This section details changes through all Expression Calculator versions.
Major Expression Calculator enhancements are due to ideas and suggestions of users. To submit a feature request, a bug report or a question, please email admin@vestris.com or fill in the form at http://www.vestris.com/vestris/bugreport.html .
Expression Calculator dedicated site at http://excalc.vestris.com
rewritten html/pdf documentation
self-extracting installer
corrected color flicker
added zplot 3D plots function
pressing space and Alt+space will popup menus
added Bth and Bman binomial theorem functions
added cool buttons and corrected window resize bugs
the task counter has been changed for a progress bar
added moebius / mu function
added dawson integral function
added true / false constants definitions
added safeprime function
user defined functions window keeps the position and fixed functions are grayed
added isprime function
added ithprime function equivalent for primeN
added quot and rem functions for integer division
added ?, >, < equality test functions
added omitted sign for parenthesis multiplication possibility: ( 2 + 2 )( 1 - 5 ) = 4 * -4 = -16
modified the - and + sign attachment for numbers and variables as used in other mathematical software: - 2 ^ 2 means - ( 2 ^ 2 ) now and not ( - 2 ) ^ 2
added possibility to align multiple additive signs: - + - - 2 = - + + 2 = - + 2 = - 2
added omitted sign for variables multiplication possibility: 2a = 2 * a
added direct mode calculation option
added 2D plot function
added a series of financial functions: sln, syd, cterm, term, pmt, rate, pv, npv, fv, db, ddb, irate, nper, paymt, ppaymt, ipaymt, pval, fval
implemented Epsilon Algorithm (explonential tables generation of delta^2 Aitken algorithm using P.Wynn's parallel series convergence discoveries of 1936) for Gauss Integrals
added user defined functions (registered version only)
added the ability to define named constants through the user defined functions
saving the current state will save the user defined functions too
corrected sum function
shareware release, Expression Calculator is no longer freeware
corrected Euler's indice: returns correct value for eInd(1) = 1
removed new function for integral evaluation
int function changed to intg because of the equivalent integral name
linked the log function to ln for similarity with Maple and Mathematica, the new ten based logarithm is logten
default mode is Radians for compatibility for default trigonometric function in Maple and Mathematica
added trapezoid, simpson, newton, boole, ordersix, weddle integration approximation methods
added Gauss integration method using Ernst Hairer's three level quadrature method
added sum, mul
added Euler's constant
added harmonic function
added sigma(n,p), tau(n): the sum of the positive divisors of n in power p
added dilog(x): dilogarithm
added Si - The Sine Integral
added Ci - The Cosine Integral
added Ssi - The Shifted Sine Integral
added Shi - The Hyperbolic Sine Integral
added Chi - The Hyperbolic Cosine Integral
added Erf - The Error Function
added Erfc - The Complementary Error Function and its Iterated Integrals
added FresnelC - The Fresnel Cosine Integral
added FresnelS - The Fresnel Sine Integral
added FresnelF, FresnelG - The Fresnel Auxiliary Functions
added EllipticE - Incomplete and complete elliptic integrals of the second kind
added EllipticCE - Complementary complete elliptic integral of the second kind
added EllipticF - Incomplete elliptic integral of the first kind
added EllipticK - Complete elliptic integral of the first kind
added EllipticCK - Complementary complete elliptic integral of the first kind
added general Pochhammer function
added Catalan's constant
added Copy menu functions
grouped tasks menu functions
added Load and Save calculation grid + variables (full state save) functions
error message '")" expected' has been replaced by function: too many parameters when this is the case
beta function third step parameter is now optional
added Fermat function that returns the first four fermat numbers
added assignement = function
added code to avoid multithread concurrence bug under Windows NT 4.0, which caused the creation of unsuspendable and uninterruptable tasks during processor overload
clicking on a pushed hex, bin, oct or rad button will reset the deg mode
fixed resize problems, when the calculator is resized to the edge of the screen this has no effect on the opposite corner of the calculator
corrected a dramatic lack of precision in the gamma, beta and factor functions for values over 70, the possible factorial, gamma and beta limits have been taken down to 1508!, but the results are precise for all of the values
corrected value output for the X*10^ style for huge numbers
you may start a fractional number with a point directly, 0.14322 may be written .14322
corrected precision for very small negative values (47886.5-3323.4-6136.6-5547.6-14783.3-6958.8-1038.4-10098.4 did not give exactly 0)
corrected precise result for negative values
the initialization screen and some other bitmaps are full 256 color when using 256 color screen mode
hexadecimal and octal modes work for negative numbers
new parameter added to the Expression Calculator launch: "notitle" will not show the initialization bitmap when loading the Expression Calculator
corrected the eInd (Phi) function, it will not affect the prime function any longer and will work correctly
Expression Calculator will never start out of screen bounds any longer
init screen moved to front as the Expression Calculator initializes
corrected last line highlight (when the last line in the grid is selected, the text copied to the entry box is also hightlighted)
last operation selection has changed, it will scroll through the calculations performed (DOSKEY style) instead of simply copying the last operation a thousand times
standard Windows copy (Ctrl-C), cut (Ctrl-X & Shift-Del) and paste (Ctrl-V & Shift Ins) functions do work in the edit box
untruncated possible results are bigger (up to ~2^120 is shown in normal more instead of the X*10^style)
when you press the first column (column with line numbers) on the grid, the result (not the expression) is copied to the clipboard
you can now minimize the Expression Calculator
Expression Calculator can now be resized freely, buttons and panels follow during resizing, shape is kept at every restart. Registry is used to store this information and it is user private
The Expression Calculator will be set to the position and form of a previous session unless "small", "medium" or "scientific" parameter specified
added function to clear the primes' table, which resets all primes calculations that have been performed and frees all used memory
added function to copy the calculated primes to clipboard, copies the calculated primes to clipboard and delimits them by commas; this function is pretty slow and is a task that you cannot yet cancel
added the reset the Expression Calculator function
corrected the pushbutton bug with the Arc and the Not buttons which could not be both down at the same time
primes are cleared when the AC button is pressed or the Reset item in the grid menu chosen
the result grid returns truncated values (with non-truncated values if different)
the Expression Calculator will start in the last used mode (scientific / small / medium). Registry is used to store this information and it is user private.
corrected a severe bug in the prime generator
corrected a bug in functions accepting more than 2 parameters, up to as many arguments as wanted can be specified for average, max, min, fcd and lcm
added primeC, primeN
added Euler's beta function
added Binomial function
faster calculation interrupt routine using native Win NT / 95 thread support instead of pseudo single task interrupt requests (you may now interrupt more than one calculation thread at the same time; you'll really see the difference in the Expression Calculator response with a slow machine)
added suspend and resume threads routine (right button pops up the menu on the result grid)
added command line parameters for startup (small, medium)
added system information at the initialization and to the about box, providing processor(s), operating system, computer name and memory information
added the help speed button
added sleep delay at mutithread primes generator at second instance, speeds up main primes generator thread dramatically as prime threads are added
a faster prime generation algorithm, speeding up 2.5 time approx the previous versions' calculations and eating 3 times less memory
the following functions will now accept up to 255 parameters: max, min, gcd, lcm
max, min, gcd, lcm, gamma and logn will now work correctly as their _positive_ versions
added average function
The Expression Calculator was originally a DOS application or more a command line engine. The first evaluator was written by Daniel Doubrovkine dblock@dblock.org ) as a Pascal lab work at the University of Geneva in 1994.