Seeking SideKick-/spreadsheet-type functionality for AT&T 3B2

[Nicole Delbecque & Paul Bijnens]

In article <4260 at lib.tmc.edu>, jmaynard at thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu (Jay Maynard)
says:
>
>In article <4079 at awdprime.UUCP> tif at doorstop.austin.ibm.com (Paul Chamberlain)
>writes:
>>In article <4254 at lib.tmc.edu> jmaynard at thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu (Jay Maynard)
>writes:
>>...
>>I admit, however, that trig and other complex functions don't work
>>as easily with bc.  (And "scale=" is important to learn.)
>
>Without scale=, it's next to impossible to get a useful answer from bc.
>

Besides bc is indeed NOT very user friendly (where is the "last value"?)
this tip can help to (IMHO stupid) default scale to change:

Make a file in your home-directory ".bcrc" with:

  scale=4

(or whatever you want) and set up an alias in your .cshrc (or whatever):

  alias bc 'bc ~/.bcrc'

It is documented that bc will read the tty after the initial file
arguments.  You can include some standard functions too (see for
examples in /usr/lib/lib.b, the file included with the -l option).

You use bc a lot more, when you can tailor it to your needs.
However a HP-like LASTX utility would be nice, like:
   % bc
   16 / 3
   5.3333                  # remember automagicaly 4 digits precision
   5.3333 * 4              # why do I have to enter 5.333 again?

Anybody any idea to get around this?  Automaticaly?  Not using emacs?
--
Polleke
FFAAC09.cc1.kuleuven.ac.be