Centos 6/RHEL install Speedcrunch and Gcalctool Calculators

Anyone following the MIT Introduction to Computer Science and Programming course, with lectures from the superlatively knowledgeable Professor Eric Grimson will know that it is not so much an introduction, more of a repeated duckstooling into the deepest waters of abstract mathematics, incremented by doses of extreme maths for prodigies and geniuses, topped off with a subtle course of extra curricular Iterative and Recursive Algorithms, Objects, nested recursive multi-dimensioned Tuples and much more. 

It is heavily maths orientated so realistically is aimed at high level and dedicated coders with potentially burgeoning careers in certain areas of web engineering, as you would probably expect from an institution which traditionally mentors students from within the top 1% of the worlds intellectual talent. 

An interesting course which demonstrates crossing the line between just being an average Python programmer and being one in absolute control, Professor Grimsons mastery of the subject matter is palpable. As I have inferred, despite the name it is not entry level and it is followed by many experienced programmers.

Those who drop out may nonetheless be interested in Speedcrunch and Gcalctool, both decent calculators for Centos 6/RHEL.

Speedcrunch Centos 6
Featuring sin, cos, tan, asin, acos and atan keys, views for Math book, Constants, Variables and Functions & including a full screen mode for when small just wont do, Speedcrunch is a very useful tool. Results are displayable as Binary, Octal, Hexadecimal and Decimal with Decimal being available in three formats, General, Scientific and Engineering & 50 decimal digits.

The symbols used are computer keyboard friendly, for example the divide and multiply keys are identical to your keyboard for easy input and it has a handy exponent key. It is cross platform on Linux, Windows and Mac so users of the latter two happening upon this post can obtain it at the link above, whilst Linux users can use the rpms which I prepared, further down the page.

It's handy if you are using the minimal Fluxbox version as I do and don't have access to Gnome desktop accessories.

Although I believe it is now in the Epel repo I converted the supplied deb files to rpms with Alien and it runs fine on Centos 6, so get them below if you have any problems with the repo.

Speedcrunch 32 bit_el6_rpm 

Speedcrunch 64 bit_el6_rpm

Install it with

$ sudo rpm -Uvh <file_name>

Run it with

$ speedcrunch

Gcalctool, now renamed simply 'Calculator' is another fine calc built by the people at Sun and available in the Epel repo. It has multiple modes and below is an example in the Scientific mode.
It has a formidable array of features including a Programmers mode, user editable constants and functions & accuracy levels configurable up to 9 significant figures/places so it is extremely versatile.


Gcalctool Centos 6
If you have the epel repo enabled just issue

$ sudo yum -y install gcalctool               to get it.

Run it with

$ gcalctool

These are the two calculators which I use for various tasks and they cover the large majority of needs up to mid range mathematics, although professional mathematicians will no doubt use more powerful devices.


Fluxbox users see Fluxbox key bindings for more information.

More repos.




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