467
468This is a production release that changes one behavior and fixes documentation
469bugs.
470
471The changed behavior is the treatment of `-e` and `-f` when given through
472`BC_ENV_ARGS` or `DC_ENV_ARGS`. Now `bc` and `dc` do not exit when those options
473(or their equivalents) are given through those environment variables. However,
474`bc` and `dc` still exit when they or their equivalents are given on the
475command-line.
476
477## 3.2.7
478
479This is a production release that removes a small non-portable shell operation
480in `configure.sh`. This problem was only noticed on OpenBSD, not FreeBSD or
481Linux.
482
483Non-OpenBSD users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, although NetBSD users may also
484need to upgrade.
485
486## 3.2.6
487
488This is a production release that fixes the build on FreeBSD.
489
490There was a syntax error in `configure.sh` that the Linux shell did not catch,
491and FreeBSD depends on the existence of `tests/all.sh`.
492
493All users that already upgraded to `3.2.5` should update to this release, with
494my apologies for the poor release of `3.2.5`. Other users should skip `3.2.5` in
495favor of this version.
496
497## 3.2.5
498
499This is a production release that fixes several bugs and adds a couple small
500things.
501
502The two most important bugs were bugs that causes `dc` to access memory
503out-of-bounds (crash in debug builds). This was found by upgrading to `afl++`
504from `afl`. Both were caused by a failure to distinguish between the same two
505cases.
506
507Another bug was the failure to put all of the licenses in the `LICENSE.md` file.
508
509Third, some warnings by `scan-build` were found and eliminated. This needed one
510big change: `bc` and `dc` now bail out as fast as possible on fatal errors
511instead of unwinding the stack.
512
513Fourth, the pseudo-random number now attempts to seed itself with `/dev/random`
514if `/dev/urandom` fails.
515
516Finally, this release has a few quality-of-life changes to the build system. The
517usage should not change at all; the only thing that changed was making sure the
518`Makefile.in` was written to rebuild properly when headers changed and to not
519rebuild when not necessary.
520
521## 3.2.4
522
523This is a production release that fixes a warning on `gcc` 6 or older, which
524does not have an attribute that is used.
525
526Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade if they don't use `gcc` 6 or older.
527
528## 3.2.3
529
530This is a production release that fixes a bug in `gen/strgen.sh`. I recently
531changed `gen/strgen.c`, but I did not change `gen/strgen.sh`.
532
533Users that do not use `gen/strgen.sh` do not need to upgrade.
534
535## 3.2.2
536
537This is a production release that fixes a portability bug in `configure.sh`. The
538bug was using the GNU `find` extension `-wholename`.
539
540## 3.2.1
541
542This is a production release that has one fix for `bcl(3)`. It is technically
543not a bug fix since the behavior is undefined, but the `BclNumber`s that
544`bcl_divmod()` returns will be set to `BCL_ERROR_INVALID_NUM` if there is an
545error. Previously, they were not set.
546
547## 3.2.0
548
549This is a production release that has one bug fix and a major addition.
550
551The bug fix was a missing `auto` variable in the bessel `j()` function in the
552math library.
553
554The major addition is a way to build a version of `bc`'s math code as a library.
555This is done with the `-a` option to `configure.sh`. The API for the library can
556be read in `./manuals/bcl.3.md` or `man bcl` once the library is installed with
557`make install`.
558
559This library was requested by developers before I even finished version 1.0, but
560I could not figure out how to do it until now.
561
562If the library has API breaking changes, the major version of `bc` will be
563incremented.
564
565## 3.1.6
566
567This is a production release that fixes a new warning from Clang 12 for FreeBSD
568and also removes some possible undefined behavior found by UBSan that compilers
569did not seem to take advantage of.
570
571Users do ***NOT*** need to upgrade, if they do not want to.
572
573## 3.1.5
574
575This is a production release that fixes the Chinese locales (which caused `bc`
576to crash) and a crash caused by `bc` executing code when it should not have been
577able to.
578
579***ALL USERS SHOULD UPGRADE.***
580
581## 3.1.4
582
583This is a production release that fixes one bug, changes two behaviors, and
584removes one environment variable.
585
586The bug is like the one in the last release except it applies if files are being
587executed. I also made the fix more general.
588
589The behavior that was changed is that `bc` now exits when given `-e`, `-f`,
590`--expression` or `--file`. However, if the last one of those is `-f-` (using
591`stdin` as the file), `bc` does not exit. If `-f-` exists and is not the last of
592the `-e` and `-f` options (and equivalents), `bc` gives a fatal error and exits.
593
594Next, I removed the `BC_EXPR_EXIT` and `DC_EXPR_EXIT` environment variables
595since their use is not needed with the behavior change.
596
597Finally, I made it so `bc` does not print the header, though the `-q` and
598`--quiet` options were kept for compatibility with GNU `bc`.
599
600## 3.1.3
601
602This is a production release that fixes one minor bug: if `bc` was invoked like
603the following, it would error:
604
605```
606echo "if (1 < 3) 1" | bc
607```
608
609Unless users run into this bug, they do not need to upgrade, but it is suggested
610that they do.
