Classic example of "I can't think of a use, so it must be useless". bc is very useful, and I can think of several times one might need a command line calculator.
Commands like 'arch' might provide a limited amount of data from a different command. However, to extract just the data from the larger response would then require a string of grep/sed/awk. or call the one command to give you the output you specifically need. This also holds true for the 'uname' section.
I use dc all the time, which the article denounced as even worse. dc gets more usage on my machines than most other commands, except for perhaps ls, cd, and vi. Whenever I need to make quick calculations on my computer, it is much more efficient for me to open up a terminal window and type dc than it is for me to use a GUI calculator or to grab my HP-48 graphing calculator. I suppose I could use a Python or Common Lisp REPL, but I love Reverse Polish Notation: less typing!
Yeah that one was really weird. I mean I personally usually start python or some other repl when I need to calculate something but I have reached for bc/dc sometimes aswell.
And what's with the jab against RPN? The author should probably try some FORTH to learn how nice and minimal code in postfix notation can be. I'm guessing he doesn't like LISP either...
Me too, although R has become my command-line calculator of choice for most tasks. Being able to calculate things without moving my hands over to a calculator or calculator app is convenient.
Commands like 'arch' might provide a limited amount of data from a different command. However, to extract just the data from the larger response would then require a string of grep/sed/awk. or call the one command to give you the output you specifically need. This also holds true for the 'uname' section.