Orpie v1.5 User Manual

Contents

• 1  Introduction
• 2  Installation
• 3  Quick Start
  • 3.1  Overview
  • 3.2  Entering Data
    • 3.2.1  Entering Real Numbers
    • 3.2.2  Entering Complex Numbers
    • 3.2.3  Entering Matrices
    • 3.2.4  Entering Data With Units
    • 3.2.5  Entering Exact Integers
    • 3.2.6  Entering Variable Names
    • 3.2.7  Entering Physical Constants
    • 3.2.8  Entering Data With an External Editor
  • 3.3  Executing Basic Function Operations
  • 3.4  Executing Function Abbreviations
  • 3.5  Executing Basic Command Operations
  • 3.6  Executing Command Abbreviations
  • 3.7  Browsing the Stack
  • 3.8  Units Formatting
• 4  Advanced Configuration
  • 4.1  orpierc Syntax
    • 4.1.1  Including Other Rcfiles
    • 4.1.2  Setting Configuration Variables
    • 4.1.3  Creating Key Bindings
    • 4.1.4  Removing Key Bindings
    • 4.1.5  Creating Key Auto-Bindings
    • 4.1.6  Creating Operation Abbreviations
    • 4.1.7  Removing Operation Abbreviations
    • 4.1.8  Creating Macros
    • 4.1.9  Creating Units
    • 4.1.10  Creating Constants
  • 4.2  Configuration Variables
  • 4.3  Calculator Operations
    • 4.3.1  Functions
    • 4.3.2  Commands
    • 4.3.3  Edit Operations
    • 4.3.4  Browsing Operations
    • 4.3.5  Abbreviation Entry Operations
    • 4.3.6  Variable Entry Operations
    • 4.3.7  Integer Entry Operations
• 5  Licensing
• 6  Credits
• 7  Contact info

1  Introduction

Orpie is a console-based RPN (reverse polish notation) desktop calculator. The interface is similar to that of modern Hewlett-Packard^TM calculators, but has been optimized for efficiency on a PC keyboard. The design is also influenced to some degree by the Mutt email client and the Vim editor.

Orpie does not have graphing capability, nor does it offer much in the way of a programming interface; other applications such as GNU Octave. are already very effective for such tasks. Orpie focuses specifically on helping you to crunch numbers quickly.

Orpie is written in Objective Caml (aka OCaml), a high-performance functional programming language with a whole lot of nice features. I highly recommend it.

2  Installation

This section describes how to install Orpie by compiling from source. Volunteers have pre-packaged Orpie for several popular operating systems, so you may be able to save yourself some time by installing from those packages. Please check the Orpie website for up-to-date package information.

Before installing Orpie, you should have installed the GNU Scientific Library (GSL) version 1.4 or greater. You will also need a curses library (e.g. ncurses), which is almost certainly already installed on your system. Finally, OCaml 3.07 or higher is required to compile the sources. You will need the Nums library that is distributed with OCaml; if you install OCaml from binary packages distributed by your OS vendor, you may find that separate Nums packages must also be installed.

I will assume you have received this program in the form of a source tarball, e.g. “orpie-x.x.tar.gz”. You have undoubtedly extracted this archive already (e.g. using “tar xvzf orpie-x.x.tar.gz”). Enter the root of the Orpie installation directory, e.g. “cd orpie-x.x”. You can compile the sources with the following sequence:

$ ./configure
$ make

Finally, run “make install” (as root) to install the executables. “configure” accepts a number of parameters that you can learn about with “./configure –help”. Perhaps the most common of these is the –prefix option, which lets you install to a non-standard directory¹.

3  Quick Start

This section describes how to use Orpie in its default configuration. After familiarizing yourself with the basic operations as outlined in this section, you may wish to consult Section 4 to see how Orpie can be configured to better fit your needs.

