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--- george huxtable wrote:

> This has prompted me to ask for suggestions from
> list members about suitable
> programs for doing simple calculations on a home
> computer.

George,

I see that Python and JavaScript have both been
recommended by others.  To elaborate a bit:

Python is an interpreted language as is Basic). You
can download it for free from

   http://www.python.org/

There is documentation on line, but there are also
many 3rd-party books on Python programming available
through the usual sources.

The nice thing about Python is that you can type in an
expression and have it evaluated immediately, as you
could with Basic.  For example,

>>> 2*5
10

To do sines and cosines, you need to tell Python to
use its math library:

>>> from math import *

Then you can do calculations involving the trig
functions:

>>> sin(pi/2)
1.0

Note that, like most computer languages, it likes its
angles in radians.

You can also write and run Python programs, as with
other languages.

Basic used to be built in to your computer.
JavaScript is built in to your browser (Firefox,
Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.).  As with Python,
there are numerous books available in the marketplace
on JavaScript programming. Online tutorials are also
available.  A simple Google seach on "javascript
tutorial" will turn up many such.

For an excellent example of a JavaScript program that
is highly relevant to this list, see Dan Allen's
"Position of the Sun" at

    http://216.83.138.247/S2K.htm

You can see Dan's actual JavaScript code by
right-clicking with your mouse anywhere on the page
and selecting "View Page Source" from the popup menu.

Best regards,

Chuck Taylor
North of Seattle, USA



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