[Mac-emacs-users] Calc Installation Instructions

[Andrew C. <ch...@tr...>]

Hi Everyone,

I'm still on a short break from programming Emacs.  But I'd like to
share with you something really interesting that I discovered
yesterday: Calc.  Calc is a calculator package written in Emacs Lisp.
It is quite powerful and has features such as infinite precision,
symbolic algebra and calculus, hexidecimal and binary display modes,
etc.  It has a 500-page manual!  For a full set of features, see this
on-line manual, e.g.

  http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/texinfodoc/calc_toc.html

Here is what you need to do to install Calc.

1. Download the file calc-2.02f.tar.gz from any GNU software mirror.
   You can of course always get it at

     ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/calc/calc-2.02f.tar.gz

2. Unpack this using StuffIt Expander.  Since these are all source
   files, it doesn't matter which end of line setting you use.

3. The resulting folder calc-2.02f can be placed anywhere on your
   system.  The instructions that follow assume you have put it in
   :emacs-20.6:site-lisp:.

4. Open the Emacs application.  Then load the file calc-maint.el by
   typing:

     M-x load-file RET ~/../site-lisp/calc-maint.el RET

5. Then byte-compile the Calc source files by typing

     M-x calc-compile RET

   (This will take a while.)

6. Then set up the autoloads and load path in your .emacs file by typing

     M-x calc-private-autoloads RET

7. Build the Calc info file by first finding the file calc.texinfo

     C-x C-f ~/../site-lisp/calc.texinfo RET

   Ignore the bell and the message

     Fontifying calc.texinfo...buffer too big

   that Emacs generates.  Then format the info file by typing

     M-x texinfo-format-buffer

   (This will take a while.)  Ignore the bell and the message

     Fontifying calc.info...buffer too big

8. Now exit and re-enter Emacs and you are ready to use Calc!

The prefix key for enter Calc is set to M-#.  If you are using the
command key as meta key, M-# is also command-shift-3, which invokes
the screen shot function on the Mac.  You can type ESC # instead, or
change the line

  (global-set-key "\e#" 'calc-dispatch)

that Calc adds to your .emacs file.  To get you started,

  ESC # c starts Calc,
  ESC # t gets you into the Calc tutorial, and
  ESC # i show the info file for Calc.

Have fun!  If anyone has interesting experience using Emacs on the
Mac, please share!

Andrew.