3.1  Overview

You can start the calculator by executing orpie. The interface has two panels. The left panel combines status information with context-sensitive help; the right panel represents the calculator's stack. (Note that the left panel will be hidden if Orpie is run in a terminal with less than 80 columns.)

In general, you perform calculations by first entering data on to the stack, then executing functions that operate on the stack data. As an example, you can hit 1<enter>2<enter>+ in order to add 1 and 2.

3.2  Entering Data

3.2.1  Entering Real Numbers

To enter a real number, just type the desired digits and hit enter. The space bar will begin entry of a scientific notation exponent. The 'n' key is used for negation. Here are some examples:

3.2.2  Entering Complex Numbers

Orpie can represent complex numbers using either cartesian (rectangular) or polar coordinates. See Section 3.5 to see how to change the complex number display mode.

A complex number is entered by first pressing '(', then entering the real part, then pressing ',' followed by the imaginary part. Alternatively, you can press '(' followed by the magnitude, then '<' followed by the phase angle. The angle will be interpreted in degrees or radians, depending on the current setting of the angle mode (see Section 3.5). Examples:

3.2.3  Entering Matrices

You can enter matrices by pressing '['. The elements of the matrix may then be entered as described in the previous sections, and should be separated using ','. To start a new row of the matrix, press '[' again. On the stack, each row of the matrix is enclosed in a set of brackets; for example, the matrix

would appear on the stack as [[1, 2][3, 4]].

Examples of matrix entry:

3.2.4  Entering Data With Units

Real and complex scalars and matrices can optionally be labeled with units. After typing in the numeric portion of the data, press '_' followed by a units string. The format of units strings is described in Section 3.8.

Examples of entering dimensioned data:

3.2.5  Entering Exact Integers

An exact integer may be entered by pressing '#' followed by the desired digits. The base of the integer will be assumed to be the same as the current calculator base mode (see Section 3.5 to see how to set this mode). Alternatively, the desired base may be specified by pressing space and appending one of {b, o, d, h}, to represent binary, octal, decimal, or hexadecimal, respectively. On the stack, the representation of the integer will be changed to match the current base mode. Examples:

Note that exact integers may have unlimited length, and the basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) will be performed using exact arithmetic when both arguments are integers.

3.2.6  Entering Variable Names

A variable name may be entered by pressing '@' followed by the desired variable name string. The string may contain alphanumeric characters, dashes, and underscores. Example:

Orpie also supports autocompletion of variable names. The help panel displays a list of pre-existing variables that partially match the name currently being entered. You can press '<tab>' to iterate through the list of matching variables.

As a shortcut, keys <f1>-<f4> will enter the variables (“registers”) @ r01 through @ r04.

3.2.7  Entering Physical Constants

Orpie includes definitions for a number of fundamental physical constants. To enter a constant, press 'C', followed by the first few letters/digits of the constant's symbol, then hit enter. Orpie offers an autocompletion feature for physical constants, so you only need to type enough of the constant to identify it uniquely. A list of matching constants will appear in the left panel of the display, to assist you in finding the desired choice.

The following is a list of Orpie's physical constant symbols:

All physical constants are defined in the Orpie run-configuration file; consult Section 4 if you wish to define your own constants or change the existing definitions.

3.2.8  Entering Data With an External Editor

Orpie can also parse input entered via an external editor. You may find this to be a convenient method for entering large matrices. Pressing 'E' will launch the external editor, and the various data types may be entered as illustrated by the examples below:

Real and complex numbers and matrices may have units appended; just add a units string such as “_N*m/s” immediately following the numeric portion of the expression.

Notice that the complex matrix input parser is quite flexible; real and complex matrix elements may be mixed, and cartesian and polar complex formats may be mixed as well.

Multiple stack entries may be specified in the same file, if they are separated by whitespace. For example, entering (1, 2) 1.5 into the editor will cause the complex value (1, 2) to be placed on the stack, followed by the real value 1.5.

The input parser will discard whitespace where possible, so feel free to add any form of whitespace between matrix rows, matrix elements, real and complex components, etc.

