I've used all three of these programs and never knew that the same person had written all of them. I still occasionally use bc--I started using it decades ago and prefer it to any calculator for basic use. For more complicated calculations I now tend to use the python RPL at the command line, but I'll always remember bc, dc, and eqn fondly. Thank you Lorinda Cherry.
There may be some people out there that don't realize these commands are available on your machines. The macOS operating system on every contemporary Apple computer has a core that is build on Unix. Just open a the terminal app and you now have access to the only user interface that all of us old Unix users used for many years. At the command prompt you can learn how to use bc and dc simply by using the man command (short for manual). Type man bc to get the brief page from the Unix manual describing bc (or any other shell command in the same fashion).
One of the next commands you should look up in the manual is the man command itself (type man man). Somewhere, I've got the original thick printed Unix Manual. I used to carry it around just to read before the days when I had a dial-up terminal or personal computer at home.
There may be some people out there that don't realize these commands are available on your machines. The macOS operating system on every contemporary Apple computer has a core that is build on Unix. Just open a the terminal app and you now have access to the only user interface that all of us old Unix users used for many years. At the command prompt you can learn how to use bc and dc simply by using the man command (short for manual). Type man bc to get the brief page from the Unix manual describing bc (or any other shell command in the same fashion).
One of the next commands you should look up in the manual is the man command itself (type man man). Somewhere, I've got the original thick printed Unix Manual. I used to carry it around just to read before the days when I had a dial-up terminal or personal computer at home.