." Tips on bc variables .TH bc pj "3 July 2005" .SH NAME bc Tips .SH DESCRIPTION .PP To change the number of decimal places you see, do this: .PP .RS .nf scale=5 .fi .RE .PP ibase and obase determine the "input base" and the "output base," so you can use them to do conversions. See them like this: .PP .RS .nf obase 10 ibase 10 .fi .RE .PP Set them like this: .PP .RS .nf ibase=2 ibase 2 ibase=1010 ibase 10 obase=8 obase 10 .fi .RE .PP Why does obase say 10, when it should be 8? Well, because you set the output base to 8, and 10 octal is 8 decimal. Crazy, huh? I suppose displaying the value of obase always yields 10. .PP So pretend you want to convert from octal to binary. Do this: .PP .RS .nf obase=2 ibase=8 357 11101111 .fi .RE .PP .SH AUTHOR Paul Jungwirth .SH COPYRIGHT Copyright (co 2005 Paul Jungwirth