3.3  Executing Basic Function Operations

Once some data has been entered on the stack, you can apply operations to that data. For example, '+' will add the last two elements on the stack. By default, the following keys have been bound to such operations:

As a shortcut, function operators will automatically enter any data that you were in the process of entering. So instead of the sequence 2<enter>2<enter>+, you could type simply 2<enter>2+ and the second number would be entered before the addition operation is applied.

As an additional shortcut, any variable names used as function arguments will be evaluated before application of the function. In other words, it is not necessary to evaluate variables before performing arithmetic operations on them.

3.4  Executing Function Abbreviations

One could bind nearly all calculator operations to specific keypresses, but this would rapidly get confusing since the PC keyboard is not labeled as nicely as a calculator keyboard is. For this reason, Orpie includes an abbreviation syntax.

To activate an abbreviation, press ''' (quote key), followed by the first few letters/digits of the abbreviation, then hit enter. Orpie offers an autocompletion feature for abbreviations, so you only need to type enough of the operation to identify it uniquely. The matching abbreviations will appear in the left panel of the display, to assist you in finding the appropriate operation.

To avoid interface conflicts, abbreviations may be entered only when the entry buffer (the bottom line of the screen) is empty.

The following functions are available as abbreviations:

Entering abbreviations can become tedious when performing repetitive calculations. To save some keystrokes, Orpie will automatically bind recently-used operations with no prexisting binding to keys <f5>-<f12>. The current autobindings can be viewed by pressing 'h' to cycle between the various pages of the help panel.

3.5  Executing Basic Command Operations

In addition to the function operations listed in Section 3.3, a number of basic calculator commands have been bound to single keypresses:

3.6  Executing Command Abbreviations

In addition to the function operations listed in Section 3.4, there are a large number of calculator commands that have been implemented using the abbreviation syntax:

3.7  Browsing the Stack

Orpie offers a stack browsing mode to assist in viewing and manipulating stack data. Press <up> to enter stack browsing mode; this should highlight the last stack element. You can use the up and down arrow keys to select different stack elements. The following keys are useful in stack browsing mode:

The left and right scrolling option may prove useful for viewing very lengthy stack entries, such as large matrices. The edit option provides a convenient way to correct data after it has been entered on the stack.

3.8  Units Formatting

A units string is a list of units separated by '*' to indicate multiplication and '/' to indicate division. Units may be raised to real-valued powers using the '^' character. A contrived example of a valid unit string would be "N*nm^2*kg/s/in^-3*GHz^2.34".

Orpie supports the standard SI prefix set, {y, z, a, f, p, n, u, m, c, d, da, h, k, M, G, T, P, E, Z, Y} (note the use of 'u' for micro-). These prefixes may be applied to any of the following exhaustive sets of units:

Note: No, Celsius and Fahrenheit will not be supported. Because these temperature units do not share a common zero point, their behavior is ill-defined under many operations.

Note: Although the lumen is defined by 1_lm = 1_cd * sr, Orpie drops the steridian because it is a dimensionless unit and therefore is of questionable use to a calculator.

All units are defined in the Orpie run-configuration file; consult Section 4 if you wish to define your own units or change the existing definitions.

4  Advanced Configuration

Orpie reads a run-configuration textfile (generally /etc/orpierc or /usr/local/etc/orpierc) to determine key and command bindings. You can create a personalized configuration file in $HOME/.orpierc, and select bindings that match your usage patterns. The recommended procedure is to “include” the orpierc file provided with Orpie (see Section 4.1.1), and add or remove settings as desired.

4.1  orpierc Syntax

You may notice that the orpierc syntax is similar to the syntax used in the configuration file for the Mutt email client (muttrc).

Within the orpierc file, strings should be enclosed in double quotes ("). A double quote character inside a string may be represented by \" . The backslash character must be represented by doubling it (\\).

