Read Me

average
=======

* Version: 0.7.3

* Changes since version 0.7.2:

        - fixed bug in option parsing code.

* Version: 0.7.2

* Changes since version 0.7.1:

        - now skips comment lines (those starting with # with any number of leading
          blank space), with the option (-C) of using them.

* Version: 0.7.1

* Changes since version 0.6.1:

	- added the -c option, allowing multiple column input (tab and/or space 
	  delimited).

This program is for the command line only, and the instructions below refer to
a UNIX system. Other types of systems (e.g. Windows) will have different mechanics,
but I can't help you there. It also depends on Perl being installed -- which is
already the case in most Linux systems nowadays, and probably most Unix ones too
(Mac OS X included).


1. Installation
---------------

* First, uncompress the .gz file:
  tar -xzvf average-0.7.3.tar.gz
  
* If you want the program to be accessible from anywhere in the system, you will
need to move it to a directory in your $PATH (in case it is already in one of them,
you are done installing).

To find out directories that are in your $PATH, type:
  echo $PATH
  
You should see something like:
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/home/bob/bin

(your directory list might be longer or shorter, or contain different directories)

You could move 'average' to any of those directories, let's for example move it to 
the directory under the user's home (/home/bob/bin):

  mv average /home/bob/bin


2. Running the program
----------------------

'Average' takes a number of options specifying which types of statistics to show and 
how to present the numbers.

To see all possible options, type:
  average -h
  
To use 'average' as a "command-line calculator" instead of using input files or piped
output, just type:
  average

The prompt will go to the next line, waiting for ONE number (scientific notation 
accepted) at a time. Enter one number, then press <ENTER>. 

Keep entering numbers until you are done.

After pressing <ENTER> after the last number, press Ctrl-d to finish input, and
results should be shown on the screen.


3. License
----------

'Average' is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3. For more details
and the text of the license, please go to http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html