VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1) NAME vc - spread sheet calculator ("visicalc-like") SYNOPSIS vc [ _f_i_l_e ] DESCRIPTION _V_c is a calculator that is based on rectangular tables, in much the same style as Visicalc or Lotus 123. When it is invoked it presents you with an empty table organised as rows and columns of cells. Each cell may have a label string associated with it and an expression. The expression may be a constant or it may compute something based on other entries. When _v_c is running, the screen is divided into four regions: the top line is for entering commands, the second line is for messages from _v_c, the third line and the first four columns show the row and column numbers, and the rest of the screen forms a window looking at the table. _v_c has two cursors: a cell cursor (indicated by a '<' on the screen) and a character cursor (indicated by the terminals hardware cursor). The cell and character cursors are often the same. They will differ when a long command is being typed on the top line. Commands which use the terminal's control key will work when either a long command is being typed or in "normal" mode. The cursor control commands and the row, column commands can be prefixed by a numeric argument indicating how many times the command is to be executed. "^U" can be used before the number if the cursor movement is to take place while a command is being typed into the command line. Cursor control commands: ^N Move the cell cursor to the next row. ^P Move the cell cursor to the previous row. ^F Move the cell cursor forward one column. ^B Move the cell cursor backward one column. ^H Backspace one character. Page 1 (printed 1/5/87) VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1) h, j, k, l Alternate cursor controls (left, down, up, right). 0 Move the cell cursor to column 0 of the current row. $ Move the cell cursor to the last valid column in the current row. Cell entry and editing commands: = Prompts for an expression which will be evaluated dynamically to produce a value for the cell pointed at by the cell cursor. This may be used in conjunction with ^V to make one entries value be dependent on anothers. " Enter a label for the current cell. < Enter a label that will be flushed left against the left edge of the cell. > Enter a label that will be flushed right against the right edge of the cell. x Clears the current cell. e Edit the value associated with the current cell. This is identical to '=' except that the command line starts out containing the old value or expression associated with the cell. E Edit the string associated with the current cell. This is the same as either "leftstring", "rightstring", or "label", with the additional fact that the command line starts out with the old string. m Mark a cell to be used as the source for the copy command. c Copy the last marked cell to the current cell, updating Page 2 (printed 1/5/87) VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1) the row and column references. ^T Toggle cell display. The current cell's contents are displayed in line one when no command being entered or edited. ^T turns the display on or off. File operations G Get a new database from a file. P Put the current database into a file. W Write a listing of the current database in a form that matches its appearance on the screen. This differs from the "put" command in that "put"s files are intended to be reloaded with "get", while "write" produces a file for people to look at. T Write a listing of the current database to a file, but put ":"s between each field. This is useful for tables that will be further formatted by the _t_b_l preprocessor of _n_r_o_f_f. M Merges the database from the named file into the current database. Values, expressions and names defined in the named file are written into the current file, overwriting the existing entries at those locations. Row and Column operations. Members of this class of commands can be used on either rows or columns. The second letter of the command is either a column designator (one of the characters c, j, k, ^N, ^p) or a row designator (one of r, l, h, ^B, ^F). Commands which move or copy cells also modify the variable references in affected cell expressions. Variable references may be frozen by using the "fixed" operator. ar, ac Creates a new row (column) immediately following the current row (column). It is initialized to be a copy of the current one. Page 3 (printed 1/5/87) VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1) dr, dc Delete this row (column). pr, pc, pm Pull deleted rows (columns) back into the spread sheet. The last deleted set of cells is put back into the spread sheet at the current location. _P_r inserts enough rows to hold the data. _P_c inserts enough columns to hold the data. _P_m (merge) does not insert rows or columns, but overwrites the cells beginning at the current cursor location. ir, ic Insert a new row (column) by moving the row (column) containing the cell cursor, and all following, down (right) one. The new position will be empty. zr, zc Hide ("zap") the current row (column). This keeps a row or column from being displayed but keeps it in the data base. vr, vc Removes expressions from the affected rows (columns), leaving only the values which were in the cells before the command was executed. sr, sc Show hidden rows (columns). Type in a range of rows or columns to be revealed. The command default is the first range of rows or columns currently hidden. f Sets the output format to be used for printing the numbers in each cell in the current column. Type in two numbers which will be the width in characters of a column and the number of digits which will follow the decimal point. Note that this command has only a column version and does have a second letter. Miscellaneous commands: ^C Exit from _v_c. If you were editing a named file, and you modified it, then it will ask about saving before exiting. Page 4 (printed 1/5/87) VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1) q Alternate exit command. ? Types a brief helpful message. / Copy a region to the area specified by the current cell. ^G or ESC Abort the current long command. ^R Redraw the screen. ^V Types, in the long command line, the name of the cell being pointed at by the cell cursor. This is used when typing in expressions to refer to entries in the table. ^E Types, in the long command line, the expression of the cell being pointed at by the cell cursor. ^A Types, in the long command line, the value of the cell being pointed at by the cell cursor. Expressions that are used with the '=' and 'e' commands have a fairly conventional syntax. Terms may be variable names (from the ^V command), parenthesised expressions, negated terms, and constants. Rectangular regions of the screen may be operated upon with '@' functions such as sum (@sum), average (@avg) and product (@prod). Terms may be combined using many binary operators. Their precedences (from highest to lowest) are: *,/; +,-; <,=,>,<=,>=; &; |; ?. e+e Addition. e-e Subtraction. e*e Multiplication. e/e Division. Page 5 (printed 1/5/87) VC(1) UNIX 3.0 VC(1) @sum(v:v) Sum all valid (nonblank) entries in the region whose two corners are defined by the two variable (cell) names given. @avg(v:v) Average all valid (nonblank) entries in the region whose two corners are defined by the two variable (cell) names given. @prod(v:v) Multiply together all valid (nonblank) entries in the region whose two corners are defined by the two variable (cell) names given. e?e:e Conditional: If the first expression is true then the value of the second is returned, otherwise the value of the third is. <,=,>,<=,>= Relationals: true iff the indicated relation holds. &,| Boolean connectives. fixed To make a variable not change automatically when a cell moves, put the word fixed in front of the reference. I.e. B1*fixed C3 SEE ALSO bc(1), dc(1) BUGS Expression reevaluation is done in the same top-to-bottom, left-to-right manner as is done in other spread sheet calculators. This is silly. A proper following of the dependency graph with (perhaps) recourse to relaxation should be implemented. At most 200 rows and 40 columns. Page 6 (printed 1/5/87)