611
612## 3.1.2
613
614This is a production release that adds a way to install *all* locales. Users do
615***NOT*** need to upgrade.
616
617For package maintainers wishing to make use of the change, just pass `-l` to
618`configure.sh`.
619
620## 3.1.1
621
622This is a production release that adds two Spanish locales. Users do ***NOT***
623need to upgrade, unless they want those locales.
624
625## 3.1.0
626
627This is a production release that adjusts one behavior, fixes eight bugs, and
628improves manpages for FreeBSD. Because this release fixes bugs, **users and
629package maintainers should update to this version as soon as possible**.
630
631The behavior that was adjusted was how code from the `-e` and `-f` arguments
632(and equivalents) were executed. They used to be executed as one big chunk, but
633in this release, they are now executed line-by-line.
634
635The first bug fix in how output to `stdout` was handled in `SIGINT`. If a
636`SIGINT` came in, the `stdout` buffer was not correctly flushed. In fact, a
637clean-up function was not getting called. This release fixes that bug.
638
639The second bug is in how `dc` handled input from `stdin`. This affected `bc` as
640well since it was a mishandling of the `stdin` buffer.
641
642The third fixed bug was that `bc` and `dc` could `abort()` (in debug mode) when
643receiving a `SIGTERM`. This one was a race condition with pushing and popping
644items onto and out of vectors.
645
646The fourth bug fixed was that `bc` could leave extra items on the stack and
647thus, not properly clean up some memory. (The memory would still get
648`free()`'ed, but it would not be `free()`'ed when it could have been.)
649
650The next two bugs were bugs in `bc`'s parser that caused crashes when executing
651the resulting code.
652
653The last two bugs were crashes in `dc` that resulted from mishandling of
654strings.
655
656The manpage improvement was done by switching from [ronn][20] to [Pandoc][21] to
657generate manpages. Pandoc generates much cleaner manpages and doesn't leave
658blank lines where they shouldn't be.
659
660## 3.0.3
661
662This is a production release that adds one new feature: specific manpages.
663
664Before this release, `bc` and `dc` only used one manpage each that referred to
665various build options. This release changes it so there is one manpage set per
666relevant build type. Each manual only has information about its particular
667build, and `configure.sh` selects the correct set for install.
668
669## 3.0.2
670
671This is a production release that adds `utf8` locale symlinks and removes an
672unused `auto` variable from the `ceil()` function in the [extended math
673library][16].
674
675Users do ***NOT*** need to update unless they want the locales.
676
677## 3.0.1
678
679This is a production release with two small changes. Users do ***NOT*** need to
680upgrade to this release; however, if they haven't upgraded to `3.0.0` yet, it
681may be worthwhile to upgrade to this release.
682
683The first change is fixing a compiler warning on FreeBSD with strict warnings
684on.
685
686The second change is to make the new implementation of `ceil()` in `lib2.bc`
687much more efficient.
688
689## 3.0.0
690
691*Notes for package maintainers:*
692
693*First, the `2.7.0` release series saw a change in the option parsing. This made
694me change one error message and add a few others. The error message that was
695changed removed one format specifier. This means that `printf()` will seqfault
696on old locale files. Unfortunately, `bc` cannot use any locale files except the
697global ones that are already installed, so it will use the previous ones while
698running tests during install. **If `bc` segfaults while running arg tests when
699updating, it is because the global locale files have not been replaced. Make
700sure to either prevent the test suite from running on update or remove the old
701locale files before updating.** (Removing the locale files can be done with
702`make uninstall` or by running the [`locale_uninstall.sh`][22] script.) Once
703this is done, `bc` should install without problems.*
704
705*Second, **the option to build without signal support has been removed**. See
706below for the reasons why.*
707
708This is a production release with some small bug fixes, a few improvements,
709three major bug fixes, and a complete redesign of `bc`'s error and signal
710handling. **Users and package maintainers should update to this version as soon
711as possible.**
712
713The first major bug fix was in how `bc` executed files. Previously, a whole file
714was parsed before it was executed, but if a function is defined *after* code,
715especially if the function definition was actually a redefinition, and the code
716before the definition referred to the previous function, this `bc` would replace
717the function before executing any code. The fix was to make sure that all code
718that existed before a function definition was executed.
719
720The second major bug fix was in `bc`'s `lib2.bc`. The `ceil()` function had a
721bug where a `0` in the decimal place after the truncation position, caused it to
722output the wrong numbers if there was any non-zero digit after.
723
724The third major bug is that when passing parameters to functions, if an
725expression included an array (not an array element) as a parameter, it was
726accepted, when it should have been rejected. It is now correctly rejected.
727
728Beyond that, this `bc` got several improvements that both sped it up, improved
729the handling of signals, and improved the error handling.
730
731First, the requirements for `bc` were pushed back to POSIX 2008. `bc` uses one
732function, `strdup()`, which is not in POSIX 2001, and it is in the X/Open System
733Interfaces group 2001. It is, however, in POSIX 2008, and since POSIX 2008 is
734old enough to be supported anywhere that I care, that should be the requirement.
