
/*  $Header: /cvs/gnome/gcalctool/README,v 1.5 2005/02/07 16:38:58 richb Exp $
 *
 *  Copyright (c) 1987-2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
 *  All Rights Reserved.
 */

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CONTENTS:

1. Introduction.
2. Getting Started.
3. Calctool history.
4. Acknowledgements.
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1. Introduction.
----------------

This is v5.5.X of gcalctool, the calculator application that was previously
in the OpenWindows Deskset of the Solaris 8 operating system. 
Sun Microsystems Inc. have kindly given me permission to release it.

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 Gtk2 included with this release.


2. Getting started.
-------------------

See the file 'INSTALL'

The manual pages also describe how to use gcalctool in detail.

There is a TODO file included which lists current bugs, and the
enhancements that will hopefully be added in the future.


3. 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 GNOME CVS repository, it was renamed to gcalctool.


4. Acknowledgements.
--------------------

See the AUTHORS file.

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Suggestions for further improvement would be most welcome, plus bug reports
and comments.

Rich Burridge,          rich.burridge@Sun.COM

