SciCalc

A powerful, programmable, scientific calculator.

Version 1.2.0 Release Notes

28 Aug 2017

This release includes several new features and functions along with lots of little bug fixes and minor performance improvements. This version also comes as an installer, so you don’t have to move files around manually. Once you verify that the new one is working correctly, you’ll probably want to delete the old version since the installer won’t do that for you. It should keep your existing settings and script library.

Download version 1.2.0 here.

New features

  • Added syntax highlighting and an improved editing experience for the main input and script editor. You can choose from light and dark themes for the library script editor.
  • You can now export the answer history as plain text, HTML (with pretty printing), or a script.
  • Added a “mixed fractions” output option (i.e. “1 2/3” instead of “5/3”).
  • In exact mode, you can copy the approximate/floating point result to the input by shift-clicking the answer.
  • The maximum saved history length is now configurable (from 10 to 500)
  • Experimental support for automatically adding missing right parentheses at the end of expressions instead of throwing an error. For example, 2 * (3 + 4 would work and be treated just like 2 * (3 + 4) instead of complaining about the missing ). It’s turned off by default, so you’ll need to enable it in the settings dialog.

Language enhancements

  • Now supports multiple assignment. For example, var (x, y) = [1, 2].
  • Added a new <=> comparison operator. Returns -1, 0, or 1 for less than, equal, or greater than.

New functions

  • Added a help(function) to get help and/or usage information for built-in functions. You can add documentation for your own user-defined functions by calling system:setHelpText(myFunction, "Help text").
  • factor(n) function to find the prime factors of n.
  • product(list) - Multiply the elements of list together. The inverse of factor.
  • clone(list or matrix) to make a deep clone of a list or matrix.
  • bind(function, arg1, arg2, ...) to bind arguments to a function (i.e. partial function application).
  • Added system:type(x) function. The previous experimental:type function is deprecated and will show a warning.
  • New Statistics functions: mean, median, variance, variancep (population variance), std and stdp (sample and population standard deviation), covariance and covariancep (sample and population covariance), correlation and correlationp (you get the idea). These are in the stats namespace, so you’ll either need to call import("stats") first, or call them with the stats: prefix, for example stats:std([0.3, 0.1, 0.25, 0.333]).
  • Two sorting functions, sort(list) and sortInPlace(list). They both accept an optional second argument that defines the sort order by comparing two list elements and returning -1, 0, or 1 to specify their order (just like the <=> operator). sort copies the list before sorting, and sortInPlace modifies the original list.
  • Matrix QR decomposition function, QR(matrix).
  • New special functions, erf and gamma.
  • roundTo(x, digits) function to round x to digits decimal places.

New experimental functions

These may have bugs and behave weirdly with unusual inputs, and their interface could change in future versions. You’re welcome and encouraged to try them and provide feedback though, just don’t count on them staying around in their current form or working in every case.

  • experimental:polyfit(x, y, degree) - Find the best-fit polynomial with the specified degree and points defined by x and y.
  • experimental:adaptiveSimpsons(fn, a, b) - Use the Adaptive Simpson’s method for numerical integration of function fn from a to b.

Additional fixes and enhancements

  • Fixed some minor interface bugs.
  • Improved startup speed when you have a lot of saved history entries.

Download version 1.2.0 here.