735
736Second, the BcVm global variable was put into `bss`. This actually slightly
737reduces the size of the executable from a massive code shrink, and it will stop
738`bc` from allocating a large set of memory when `bc` starts.
739
740Third, the default Karatsuba length was updated from 64 to 32 after making the
741optimization changes below, since 32 is going to be better than 64 after the
742changes.
743
744Fourth, Spanish translations were added.
745
746Fifth, the interpreter received a speedup to make performance on non-math-heavy
747scripts more competitive with GNU `bc`. While improvements did, in fact, get it
748much closer (see the [benchmarks][19]), it isn't quite there.
749
750There were several things done to speed up the interpreter:
751
752First, several small inefficiencies were removed. These inefficiencies included
753calling the function `bc_vec_pop(v)` twice instead of calling
754`bc_vec_npop(v, 2)`. They also included an extra function call for checking the
755size of the stack and checking the size of the stack more than once on several
756operations.
757
758Second, since the current `bc` function is the one that stores constants and
759strings, the program caches pointers to the current function's vectors of
760constants and strings to prevent needing to grab the current function in order
761to grab a constant or a string.
762
763Third, `bc` tries to reuse `BcNum`'s (the internal representation of
764arbitary-precision numbers). If a `BcNum` has the default capacity of
765`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` (32 on 64-bit and 16 on 32-bit) when it is freed, it is added
766to a list of available `BcNum`'s. And then, when a `BcNum` is allocated with a
767capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` and any `BcNum`'s exist on the list of reusable
768ones, one of those ones is grabbed instead.
769
770In order to support these changes, the `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` was changed. It used to
771be 16 bytes on all systems, but it was changed to more closely align with the
772minimum allocation size on Linux, which is either 32 bytes (64-bit musl), 24
773bytes (64-bit glibc), 16 bytes (32-bit musl), or 12 bytes (32-bit glibc). Since
774these are the minimum allocation sizes, these are the sizes that would be
775allocated anyway, making it worth it to just use the whole space, so the value
776of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` on 64-bit systems was changed to 32 bytes.
777
778On top of that, at least on 64-bit, `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` supports numbers with
779either 72 integer digits or 45 integer digits and 27 fractional digits. This
780should be more than enough for most cases since `bc`'s default `scale` values
781are 0 or 20, meaning that, by default, it has at most 20 fractional digits. And
78245 integer digits are *a lot*; it's enough to calculate the amount of mass in
783the Milky Way galaxy in kilograms. Also, 72 digits is enough to calculate the
784diameter of the universe in Planck lengths.
785
786(For 32-bit, these numbers are either 32 integer digits or 12 integer digits and
78720 fractional digits. These are also quite big, and going much bigger on a
78832-bit system seems a little pointless since 12 digits is just under a trillion
789and 20 fractional digits is still enough for about any use since `10^-20` light
790years is just under a millimeter.)
791
792All of this together means that for ordinary uses, and even uses in scientific
793work, the default number size will be all that is needed, which means that
794nearly all, if not all, numbers will be reused, relieving pressure on the system
795allocator.
796
797I did several experiments to find the changes that had the most impact,
798especially with regard to reusing `BcNum`'s. One was putting `BcNum`'s into
799buckets according to their capacity in powers of 2 up to 512. That performed
800worse than `bc` did in `2.7.2`. Another was putting any `BcNum` on the reuse
801list that had a capacity of `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE * 2` and reusing them for `BcNum`'s
802that requested `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`. This did reduce the amount of time spent, but
803it also spent a lot of time in the system allocator for an unknown reason. (When
804using `strace`, a bunch more `brk` calls showed up.) Just reusing `BcNum`'s that
805had exactly `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` capacity spent the smallest amount of time in both
806user and system time. This makes sense, especially with the changes to make
807`BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE` bigger on 64-bit systems, since the vast majority of numbers
808will only ever use numbers with a size less than or equal to `BC_NUM_DEF_SIZE`.
809
810Last of all, `bc`'s signal handling underwent a complete redesign. (This is the
811reason that this version is `3.0.0` and not `2.8.0`.) The change was to move
812from a polling approach to signal handling to an interrupt-based approach.
813
814Previously, every single loop condition had a check for signals. I suspect that
815this could be expensive when in tight loops.
816
817Now, the signal handler just uses `longjmp()` (actually `siglongjmp()`) to start
818an unwinding of the stack until it is stopped or the stack is unwound to
819`main()`, which just returns. If `bc` is currently executing code that cannot be
820safely interrupted (according to POSIX), then signals are "locked." The signal
821handler checks if the lock is taken, and if it is, it just sets the status to
822indicate that a signal arrived. Later, when the signal lock is released, the
823status is checked to see if a signal came in. If so, the stack unwinding starts.
824
825This design eliminates polling in favor of maintaining a stack of `jmp_buf`'s.
826This has its own performance implications, but it gives better interaction. And
827the cost of pushing and popping a `jmp_buf` in a function is paid at most twice.
828Most functions do not pay that price, and most of the rest only pay it once.
829(There are only some 3 functions in `bc` that push and pop a `jmp_buf` twice.)
