x11-calc - Another RPN (Reverse Polish) calculator

Includes emulators for the HP35, HP80, HP45, HP70, HP55, HP21, HP22, HP25, HP25C, HP27, HP29C, HP31E, HP32E, HP33E, HP33C, HP34C, HP37E, HP38C, HP38E, HP10, HP67, HP10C, HP11C, HP12C, HP15C, and HP16C calculators.

All written in C using X11.

Use of any language extensions or non standard language features has been avoided in order to try to make the code as portable as possible.

The aim is to have the same source code compile without modification on as many systems and architectures as possible including Linux, NetBSD, MacOS, VMS, Solaris and Tru64 Unix.

Contents ^{Back to Top}

• Changes

• Installing/Building

• Tested Systems

• User Guide

• Known issues

• Acknowledgements

• Submitting a problem report

• More screenshots

Changes ^{Back to Top}

Details of the latest/important changes.

23 Dec 25 (0.23.0226)

• Fixed bug that caused the geometry to be ignored if a value was zero.

14 Dec 25 (0.23.0224)

• HP67 program card files can include text labels.
• Added Portuguese language support for help text and error messages.

19 Nov 25

• Allows the memory size to be increased from the command line. This can then be used by modified firmware versions to provide extra registers and additional program steps.

18 Oct 25

• Added support for the HP67 card reader (requires GTK).

14 Sep 25 (0.19.0194)

• Added the HP55 complete with timer.

05 Sep 25 (0.18.0188)

• Fixed issues that prevented the file selection dialog from being shown when using Flatpak.

24 Aug 25 (0.18.0187)

• HP37E now passes self test.
• Loading or saving the current state can now be done by right clicking on the application window. In run mode the user will be prompted to load the state from a previously saved .dat (data) file, while in prgm mode the user will be prompted to save the current state.

09 Aug 25 (0.17.0181)

• Improved display updates (using double buffering).
• Minor changes to fix compilation issues on VAX and DEC Windows.

08 Jul 25

• Finally managed to get the HP10 working!! Note that there is no graphical display for the printer, the output is to stdout on the comsole. This allows the output from the printer to be redirected to a file if required.

07 Jul 25

• Fixed regression bug that affected HP12C.

30 Jun 25

• Enable the use of the -c, or --comma command line option to modify the state of the hardware link that controls decimal point format.

14 Apr 24

• Allows the size of the window to be adjusted using the --zoom n option where n can be between 0 and 4.
• Added an install option to the makefile (by default the installer will use $HOME/.local if it exists, but it is possible to specify another directory by setting the directory prefix).
• Embedded missing firmware.

24 Feb 24

• By default the application will attempt to use the X11 base fonts. But if these are not available it will try to select an suitable alternate font instead from a predefined list.

  For all the fonts to be rendered as intended users should ensure that the X11 base fonts are installed (see prerequisites).

16 Feb 24

• For UNIX based systems the default location used to store the state of the machine when it is powered off has changed.

  If the data file already exists in $HOME then this will always be used by default, but if it does not exist then if $XDG_DATA_HOME is defined the program will create a sub directory in this location for the data files or in or $HOME/.local/share/ if $XDG_DATA_HOME is not defined or does not exist. If $HOME/.local/share/ does not exist then the program will use $HOME as before.

13 Jun 13

• Initial version can draw the application window using X11!

Building/Installing ^{Back to Top}

You can either download the source code from GitHub and compile it yourself or you can use a pre-compiled package.

• Building from the source

• Using binary package

Using a pre-compiled package ^{Back to Top}

Alpine Linux

A binary package is available for Alpine Linux 3.20 and later.

If X11 is not already installed, either add it using setup-xorg-base or install it together with a standard desktop using setup-desktop.

Make sure community repo is enabled and then install x11-calc by running the command apk add x11-calc as root.

Additional programs may be installed with apk add x11-calc-prg.

Flatpak

If you don't want to compile the application yourself you can use a flatpak.

Follow the instructions for your distribution to install Flatpak.

Logout and Login again.

Add the Flathub repository.

flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Install the emulator.

Note - Although the application only requires less then 2MB of storage this will also install the run-time environment needed by Flatpak (if it is not already installed) which could require up to 925 MB of disk space! However even if the run-time is not installed the disk space used is usually only about half that.

flatpak install flathub io.github.mike632t.x11-calc

Start it

flatpak run io.github.mike632t.x11-calc

The first time the application runs you will be prompted to select which model calculator you want to use.

If later you want to use a different calculator model you can specify it on the command line.

flatpak run io.github.mike632t.x11-calc hp21

Building from the source ^{Back to Top}

Prerequisites

If you want to compile the emulators from the source code yourself then the following packages must be installed.