4.1.1  Including Other Rcfiles

Syntax: include filename_string

This syntax can be used to include one run-configuration file within another. This command could be used to load the default orpierc file (probably found in /etc/orpierc) within your personalized rcfile, ~/.orpierc. The filename string should be enclosed in quotes.

4.1.2  Setting Configuration Variables

Syntax: set variable=value_string

Several configuration variables can be set using this syntax; check Section 4.2 to see a list. The variables are unquoted, but the values should be quoted strings.

4.1.3  Creating Key Bindings

Syntax: bind key_identifier operation

This command will bind a keypress to execute a calculator operation. The various operations, which should not be enclosed in quotes, may be found in Section 4.3. Key identifiers may be specified by strings that represent a single keypress, for example "m" (quotes included). The key may be prefixed with "\\C" or "\\M" to represent Control or Meta (Alt) modifiers, respectively; note that the backslash must be doubled. A number of special keys lack single-character representations, so the following strings may be used to represent them:

• "<esc>"
• "<tab>"
• "<enter>"
• "<return>"
• "<insert>"
• "<home>"
• "<end>"
• "<pageup>"
• "<pagedown>"
• "<space>"
• "<left>"
• "<right>"
• "<up>"
• "<down>"
• "<f1>" to "<f12>"

Due to differences between various terminal emulators, this key identifier syntax may not be adequate to describe every keypress. As a workaround, Orpie will also accept key identifiers in octal notation. As an example, you could use \024 (do not enclose it in quotes) to represent Ctrl-T.

Orpie includes a secondary executable, orpie-curses-keys, that prints out the key identifiers associated with keypresses. You may find it useful when customizing orpierc.

Multiple keys may be bound to the same operation, if desired.

4.1.4  Removing Key Bindings

Syntax:
unbind_function key_identifier
unbind_command key_identifier
unbind_edit key_identifier
unbind_browse key_identifier
unbind_abbrev key_identifier
unbind_variable key_identifier
unbind_integer key_identifier

These commands will remove key bindings associated with the various entry modes (functions, commands, editing operations, etc.). The key identifiers should be defined using the syntax described in the previous section.

4.1.5  Creating Key Auto-Bindings

Syntax: autobind key_identifier

In order to make repetitive calculations more pleasant, Orpie offers an automatic key binding feature. When a function or command is executed using its abbreviation, one of the keys selected by the autobind syntax will be automatically bound to that operation (unless the operation has already been bound to a key). The current set of autobindings can be viewed in the help panel by executing command_cycle_help (bound to 'h' by default).

The syntax for the key identifiers is provided in the previous section.

4.1.6  Creating Operation Abbreviations

Syntax: abbrev operation_abbreviation operation

You can use this syntax to set the abbreviations used within Orpie to represent the various functions and commands. A list of available operations may be found in Section 4.3. The operation abbreviations should be quoted strings, for example "sin" or "log".

Orpie performs autocompletion on these abbreviations, allowing you to type usually just a few letters in order to select the desired command. The order of the autocompletion matches will be the same as the order in which the abbreviations are registered by the rcfile–so you may wish to place the more commonly used operation abbreviations earlier in the list.

Multiple abbreviations may be bound to the same operation, if desired.

4.1.7  Removing Operation Abbreviations

Syntax: unabbrev operation_abbreviation

This syntax can be used to remove an operation abbreviation. The operation abbreviations should be quoted strings, as described in the previous section.

4.1.8  Creating Macros

Syntax: macro key_identifier macro_string

You can use this syntax to cause a single keypress (the key_identifier) to be interpreted as the series of keypresses listed in macro_string. The syntax for defining a keypress is the same as that defined in Section 4.1.3. The macro string should be a list of whitespace-separated keypresses, e.g. "2 <return> 2 +" (including quotes).

This macro syntax provides a way to create small programs; by way of example, the default orpierc file includes macros for the base 2 logarithm and the binary entropy function (bound to L and H, respectively), as well as “register” variable shortcuts (<f1> to <f12>).