830
831As a side effect of this change, I had to eliminate the use of `stdio.h` in `bc`
832because `stdio` does not play nice with signals and `longjmp()`. I implemented
833custom I/O buffer code that takes a fraction of the size. This means that static
834builds will be smaller, but non-static builds will be bigger, though they will
835have less linking time.
836
837This change is also good because my history implementation was already bypassing
838`stdio` for good reasons, and unifying the architecture was a win.
839
840Another reason for this change is that my `bc` should *always* behave correctly
841in the presence of signals like `SIGINT`, `SIGTERM`, and `SIGQUIT`. With the
842addition of my own I/O buffering, I needed to also make sure that the buffers
843were correctly flushed even when such signals happened.
844
845For this reason, I **removed the option to build without signal support**.
846
847As a nice side effect of this change, the error handling code could be changed
848to take advantage of the stack unwinding that signals used. This means that
849signals and error handling use the same code paths, which means that the stack
850unwinding is well-tested. (Errors are tested heavily in the test suite.)
851
852It also means that functions do not need to return a status code that
853***every*** caller needs to check. This eliminated over 100 branches that simply
854checked return codes and then passed that return code up the stack if necessary.
855The code bloat savings from this is at least 1700 bytes on `x86_64`, *before*
856taking into account the extra code from removing `stdio.h`.
857
858## 2.7.2
859
860This is a production release with one major bug fix.
861
862The `length()` built-in function can take either a number or an array. If it
863takes an array, it returns the length of the array. Arrays can be passed by
864reference. The bug is that the `length()` function would not properly
865dereference arrays that were references. This is a bug that affects all users.
866
867**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
868
869## 2.7.1
870
871This is a production release with fixes for new locales and fixes for compiler
872warnings on FreeBSD.
873
874## 2.7.0
875
876This is a production release with a bug fix for Linux, new translations, and new
877features.
878
879Bug fixes:
880
881* Option parsing in `BC_ENV_ARGS` was broken on Linux in 2.6.1 because `glibc`'s
882  `getopt_long()` is broken. To get around that, and to support long options on
883  every platform, an adapted version of [`optparse`][17] was added. Now, `bc`
884  does not even use `getopt()`.
885* Parsing `BC_ENV_ARGS` with quotes now works. It isn't the smartest, but it
886  does the job if there are spaces in file names.
887
888The following new languages are supported:
889
890* Dutch
891* Polish
892* Russian
893* Japanes
894* Simplified Chinese
895
896All of these translations were generated using [DeepL][18], so improvements are
897welcome.
898
899There is only one new feature: **`bc` now has a built-in pseudo-random number
900generator** (PRNG).
901
902The PRNG is seeded, making it useful for applications where
903`/dev/urandom` does not work because output needs to be reproducible. However,
904it also uses `/dev/urandom` to seed itself by default, so it will start with a
905good seed by default.
906
907It also outputs 32 bits on 32-bit platforms and 64 bits on 64-bit platforms, far
908better than the 15 bits of C's `rand()` and `bash`'s `$RANDOM`.
909
910In addition, the PRNG can take a bound, and when it gets a bound, it
911automatically adjusts to remove bias. It can also generate numbers of arbitrary
912size. (As of the time of release, the largest pseudo-random number generated by
913this `bc` was generated with a bound of `2^(2^20)`.)
914
915***IMPORTANT: read the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] to find out
916exactly what guarantees the PRNG provides. The underlying implementation is not
917guaranteed to stay the same, but the guarantees that it provides are guaranteed
918to stay the same regardless of the implementation.***
919
920On top of that, four functions were added to `bc`'s [extended math library][16]
921to make using the PRNG easier:
922
923* `frand(p)`: Generates a number between `[0,1)` to `p` decimal places.
924* `ifrand(i, p)`: Generates an integer with bound `i` and adds it to `frand(p)`.
925* `srand(x)`: Randomizes the sign of `x`. In other words, it flips the sign of
926  `x` with probability `0.5`.
927* `brand()`: Returns a random boolean value (either `0` or `1`).
928
929## 2.6.1
930
931This is a production release with a bug fix for FreeBSD.
932
933The bug was that when `bc` was built without long options, it would give a fatal
934error on every run. This was caused by a mishandling of `optind`.
935
936## 2.6.0
937
938This release is a production release ***with no bugfixes***. If you do not want
939to upgrade, you don't have to.
940
941No source code changed; the only thing that changed was `lib2.bc`.
942
943This release adds one function to the [extended math library][16]: `p(x, y)`,
944which calculates `x` to the power of `y`, whether or not `y` is an integer. (The
945`^` operator can only accept integer powers.)
946
947This release also includes a couple of small tweaks to the [extended math
948library][16], mostly to fix returning numbers with too high of `scale`.
949
950## 2.5.3
951
952This release is a production release which addresses inconsistencies in the
953Portuguese locales. No `bc` code was changed.
954
955The issues were that the ISO files used different naming, and also that the
956files that should have been symlinks were not. I did not catch that because
957GitHub rendered them the exact same way.
958
959## 2.5.2
960
961This release is a production release.
