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SLIDERULE(1)		     General Commands Manual		    SLIDERULE(1)

NAME
     sliderule - calculator featuring a historic slide rule

SYNOPSIS
     sliderule	[-display display]  [-bw pixels] [-stip] [-rv] [-geometry geome-
     try]

DESCRIPTION
     Sliderule features a historic slide rule calculator.  You can multiply, di-
     vide, calculate reciprocals, squares, square roots, and even trignometrical
     functions.  Anyway, you need to know how to do this.  You can't add or sub-
     tract - but if you know a sliderule, you knew this already.  If  you  don't
     know, don't worry: this man page won't make you learning it either.

OPTIONS
     -display displayname
	     This option specifies the X server to contact.

     -geometry geometry
	     This  option specifies the size and placement of the top level win-
	     dow.  By default, the minimum size will be used.  Doesn't work very
	     well at all.

     -fg color
	     This option specifies the foreground color to use.

     -bg color
	     This option specifies the background color to use.

     -bw pixels
	     This option specifies the border width in pixels.

     -stip   This option indicates that the background of the calculator  should
	     be  drawn	using a stipple of the foreground and background colors.
	     On monochrome displays this makes for a nicer display.

     -rv     This option indicates that reverse video should be used.

OPERATION
     The slide rule is operated with the pointer.  The only keyboard input  that
     has any effect at all is the key "q" to quit the program.

     The slide rule consists mainly of three different areas: the outside scales
     that  are	normally  fixed with the left hand, and the slider that is moved
     with the right hand.  When moving the slider, a black background  will  be-
     come visible.

     Pressing  button  1  inside  the outer part of the slide rule will move the
     hairline to the pointer position, and update the  digital	display  at  the
     left-hand side (some comfort a real slide-rule wasn't fond of).  Moving the
     pointer around while keeping button 1 pressed, will drag the hairline.

     Pressing  button 2 or 3 in the outer part, will double or half the width of
     the slide rule, respectively.  This doesn't work very well.

     Pressing button 1 on the slider, or in the black area exposed by the  moved
     away  slider, will move the slider so that the pointer position will become
     the "1" on the slider.  Moving the pointer then, while keeping  the  button
     pressed, will drag the slider accordingly.

     Pressing  button  3  on the slider, or in the black area, will behave simi-
     larly, using the "10" position of the slider.

     Pressing button 2 on the slider allows you to  grab  and  drag  the  slider
     without moving it first.

     For the curious, the various scales are:

	    L	 mantissa of the decimal logarithm of D
	    A	 square of D
	    B	 square of C
	    CI	 reciprocal of C
	    C	 base scale
	    D	 base scale
	    DI	 reciprocal of D
	    S	 arc sine of D
	    T	 arc tangent of D

SEE ALSO
     xcalc(1)

BUGS
     Resizing  of  either way doesn't work pretty well.  Best leave the geometry
     as it is.

     Sliderule uses a prehistoric way to obtain X resources, which is not  docu-
     mented in this man page.

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright 1988, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
     See X(1) for a full statement of rights and permissions.

AUTHORS
     John Bradley, University of Pennsylvania
     Mark Rosenstein, MIT Project Athena

HISTORY
     Sliderule	used to be the option "-analog" of the old xcalc application, up
     to X11R3.	This option has been dropped later, when the stock X11 xcalc was
     rewritten as a Toolkit application.  This sliderule application is just the
     old "-analog" code only, with some bugs and  inaccuracies	fixed,	and  the
     trigonometrical scales added.  This work was done by Joerg Wunsch.

X Version 11			  3 August 1997 		    SLIDERULE(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sliderule&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

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