Macros may call other macros recursively. However, take care that a macro does not call itself recursively; Orpie will not trap the infinite loop.

Note that operation abbreviations may be accessed within macros. For example, macro "A" "' a b o u t <return>" would bind A to display the “about Orpie” screen.

4.1.9  Creating Units

Syntax:
base_unit unit_symbol preferred_prefix
unit unit_symbol unit_definition

Units are defined in a two-step process:

1. Define a set of orthogonal “base units.” All other units must be expressible in terms of these base units. The base units can be given a preferred SI prefix, which will be used whenever the units are standardized (e.g. via ustand). The unit symbols and preferred prefixes should all be quoted strings; to prefer no prefix, use the empty string ("").

   It is expected that most users will use the fundamental SI units for base units.

2. Define all other units in terms of either base units or previously-defined units. Again, the unit symbol and unit definition should be quoted strings. The definition should take the form of a numeric value followed by a units string, e.g. "2.5_kN*m/s". See Section 3.8 for more details on the unit string format.

4.1.10  Creating Constants

Syntax: constant constant_symbol constant_definition

This syntax can be used to define a physical constant. Both the constant symbol and definition must be quoted strings. The constant definition should be a numeric constant followed by a units string e.g. "1.60217733e-19_C". All units used in the constant definition must already have been defined.

4.2  Configuration Variables

The following configuration variables may be set as described in Section 4.1.2:

• datadir
  This variable should be set to the full path of the Orpie data directory, which will contain the calculator state save file, temporary buffers, etc. The default directory is "~/.orpie/".
• editor
  This variable may be set to the fullscreen editor of your choice. The default value is "vi". It is recommended that you choose an editor that offers horizontal scrolling in place of word wrapping, so that the columns of large matrices can be properly aligned. (The Vim editor could be used in this fashion by setting editor to "vim -c 'set nowrap'".)
• hide_help
  Set this variable to "true" to hide the left help/status panel, or leave it on the default of "false" to display the help panel.
• conserve_memory
  Set this variable to "true" to minimize memory usage, or leave it on the default of "false" to improve rendering performance. (By default, Orpie caches multiple string representations of all stack elements. Very large integers in particular require significant computation for string representation, so caching these strings can make display updates much faster.)

4.3  Calculator Operations

Every calculator operation can be made available to the interface using the syntax described in Sections 4.1.3 and 4.1.6. The following is a list of every available operation.

4.3.1  Functions

The following operations are functions–that is, they will consume at least one argument from the stack. Orpie will generally abort the computation and provide an informative error message if a function cannot be successfully applied (for example, if you try to compute the transpose of something that is not a matrix).

For the exact integer data type, basic arithmetic operations will yield an exact integer result. Division of two exact integers will yield the quotient of the division. The more complicated functions will generally promote the integer to a real number, and as such the arithmetic will no longer be exact.