962
963No code was changed, but the build system was changed to allow `CFLAGS` to be
964given to `CC`, like this:
965
966```
967CC="gcc -O3 -march=native" ./configure.sh
968```
969
970If this happens, the flags are automatically put into `CFLAGS`, and the compiler
971is set appropriately. In the example above this means that `CC` will be "gcc"
972and `CFLAGS` will be "-O3 -march=native".
973
974This behavior was added to conform to GNU autotools practices.
975
976## 2.5.1
977
978This is a production release which addresses portability concerns discovered
979in the `bc` build system. No `bc` code was changed.
980
981* Support for Solaris SPARC and AIX were added.
982* Minor documentations edits were performed.
983* An option for `configure.sh` was added to disable long options if
984  `getopt_long()` is missing.
985
986## 2.5.0
987
988This is a production release with new translations. No code changed.
989
990The translations were contributed by [bugcrazy][15], and they are for
991Portuguese, both Portugal and Brazil locales.
992
993## 2.4.0
994
995This is a production release primarily aimed at improving `dc`.
996
997* A couple of copy and paste errors in the [`dc` manual][10] were fixed.
998* `dc` startup was optimized by making sure it didn't have to set up `bc`-only
999  things.
1000* The `bc` `&&` and `||` operators were made available to `dc` through the `M`
1001  and `m` commands, respectively.
1002* `dc` macros were changed to be tail call-optimized.
1003
1004The last item, tail call optimization, means that if the last thing in a macro
1005is a call to another macro, then the old macro is popped before executing the
1006new macro. This change was made to stop `dc` from consuming more and more memory
1007as macros are executed in a loop.
1008
1009The `q` and `Q` commands still respect the "hidden" macros by way of recording
1010how many macros were removed by tail call optimization.
1011
1012## 2.3.2
1013
1014This is a production release meant to fix warnings in the Gentoo `ebuild` by
1015making it possible to disable binary stripping. Other users do *not* need to
1016upgrade.
1017
1018## 2.3.1
1019
1020This is a production release. It fixes a bug that caused `-1000000000 < -1` to
1021return `0`. This only happened with negative numbers and only if the value on
1022the left was more negative by a certain amount. That said, this bug *is* a bad
1023bug, and needs to be fixed.
1024
1025**ALL USERS SHOULD UPDATE `bc`**.
1026
1027## 2.3.0
1028
1029This is a production release with changes to the build system.
1030
1031## 2.2.0
1032
1033This release is a production release. It only has new features and performance
1034improvements.
1035
10361.	The performance of `sqrt(x)` was improved.
10372.	The new function `root(x, n)` was added to the extended math library to
1038	calculate `n`th roots.
10393.	The new function `cbrt(x)` was added to the extended math library to
1040	calculate cube roots.
1041
1042## 2.1.3
1043
1044This is a non-critical release; it just changes the build system, and in
1045non-breaking ways:
1046
10471.	Linked locale files were changed to link to their sources with a relative
1048	link.
10492.	A bug in `configure.sh` that caused long option parsing to fail under `bash`
1050	was fixed.
1051
1052## 2.1.2
1053
1054This release is not a critical release.
1055
10561.	A few codes were added to history.
10572.	Multiplication was optimized a bit more.
10583.	Addition and subtraction were both optimized a bit more.
1059
1060## 2.1.1
1061
1062This release contains a fix for the test suite made for Linux from Scratch: now
1063the test suite prints `pass` when a test is passed.
1064
1065Other than that, there is no change in this release, so distros and other users
1066do not need to upgrade.
1067
1068## 2.1.0
1069
1070This release is a production release.
1071
1072The following bugs were fixed:
1073
10741.	A `dc` bug that caused stack mishandling was fixed.
10752.	A warning on OpenBSD was fixed.
10763.	Bugs in `ctrl+arrow` operations in history were fixed.
10774.	The ability to paste multiple lines in history was added.
10785.	A `bc` bug, mishandling of array arguments to functions, was fixed.
10796.	A crash caused by freeing the wrong pointer was fixed.
10807.	A `dc` bug where strings, in a rare case, were mishandled in parsing was
1081	fixed.
1082
1083In addition, the following changes were made:
1084
10851.	Division was slightly optimized.
10862.	An option was added to the build to disable printing of prompts.
10873.	The special case of empty arguments is now handled. This is to prevent
1088	errors in scripts that end up passing empty arguments.
10894.	A harmless bug was fixed. This bug was that, with the pop instructions
1090	(mostly) removed (see below), `bc` would leave extra values on its stack for
1091	`void` functions and in a few other cases. These extra items would not
1092	affect anything put on the stack and would not cause any sort of crash or
1093	even buggy behavior, but they would cause `bc` to take more memory than it
1094	needed.
1095
1096On top of the above changes, the following optimizations were added:
1097
10981.	The need for pop instructions in `bc` was removed.
10992.	Extra tests on every iteration of the interpreter loop were removed.
11003.	Updating function and code pointers on every iteration of the interpreter
1101	loop was changed to only updating them when necessary.
11024.	Extra assignments to pointers were removed.
1103
1104Altogether, these changes sped up the interpreter by around 2x.