• Alpine : gcc | clang | tcc make libx11-dev xorg-x11-fonts-base [gtk+3.0-dev]

• Debian : gcc | clang | tcc make libc6-dev libx11-dev xfonts-base [libgtk-3-dev | libgtk2.0-dev]

• Fedora : gcc | clang make glibc-devel libX11-devel xorg-x11-fonts-base | xorg-x11-fonts-misc [gtk3-devel]

• Gentoo : gcc make libc6-dev libx11-dev font-misc-misc [x11-libs/gtk+]

• MacOS : Xcode Xquartz

• NetBSD : clang | gcc pmake

• SUSE : gcc | clang make libX11-devel

• Solaris 10 : SUNWgcc SUNWgccruntime SUNWtoo SUNWhea SUNWxwhl SUNWgmake

• Ubuntu : gcc | clang make libc6-dev libx11-dev xfonts-base [libgtk-3-dev]

• Windows 11 + WSL2 : gcc make libc6-dev libx11-dev xfonts-base

When all the prerequisites are available, you should be able to compile the application using make (or gmake).

Note - GTK is an optional dependency and is only required to allow users to load or save programs. The emulator will still compile but without the GTK libraries the ability to right click on the application window and load or save programs won't be available.

Compiling

To build the emulators check that you have all the prerequisites installed then download the source code from github and unzip it (this will created a new directory automatically).

Linux/NetBSD

$ wget https://github.com/mike632t/x11-calc/archive/refs/heads/stable.zip
$ unzip stable.zip

Then change directory to the new folder.

$ cd x11-calc-stable

To compile all the emulators you just need to invoke make.

$ make clean; make all

You can also compile an emulator by specifying the model number.

$ make hp67

To build a version with support for a different locale specify the language before invoking make. (This only changes the message text displayed by the emulator on the console not they way it behaves).

LANG=pt_BR make clean hp21

By default the executable files will be created in the bin directory.

$ bin/x11-calc-67
x11-calc-67: Version 0.19.0198 [Commit Id : 751ab27] gcc version 8.3.0 19 Oct 25 20:51:51
ROM Size: 8192 words
Loading '/home/system/.local/share/x11-calc/x11-calc-67.dat'

OR

$ bin/x11-calc

If more than one C compiler is installed or if gcc is not available you can specify which one to use from the command line.

$ make CC=clang hp11c

$ make CC=tcc

Tru64 UNIX

To compile all the emulators you just need to invoke make.

$ make clean; make all

You can also compile a single emulator by specifying the model number.

$ make hp29c

By default the executable files will be created in the bin directory.

$ bin/x11-calc-29c

Solaris 10

You need to be able to use the GNU tools so you have need to include their location in your PATH.

$ PATH=$PATH:/usr/sfw/bin/

Download the source code, unzip it, and change to the new directory.

$ wget https://github.com/mike632t/x11-calc/archive/refs/heads/stable.zip
$ unzip stable.zip
$ cd x11-calc-stable

Since gcc isn't the default compiler you need to specify it when invoking gmake.

$ gmake CC=gcc clean hp21

$ gmake CC=gcc clean all

By default the executable files will be created in the bin directory.

$ ./bin/x11-calc-33c
x11-calc-33c: Version 0.19.0198 [Commit ID: 992cf145] gcc version 3.4.3 19 Oct 25 20:32:48
ROM Size: 4096 words

VMS

On VMS unzip the source code archive, change the default directory and then run make.com.

$ unzip stable.zip
$ set def [.x11-calc-stable.src]
$ @make all

$ mc [-.bin]x11-calc-29c
x11-calc-29c: Version 0.10 [Commit ID: 399d546] 02 Nov 23 23:52:11 (Build: 0114)
ROM Size : 4096 words

Installing

On Linux systems after the compilation is complete you can use the makefile to install the emulators locally.

By default the installer will use $HOME/.local if it exists, but it is possible to specify another directory by setting the directory prefix.

$ make install

OR

$ make install prefix=/usr

The makefile also supports staged installs in a custom directory defined by DESTDIR.

make DESTDIR=/tmp/staging install

Tested Systems^{Back to Top}

Where it has not been possible to test the latest version the last working release is shown (if known). The will be maintained in the repository and can be obtained from the 'legacy' branch.

• Alpine 3.20, gcc 13.2.1, x86_64 + arm64

• Alpine 3.19, gcc 13.2.1, x86_64 + arm64 (0.16.0172)

• Debian 13 (Trixie), gcc 14.2.0 | clang 19.1.7 | tcc 0.9.27, x86_64

• Debian 12 (Bookworm), gcc 12.2.0 | clang 14.0.6 | tcc 0.9.27, x86_64 + arm64

• Debian 11 (Bullseye), gcc 10.2.1 | clang 11.0.1-2, i686 + x86_64 (0.19.0195)

• Debian 10 (Buster), gcc 8.3.0, arm (0.16.0172)

• Debian 10 (Buster), gcc 8.3.0 | clang 7.0.1 | tcc 0.9.27, x86_64

• Debian 9 (Stretch), gcc 6.3.0, arm (0.16.0172)

• Debian 5 (Lenny), gcc 4.2.4, alpha

• Debian 5 (Lenny), gcc 4.3.2, i686

• Fedora 35, gcc 11.3.1 | clang 13.0.1, x86_64

• Fedora 39, gcc 13.2.1 | clang 17.0.6, x86_64 (0.19.0195)