• function_10_x
  Raise 10 to the power of the last stack element (inverse of function_log10).
• function_abs
  Compute the absolute value of the last stack element.
• function_acos
  Compute the inverse cosine of the last stack element. For real numbers, The result will be provided either in degrees or radians, depending on the angle mode of the calculator.
• function_acosh
  Compute the inverse hyperbolic cosine of the last stack element.
• function_add
  Add last two stack elements.
• function_arg
  Compute the argument (phase angle of complex number) of the last stack element. The value will be provided in either degrees or radians, depending on the current angle mode of the calculator.
• function_asin
  Compute the inverse sine of the last stack element. For real numbers, The result will be provided either in degrees or radians, depending on the angle mode of the calculator.
• function_asinh
  Compute the inverse hyperbolic sine of the last stack element.
• function_atan
  Compute the inverse tangent of the last stack element. For real numbers, The result will be provided either in degrees or radians, depending on the angle mode of the calculator.
• function_atanh
  Compute the inverse hyperbolic tangent of the last stack element.
• function_binomial_coeff
  Compute the binomial coefficient (“n choose k”) formed by the last two stack elements. If these arguments are real, the coefficient is computed using a fast approximation to the log of the gamma function, and therefore the result is subject to rounding errors. For exact integer arguments, the coefficient is computed using exact arithmetic; this has the potential to be a slow operation.
• function_ceiling
  Compute the ceiling of the last stack element.
• function_convert_units
  Convert stack element 2 to an equivalent expression in the units of element 1. Element 1 should be real-valued, and its magnitude will be ignored when computing the conversion.
• function_cos
  Compute the cosine of the last stack element. If the argument is real, it will be assumed to be either degrees or radians, depending on the angle mode of the calculator.
• function_cosh
  Compute the hyperbolic cosine of the last stack element.
• function_conj
  Compute the complex conjugate of the last stack element.
• function_div
  Divide element 2 by element 1.
• function_erf
  Compute the error function of the last stack element.
• function_erfc
  Compute the complementary error function of the last stack element.
• function_eval
  Obtain the contents of the variable in the last stack position.
• function_exp
  Evaluate the exponential function of the last stack element.
• function_factorial
  Compute the factorial of the last stack element. For a real argument, this is computed using a fast approximation to the gamma function, and therefore the result may be subject to rounding errors (or overflow). For an exact integer argument, the factorial is computed using exact arithmetic; this has the potential to be a slow operation.
• function_floor
  Compute the floor of the last stack element.
• function_gamma
  Compute the Euler gamma function of the last stack element.
• function_gcd
  Compute the greatest common divisor of the last two stack elements. This operation may be applied only to integer type data.
• function_im
  Compute the imaginary part of the last stack element.
• function_inv
  Compute the multiplicative inverse of the last stack element.
• function_lcm
  Compute the least common multiple of the last two stack elements. This operation may be applied only to integer type data.
• function_ln
  Compute the natural logarithm of the last stack element.
• function_lngamma
  Compute the natural logarithm of the Euler gamma function of the last stack element.
• function_log10
  Compute the base-10 logarithm of the last stack element.
• function_maximum
  Find the maximum values of each of the columns of a real NxM matrix, returning a 1xM matrix as a result.
• function_minimum
  Find the minimum values of each of the columns of a real NxM matrix, returning a 1xM matrix as a result.
• function_mean
  Compute the sample means of each of the columns of a real NxM matrix, returning a 1xM matrix as a result.
• function_mod
  Compute element 2 mod element 1. This operation can be applied only to integer type data.
• function_mult
  Multiply last two stack elements.
• function_neg
  Negate last stack element.
• function_permutation
  Compute the permutation coefficient determined by the last two stack elements 'n' and 'k': the number of ways of obtaining an ordered subset of k elements from a set of n elements. If these arguments are real, the coefficient is computed using a fast approximation to the log of the gamma function, and therefore the result is subject to rounding errors. For exact integer arguments, the coefficient is computed using exact arithmetic; this has the potential to be a slow operation.
• function_pow
  Raise element 2 to the power of element 1.
• function_purge
  Delete the variable in the last stack position.
• function_re
  Compute the real part of the last stack element.
• function_sin
  Compute the sine of the last stack element. If the argument is real, it will be assumed to be either degrees or radians, depending on the angle mode of the calculator.
• function_sinh
  Compute the hyperbolic sine of the last stack element.
• function_solve_linear
  Solve a linear system of the form Ax = b, where A and b are the last two elements on the stack. A must be a square matrix and b must be a matrix with one column. This function does not compute inv(A), but obtains the solution by a more efficient LU decomposition method. This function is recommended over explicitly computing the inverse, especially when solving linear systems with relatively large dimension or with poorly conditioned matrices.
• function_sq
  Square the last stack element.
• function_sqrt
  Compute the square root of the last stack element.
• function_standardize_units
  Convert the last stack element to an equivalent expression using the SI standard base units (kg, m, s, etc.).
• function_stdev_unbiased
  Compute the unbiased sample standard deviation of each of the columns of a real NxM matrix, returning a 1xM matrix as a result. (Compare to HP48's sdev function.)
• function_stdev_biased
  Compute the biased (population) sample standard deviation of each of the columns of a real NxM matrix, returning a 1xM matrix as a result. (Compare to HP48's psdev function.)
• function_store
  Store element 2 in (variable) element 1.
• function_sub
  Subtract element 1 from element 2.
• function_sumsq
  Sum the squares of each of the columns of a real NxM matrix, returning a 1xM matrix as a result.
• function_tan
  Compute the tangent of the last stack element. If the argument is real, it will be assumed to be either degrees or radians, depending on the angle mode of the calculator.
• function_tanh
  Compute the hyperbolic tangent of the last stack element.
• function_to_int
  Convert a real number to an integer type.
• function_to_real
  Convert an integer type to a real number.
• function_total
  Sum each of the columns of a real NxM matrix, returning a 1xM matrix as a result.
• function_trace
  Compute the trace of a square matrix.
• function_transpose
  Compute the matrix transpose of the last stack element.
• function_unit_value
  Drop the units of the last stack element.
• function_utpn
  Compute the upper tail probability of a normal distribution.
  UTPN(m, v, x) = Integrate[ 1/Sqrt[2 Pi v] Exp[-(m-y)²/(2 v)], {y, x, Infinity}]
• function_var_unbiased
  Compute the unbiased sample variance of each of the columns of a real NxM matrix, returning a 1xM matrix as a result. (Compare to HP48's var function.)
• function_var_biased
  Compute the biased (population) sample variance of each of the columns of a real NxM matrix, returning a 1xM matrix as a result. (Compare to HP48's pvar function.)