1105
1106***NOTE***: This is the last release with new features because this `bc` is now
1107considered complete. From now on, only bug fixes and new translations will be
1108added to this `bc`.
1109
1110## 2.0.3
1111
1112This is a production, bug-fix release.
1113
1114Two bugs were fixed in this release:
1115
11161.	A rare and subtle signal handling bug was fixed.
11172.	A misbehavior on `0` to a negative power was fixed.
1118
1119The last bug bears some mentioning.
1120
1121When I originally wrote power, I did not thoroughly check its error cases;
1122instead, I had it check if the first number was `0` and then if so, just return
1123`0`. However, `0` to a negative power means that `1` will be divided by `0`,
1124which is an error.
1125
1126I caught this, but only after I stopped being cocky. You see, sometime later, I
1127had noticed that GNU `bc` returned an error, correctly, but I thought it was
1128wrong simply because that's not what my `bc` did. I saw it again later and had a
1129double take. I checked for real, finally, and found out that my `bc` was wrong
1130all along.
1131
1132That was bad on me. But the bug was easy to fix, so it is fixed now.
1133
1134There are two other things in this release:
1135
11361.	Subtraction was optimized by [Stefan Eßer][14].
11372.	Division was also optimized, also by Stefan Eßer.
1138
1139## 2.0.2
1140
1141This release contains a fix for a possible overflow in the signal handling. I
1142would be surprised if any users ran into it because it would only happen after 2
1143billion (`2^31-1`) `SIGINT`'s, but I saw it and had to fix it.
1144
1145## 2.0.1
1146
1147This release contains very few things that will apply to any users.
1148
11491.	A slight bug in `dc`'s interactive mode was fixed.
11502.	A bug in the test suite that was only triggered on NetBSD was fixed.
11513.	**The `-P`/`--no-prompt` option** was added for users that do not want a
1152	prompt.
11534.	A `make check` target was added as an alias for `make test`.
11545.	`dc` got its own read prompt: `?> `.
1155
1156## 2.0.0
1157
1158This release is a production release.
1159
1160This release is also a little different from previous releases. From here on
1161out, I do not plan on adding any more features to this `bc`; I believe that it
1162is complete. However, there may be bug fix releases in the future, if I or any
1163others manage to find bugs.
1164
1165This release has only a few new features:
1166
11671.	`atan2(y, x)` was added to the extended math library as both `a2(y, x)` and
1168	`atan2(y, x)`.
11692.	Locales were fixed.
11703.	A **POSIX shell-compatible script was added as an alternative to compiling
1171	`gen/strgen.c`** on a host machine. More details about making the choice
1172	between the two can be found by running `./configure.sh --help` or reading
1173	the [build manual][13].
11744.	Multiplication was optimized by using **diagonal multiplication**, rather
1175	than straight brute force.
11765.	The `locale_install.sh` script was fixed.
11776.	`dc` was given the ability to **use the environment variable
1178	`DC_ENV_ARGS`**.
11797.	`dc` was also given the ability to **use the `-i` or `--interactive`**
1180	options.
11818.	Printing the prompt was fixed so that it did not print when it shouldn't.
11829.	Signal handling was fixed.
118310.	**Handling of `SIGTERM` and `SIGQUIT`** was fixed.
118411.	The **built-in functions `maxibase()`, `maxobase()`, and `maxscale()`** (the
1185	commands `T`, `U`, `V` in `dc`, respectively) were added to allow scripts to
1186	query for the max allowable values of those globals.
118712.	Some incompatibilities with POSIX were fixed.
1188
1189In addition, this release is `2.0.0` for a big reason: the internal format for
1190numbers changed. They used to be a `char` array. Now, they are an array of
1191larger integers, packing more decimal digits into each integer. This has
1192delivered ***HUGE*** performance improvements, especially for multiplication,
1193division, and power.
1194
1195This `bc` should now be the fastest `bc` available, but I may be wrong.
1196
1197## 1.2.8
1198
1199This release contains a fix for a harmless bug (it is harmless in that it still
1200works, but it just copies extra data) in the [`locale_install.sh`][12] script.
1201
1202## 1.2.7
1203
1204This version contains fixes for the build on Arch Linux.
1205
1206## 1.2.6
1207
1208This release removes the use of `local` in shell scripts because it's not POSIX
1209shell-compatible, and also updates a man page that should have been updated a
1210long time ago but was missed.
1211
1212## 1.2.5
1213
1214This release contains some missing locale `*.msg` files.
1215
1216## 1.2.4
1217
1218This release contains a few bug fixes and new French translations.
1219
1220## 1.2.3
1221
1222This release contains a fix for a bug: use of uninitialized data. Such data was
1223only used when outputting an error message, but I am striving for perfection. As
1224Michelangelo said, "Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."
1225
1226## 1.2.2
1227
1228This release contains fixes for OpenBSD.
1229
1230## 1.2.1
1231
1232This release contains bug fixes for some rare bugs.
1233
1234## 1.2.0
1235
1236This is a production release.
