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From: spuhler@hpcuhc.cup.hp.com (Tom Spuhler)
Newsgroups: comp.benchmarks
Subject: Re: nbc - A New!, Improved! bc benchmark
Message-ID: <115440003@hpcuhc.cup.hp.com>
Date: 19 Dec 90 20:04:33 GMT
References: <115440001@hpcuhc.cup.hp.com>
Organization: GSY Systems Performance Section
Lines: 23

# >      echo '2^9999/3^6308' |/bin/time bc
# >
# ><Output is> 2
# Okay,
# On the system of my choice it took about .01 CPU seconds. But I didn't get
# the same answer. I got:
# %DCL-W-IVVERB, unrecognized command verb - check validity and spelling
#  \ECHO\
# Is this due to round off error?

Naw, it's mostly due to poor you being stuck with some hackneyed Op. Sys :-).
I guess I forgot to mention that this command works best on UNIX like
systems (and /usr/bin and /bin are on your path and you are using a bourne shell
compatible command interpreter and you are not in vi at the time you type
the command string and you don't have 'bc' aliased to /etc/backup and ...
But, that's probably not overly restrictive in this day and age.  And,
of course, there are lots of situations that don't match the above where
it will work.

Most importantly, You didn't get the correct output.  Any benchmark
which doesn't return the expected output is invalid (or at least VERY
suspect).  Work on it until you get '2'.
-Tom