4.3.2  Commands

The following operations are referred to as commands; they differ from functions because they do not take an argument. Many calculator interface settings are implemented as commands.

• command_about
  Display a nifty “about Orpie” credits screen.
• command_begin_abbrev
  Begin entry of an operation abbreviation.
• command_begin_browsing
  Enter stack browsing mode.
• command_begin_constant
  Begin entry of a physical constant.
• command_begin_variable
  Begin entry of a variable name.
• command_bin
  Set the base of exact integer representation to 2 (binary).
• command_clear
  Clear all elements from the stack.
• command_cycle_base
  Cycle the base of exact integer representation between 2, 8, 10, and 16 (bin, oct, dec, and hex).
• command_cycle_help
  Cycle through multiple help pages. The first page displays commonly used bindings, and the second page displays the current autobindings.
• command_dec
  Set the base of exact integer representation to 10 (decimal).
• command_deg
  Set the angle mode to degrees.
• command_drop
  Drop the last element off the stack.
• command_dup
  Duplicate the last stack element.
• command_enter_pi
  Enter 3.1415…on the stack.
• command_hex
  Set the base of exact integer representation to 16 (hexadecimal).
• command_oct
  Set the base of exact integer representation to 8 (octal).
• command_polar
  Set the complex display mode to polar.
• command_rad
  Set the angle mode to radians.
• command_rand
  Generate a random real-valued number between 0 (inclusive) and 1 (exclusive). The deviates are uniformly distributed.
• command_rect
  Set the complex display mode to rectangular (cartesian).
• command_refresh
  Refresh the display.
• command_swap
  Swap stack elements 1 and 2.
• command_quit
  Quit Orpie.
• command_toggle_angle_mode
  Toggle the angle mode between degrees and radians.
• command_toggle_complex_mode
  Toggle the complex display mode between rectangular and polar.
• command_undo
  Undo the last calculator operation.
• command_view
  View the last stack element in an external fullscreen editor.
• command_edit_input
  Create a new stack element using an external editor.