1237
1238There have been several changes since `1.1.0`:
1239
12401.	The build system had some changes.
12412.	Locale support has been added. (Patches welcome for translations.)
12423.	**The ability to turn `ibase`, `obase`, and `scale` into stacks** was added
1243	with the `-g` command-line option. (See the [`bc` manual][9] for more
1244	details.)
12454.	Support for compiling on Mac OSX out of the box was added.
12465.	The extended math library got `t(x)`, `ceil(x)`, and some aliases.
12476.	The extended math library also got `r2d(x)` (for converting from radians to
1248	degrees) and `d2r(x)` (for converting from degrees to radians). This is to
1249	allow using degrees with the standard library.
12507.	Both calculators now accept numbers in **scientific notation**. See the
1251	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
12528.	Both calculators can **output in either scientific or engineering
1253	notation**. See the [`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for details.
12549.	Some inefficiencies were removed.
125510.	Some bugs were fixed.
125611.	Some bugs in the extended library were fixed.
125712.	Some defects from [Coverity Scan][11] were fixed.
1258
1259## 1.1.4
1260
1261This release contains a fix to the build system that allows it to build on older
1262versions of `glibc`.
1263
1264## 1.1.3
1265
1266This release contains a fix for a bug in the test suite where `bc` tests and
1267`dc` tests could not be run in parallel.
1268
1269## 1.1.2
1270
1271This release has a fix for a history bug; the down arrow did not work.
1272
1273## 1.1.1
1274
1275This release fixes a bug in the `1.1.0` build system. The source is exactly the
1276same.
1277
1278The bug that was fixed was a failure to install if no `EXECSUFFIX` was used.
1279
1280## 1.1.0
1281
1282This is a production release. However, many new features were added since `1.0`.
1283
12841.	**The build system has been changed** to use a custom, POSIX
1285	shell-compatible configure script ([`configure.sh`][6]) to generate a POSIX
1286	make-compatible `Makefile`, which means that `bc` and `dc` now build out of
1287	the box on any POSIX-compatible system.
12882.	Out-of-memory and output errors now cause the `bc` to report the error,
1289	clean up, and die, rather than just reporting and trying to continue.
12903.	**Strings and constants are now garbage collected** when possible.
12914.	Signal handling and checking has been made more simple and more thorough.
12925.	`BcGlobals` was refactored into `BcVm` and `BcVm` was made global. Some
1293	procedure names were changed to reflect its difference to everything else.
12946.	Addition got a speed improvement.
12957.	Some common code for addition and multiplication was refactored into its own
1296	procedure.
12978.	A bug was removed where `dc` could have been selected, but the internal
1298	`#define` that returned `true` for a query about `dc` would not have
1299	returned `true`.
13009.	Useless calls to `bc_num_zero()` were removed.
130110.	**History support was added.** The history support is based off of a
1302	[UTF-8 aware fork][7] of [`linenoise`][8], which has been customized with
1303	`bc`'s own data structures and signal handling.
130411.	Generating C source from the math library now removes tabs from the library,
1305	shrinking the size of the executable.
130612.	The math library was shrunk.
130713.	Error handling and reporting was improved.
130814.	Reallocations were reduced by giving access to the request size for each
1309	operation.
131015.	**`abs()` (`b` command for `dc`) was added as a builtin.**
131116.	Both calculators were tested on FreeBSD.
131217.	Many obscure parse bugs were fixed.
131318.	Markdown and man page manuals were added, and the man pages are installed by
1314	`make install`.
131519.	Executable size was reduced, though the added features probably made the
1316	executable end up bigger.
131720.	**GNU-style array references were added as a supported feature.**
131821.	Allocations were reduced.
131922.	**New operators were added**: `$` (`$` for `dc`), `@` (`@` for `dc`), `@=`,
1320	`<<` (`H` for `dc`), `<<=`, `>>` (`h` for `dc`), and `>>=`. See the
1321	[`bc` manual][9] and the [`dc` manual][10] for more details.
132223.	**An extended math library was added.** This library contains code that
1323	makes it so I can replace my desktop calculator with this `bc`. See the
1324	[`bc` manual][3] for more details.
132524.	Support for all capital letters as numbers was added.
132625.	**Support for GNU-style void functions was added.**
132726.	A bug fix for improper handling of function parameters was added.
132827.	Precedence for the or (`||`) operator was changed to match GNU `bc`.
132928.	`dc` was given an explicit negation command.
133029.	`dc` was changed to be able to handle strings in arrays.
1331
1332## 1.1 Release Candidate 3
1333
1334This release is the eighth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1335release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1336been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1337
1338## 1.1 Release Candidate 2
1339
1340This release is the seventh release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1341release candidate meant as a general release candidate. The new code has not
1342been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1343
1344## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 5
1345
1346This release is the sixth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fifth
1347release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1348code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1349
1350## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 4
1351
1352This release is the fifth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the fourth
1353release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1354code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1355
1356## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 3
1357
1358This release is the fourth release candidate for 1.1, though it is the third
1359release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1360code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1361
1362## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 2
1363
1364This release is the third release candidate for 1.1, though it is the second
1365release candidate meant specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new
1366code has not been tested as thoroughly as it should for release.
