LokiBin in RealBasic Calculator

Craig A. Finseth, fin@finseth.com.

This documentation covers the LokiBin in RealBasic calculator. LokiBin is a RPN binary calculator. Other versions of this and similar calculators can be found at the Loki site. Enjoy.

LokiBin is provided as free software under the GNU Public License. Both the binary RealBasic project file and an XML dump (which includes full source) are provided as part of the distribution. RealBasic can be obtained from the Real Software site.

Installation: just copy the

OS X LokiBin,
OS9 LokiBin.9,
or Windows LokiBin.exe

file somewhere convenient and run it. No other files are required. On Macintosh systems, be sure to use the Finder (or equvalent tool) for the copying.

The file RPN.html provides a quick introduction to RPN.

Notes

LokiBin is your basic RPN calculator. All numbers are integers with a word size of 2 to 32 bits (selectable).

You can enter numbers in binary, octal, decimal, or hex (user selectable). If you sent the entry mode to, say, octal, the program will only let you enter the digits 0-7. You can fool the program if you like, but the results may be unexpected.

The "C Style" entry mode allows you to specify different formats "on the fly." It uses:

no way to specify binary
0value for octal
value for decimal
0xvalue for hexadecimal

Entry is always case-independent. "C Style" displays in hexadecimal.

All forms of the value in the X register are shown to the right.

Decimal values in the range 2^31 to 2^32 - 1 are displayed as "overflow" when in unsigned mode.
ASCII display considers only the low order (up to) 8 bits.
Leading zero displays may not show all digits, but all are present for copy purposes.

Math is correct except that addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and modulo operate only in 2's complement mode.

Keyboard Equivalents

Almost all commands can be given from the keyboard. The available keys are as listed.

key	operation
space, CR, LF	Enter
BS, DEL	erase last character
0-9	enter digit
A-F	enter hex digit
!	binary not
#	clear X
&	binary and
\|	binary or
^	binary xor
~	negation; change sign (shows as +/-)
+	addition
-	subtraction
*	multiplication
/	division
%	modulo
@	clear
K	key in: accept a key and enter its ASCII value
L	recall last X
P	population count (number of 1 bits)
R	roll down
S	swap X and Y
X	used for C Style entry
Z	leading zero count

Version History

1.0, 2002-09-09, first release

1.1, 2003-05-14

Added disclosure triangle control.
Converted display forms to static text.
Now accepts the Enter key for Enter and the "#" key for erase.
Now allows entry into any register.
Now uses new preference saving code. It will save preferences to the application directory if it can't use the regular place.
Now uses sheets on OS X.
Improved and standardized Copy and Print; added File Save.
Added Leading Zero Count operation.
Closing the main window now exits the application.

1.2, 2005-08-13

Fixed bug in math where negative numbers were not sign extended for computation.
Now compiled using RealBasic 5.5.5.

Go to Craig Finseth's home page, http://www.finseth.com/.