4.3.3  Edit Operations

The following operations are related to editing during data entry. These commands cannot be made available as operation abbreviations, since abbreviations are not accessible while entering data. These operations should be made available as single keypresses using the bind keyword.

• edit_angle
  Begin entering the phase angle of a complex number. (Orpie will assume the angle is in either degrees or radians, depending on the current angle mode.)
• edit_backspace
  Delete the last character entered.
• edit_begin_integer
  Begin entering an exact integer.
• edit_begin_units
  Begin appending units to a numeric expression.
• edit_complex
  Begin entering a complex number.
• edit_enter
  Enter the data that is currently being edited.
• edit_matrix
  Begin entering a matrix, or begin entering the next row of a matrix.
• edit_minus
  Enter a minus sign in input.
• edit_scientific_notation_base
  Begin entering the scientific notation exponent of a real number, or the base of an exact integer.
• edit_separator
  Begin editing the next element of a complex number or matrix. (This will insert a comma between elements.)

4.3.4  Browsing Operations

The following list of operations is available only in stack browsing mode. As abbreviations are unavailable while browsing the stack, these operations should be bound to single keypresses using the bind keyword.

• browse_echo
  Echo the currently selected element to stack level 1.
• browse_end
  Exit stack browsing mode.
• browse_drop
  Drop the currently selected stack element.
• browse_dropn
  Drop all stack elements below the current selection (inclusive).
• browse_keep
  Drop all stack elements except the current selection. (This is complementary to browse_drop.
• browse_keepn
  Drop all stack elements above the current selection (non-inclusive). (This is complementary to browse_dropn.
• browse_next_line
  Move the selection cursor down one line.
• browse_prev_line
  Move the selection cursor up one line.
• browse_rolldown
  Cyclically “roll” stack elements downward, below the selected element (inclusive).
• browse_rollup
  Cyclically “roll” stack elements upward, below the selected element (inclusive) .
• browse_scroll_left
  Scroll the selected element to the left (for viewing very large entries such as matrices).
• browse_scroll_right
  Scroll the selected element to the right.
• browse_view
  View the currently selected stack element in a fullscreen editor.
• browse_edit
  Edit the currently selected stack element using an external editor.

4.3.5  Abbreviation Entry Operations

The following list of operations is available only while entering a function or command abbreviation, or while entering a physical constant. These operations must be bound to single keypresses using the bind keyword.

• abbrev_backspace
  Delete a character from the abbreviation string.
• abbrev_enter
  Execute the operation associated with the selected abbreviation.
• abbrev_exit
  Cancel abbreviation entry.

4.3.6  Variable Entry Operations

The following list of operations is available only while entering a variable name. As abbreviations are unavailable while entering variables, these operations should be bound to single keypresses using the bind keyword.

• variable_backspace
  Delete a character from the variable name.
• variable_cancel
  Cancel entry of the variable name.
• variable_complete
  Autocomplete the variable name.
• variable_enter
  Enter the variable name on the stack.

4.3.7  Integer Entry Operations

The following operation is available only while entering an integer; it can be made accessible by binding it to a single keypress using the bind keyword.

• integer_cancel
  Cancel entry of an integer.

5  Licensing

Orpie is Free Software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), Version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation. You should have received a copy of the GPL along with this program, in the file “COPYING”.

6  Credits

Orpie includes portions of the ocamlgsl bindings supplied by Olivier Andrieu, as well as the curses bindings from the OCaml Text Mode Kit written by Nicolas George. I would like to thank these authors for helping to make Orpie possible.

7  Contact info

Orpie author: Paul Pelzl <pelzlpj@eecs.umich.edu>
Orpie website: http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~pelzlpj/orpie

Feel free to contact me if you have bugs, feature requests, patches, etc. I would also welcome volunteers interested in packaging Orpie for various platforms.

1

The default installation prefix is /usr/local. The orpierc file will be placed in $(prefix)/etc by default; use the –sysconfdir option to choose a different location.

This document was translated from L^AT_EX by H^EV^EA.