1367
1368## 1.1 FreeBSD Beta 1
1369
1370This release is the second release candidate for 1.1, though it is meant
1371specifically to test if `bc` works on FreeBSD. The new code has not been tested as
1372thoroughly as it should for release.
1373
1374## 1.1 Release Candidate 1
1375
1376This is the first release candidate for 1.1. The new code has not been tested as
1377thoroughly as it should for release.
1378
1379## 1.0
1380
1381This is the first non-beta release. `bc` is ready for production use.
1382
1383As such, a lot has changed since 0.5.
1384
13851.	`dc` has been added. It has been tested even more thoroughly than `bc` was
1386	for `0.5`. It does not have the `!` command, and for security reasons, it
1387	never will, so it is complete.
13882.	`bc` has been more thoroughly tested. An entire section of the test suite
1389	(for both programs) has been added to test for errors.
13903.	A prompt (`>>> `) has been added for interactive mode, making it easier to
1391	see inputs and outputs.
13924.	Interrupt handling has been improved, including elimination of race
1393	conditions (as much as possible).
13945.	MinGW and [Windows Subsystem for Linux][1] support has been added (see
1395	[xstatic][2] for binaries).
13966.	Memory leaks and errors have been eliminated (as far as ASan and Valgrind
1397	can tell).
13987.	Crashes have been eliminated (as far as [afl][3] can tell).
13998.	Karatsuba multiplication was added (and thoroughly) tested, speeding up
1400	multiplication and power by orders of magnitude.
14019.	Performance was further enhanced by using a "divmod" function to reduce
1402	redundant divisions and by removing superfluous `memset()` calls.
140310.	To switch between Karatsuba and `O(n^2)` multiplication, the config variable
1404	`BC_NUM_KARATSUBA_LEN` was added. It is set to a sane default, but the
1405	optimal number can be found with [`karatsuba.py`][4] (requires Python 3)
1406	and then configured through `make`.
140711.	The random math test generator script was changed to Python 3 and improved.
1408	`bc` and `dc` have together been run through 30+ million random tests.
140912.	All known math bugs have been fixed, including out of control memory
1410	allocations in `sine` and `cosine` (that was actually a parse bug), certain
1411	cases of infinite loop on square root, and slight inaccuracies (as much as
1412	possible; see the [README][5]) in transcendental functions.
141313.	Parsing has been fixed as much as possible.
141414.	Test coverage was improved to 94.8%. The only paths not covered are ones
1415	that happen when `malloc()` or `realloc()` fails.
141615.	An extension to get the length of an array was added.
141716.	The boolean not (`!`) had its precedence change to match negation.
141817.	Data input was hardened.
141918.	`bc` was made fully compliant with POSIX when the `-s` flag is used or
1420	`POSIXLY_CORRECT` is defined.
142119.	Error handling was improved.
142220.	`bc` now checks that files it is given are not directories.
1423
1424## 1.0 Release Candidate 7
1425
1426This is the seventh release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0
1427Release Candidate 6.
1428
1429## 1.0 Release Candidate 6
1430
1431This is the sixth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1432Candidate 5.
1433
1434## 1.0 Release Candidate 5
1435
1436This is the fifth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1437Candidate 4.
1438
1439## 1.0 Release Candidate 4
1440
1441This is the fourth release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1442Candidate 3.
1443
1444## 1.0 Release Candidate 3
1445
1446This is the third release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1447Candidate 2.
1448
1449## 1.0 Release Candidate 2
1450
1451This is the second release candidate for 1.0. It fixes a few bugs in 1.0 Release
1452Candidate 1.
1453
1454## 1.0 Release Candidate 1
1455
1456This is the first Release Candidate for 1.0. `bc` is complete, with `dc`, but it
1457is not tested.
1458
1459## 0.5
1460
1461This beta release completes more features, but it is still not complete nor
1462tested as thoroughly as necessary.
1463
1464## 0.4.1
1465
1466This beta release fixes a few bugs in 0.4.
1467
1468## 0.4
1469
1470This is a beta release. It does not have the complete set of features, and it is
1471not thoroughly tested.
1472
1473[1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
1474[2]: https://pkg.musl.cc/bc/
1475[3]: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/
1476[4]: ./scripts/karatsuba.py
1477[5]: ./README.md
1478[6]: ./configure.sh
1479[7]: https://github.com/rain-1/linenoise-mob
1480[8]: https://github.com/antirez/linenoise
1481[9]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md
1482[10]: ./manuals/dc/A.1.md
1483[11]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/gavinhoward-bc
1484[12]: ./scripts/locale_install.sh
1485[13]: ./manuals/build.md
1486[14]: https://github.com/stesser
1487[15]: https://github.com/bugcrazy
1488[16]: ./manuals/bc/A.1.md#extended-library
1489[17]: https://github.com/skeeto/optparse
1490[18]: https://www.deepl.com/translator
1491[19]: ./manuals/benchmarks.md
1492[20]: https://github.com/apjanke/ronn-ng
1493[21]: https://pandoc.org/
1494[22]: ./scripts/locale_uninstall.sh
1495