• Fedora 41, gcc 14.3.1 | clang 19.1.7, x86_64 (0.19.0195)

• Fedora 42, gcc 15.2.1 | clang 20.1.8, x86_64 (0.19.0195)

• Fedora 43, gcc 15.2.1 | clang 21.1.5, x86_64

• FreeBSD 14.0, clang 16.0.6, x86_64 (0.19.0195)

• Gentoo, gcc 11.2.0, x86_64 (0.19.0195)

• MacOS 10.1.15 (Catalina), clang 12.0.0, x86_64 (0.19.0195)

• MacOS 12.7.6 (Monterey), clang 14.0.0, x86_64

• MacOS 13.4.1 (Ventura), clang 14.0.3, arm64 (0.19.0195)

• MacOS 14.4.1 (Sonoma), clang 15.0.0, arm46 (0.19.0195)

• MacOS 25.1.0 (Tahoe), clang 17.0.0, x86_64 (0.19.0195)

• Minix 3.4.0, clang 3.6, x86 (0.19.0195)

• NetBSD 9.2, gcc 7.5.0 | clang 16.0.6, x86 (0.19.0195)

• SunOS 5.10, gcc 3.4.3, x86

• SUSE 15.4, gcc 7.5.0 | clang 13. 0.1, x86_64 (0.19.0195)

• Tru64 5.1, cc 6.5-011, alpha

• Ubuntu 20.04, gcc 9.4.0 | clang 10.0.0 | tcc 0.9.27, x86_64 + aarch64

• Ubuntu 22.04, gcc 11.4.0 | clang 14.0.0 | tcc 0.9.27, x86_64 + aarch64

• Ubuntu 24.04, gcc 13.3.0 | clang 14.0.6 | tcc 0.9.27, x86_64 + aarch64

• VMS 5.4-3, VAX C 3.2, VAX

• VMS 7.3, C 6.5, VAX

• VMS 7.3-2, C 6.5, alpha

• VMS 9.2-1, C 7.4, x86_64

• Windows 11 + WSL2, gcc 12.2.0, x86_64 + arm64

• Windows 11 + WSL2 (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS), gcc 13.3.0, x86_64

• Windows 11 + WSL2 (Debian 13), clang 19.1.7 | gcc 14.2.0, x86_64

The last tested release is shown if this release has not yet been tested on a particular system.

Acknowledgements ^{Back to Top}

There are almost certainly some names I've missed off this list but without the help and encouragement from members of the calculator community it is unlikely that this project would have happened at all or that I would have managed to get as far as I have.

• Teenix for convincing me that it was possible in the first place.

  Though he omitted to warn that the once I got one working I would get an overwhelming urge to add as many many models as possible (including some I didn't think were possible!)

• Teenix and Panamatik for their excellent emulators from which I was able to figure out most of what should happen when each instruction is is executed.

• Agarza for providing the details of the voyager displays.

• Macmpi for completely rewriting the make files and maintaining backward compatibility with Tru64 UNIX while doing so!

• Macmpi for packaging the emulators for Flatpak and setting up the build so new releases are built automatically.

• Macmpi for packaging and testing the emulators on Alpine Linux.

• Agarza and Martin HEPPERLE for helping to translate the help text.

• Brouhaha for taking the time to explain the workings of various models.

• Thomas KLEMM for his testing and debugging efforts on MacOS.

• Mark SHIN for testing on MacOS.

• Jonakeys for getting the emulators working on FreeBSD.

• Quozl for helping with double buffering display changes.

• Kjellc for adding support for the HP67 card reader.

• Vttoth for allowing me to include some of his example programs.

• Kjellc for translating the help text (into Swedish).

Known Issues ^{Back to Top}

General

• A 24 bit colour display is required.
• Keyboard shortcuts are only available on UNIX like systems.
• For best results you need to have the X windows core fonts installed.
• Parallel make only works on Linux, NetBSD and FreeBSD.
• The timer on the HP55 isn't very accurate (no crystal oscillator!)

HP 67

• Has continuous memory by default. Use the '--reset' option to disable it when starting the emulator.

HP 11C + HP 12C + HP 15C + HP 16C

• Keyboard test is successful but these models do not pass the self-test.

Wayland Issues

• The application window should be a fixed size (this can be modified using '--zoom'), but Wayland does not allow applications to be a fixed size.

VMS

• Colour palette assumes a black and white display. If the system's colour depth is different you will have to modify COLOUR_DEPTH to match, however the display will still only use two colours. (You can modify x11-calc-colour.h and x11-calc.h to change vms to oldvms if you do have a 24-bit colour display).
• Not all text is visible if not using 24-bit colour.
• Not all key labels are shown as the DEC fonts are missing some characters.

Problem Reports ^{Back to Top}

If you encounter an issue or have suggestions for future changes to these emulators, then please create a new issue.

Your problem report should contain:

• Whether you are using a pre-built binary (Alpine / Flatpak);

• The output from sh-get-environment.sh;

• The commit ID;

• A description of the problem.

Thank you.