2 Getting Started

This section provides information on how to start rcalc, and describes the rcalc user interface.

2.1 To Start rcalc

You can start rcalc in the following ways:

When you start rcalc, the following window is displayed:

Figure 2-1 rcalc Window

The rcalc window contains the following elements:

Menubar: The menus on the menubar contain all of the commands that you need to work with archives in rcalc.
Toolbar: The toolbar contains a subset of the commands that you can access from the menubar.
Session area: The session area displays in a list your current rcalc session. Each row represents a calculus, a variable or function definition or evaluation.
Line toolbar: If a line is selected, you can use the line toolbar to remove, move up, move down, or (in)activate it. It also has a drop-down list which defines the insert policy for new lines (insert at end, or before, after or replace selected line).
rcalc prompt: This is the place where you type expressions you want to add to your session.
Messages box: The messages box shows various informations from the rcalc engine, like undefined variables or errors while parsing your expressions.