Software Gadgets

I'm usually reluctant to use JAVA programs as they can take forever to start, but every once in a while I find one that I just can't live without. Frink is such a program. It's a calculator (and programming language) that understands units of measure and tracks them throughout a calculation. If you want to know how many cubic feet of water 1000 gallons plus 608 liters would be, all you have to do is type into Frink:

1000 gallons + 608 liters -> ft^3

and you get your answer. No need to manually convert units. Here are some of the major features of Frink as listed on the Frink web site:

* Tracks units of measure (feet, meters, tons, dollars, watts, etc.) through all calculations and allows you to add, subtract, multiply, and divide them effortlessly, and makes sure the answer comes out correct, even if you mix units like gallons and liters.
* Arbitrary-precision math, including huge integers and floating-point numbers, rational numbers (that is, fractions like 1/3 are kept without loss of precision,), complex numbers, and intervals.
* Advanced mathematical functions including trigonometric functions (even for complex numbers,) factoring and primality testing, and base conversions.
* Unit Conversion between thousands of unit types with a huge built-in data file.
* Date/time math (add offsets to dates, find out intervals between times,) timezone conversions, and user-modifiable date formats.
* Calculates historical buying power of the U.S. dollar and British pound.
* Calculates exchange rates between most of the world's currencies.
* Powerful Perl-like regular expression capabilities and text processing.
* Supports Unicode throughout, allowing processing of almost all of the world's languages.
* Supports Interval Arithmetic (also known as Interval Computations) in calculations, allowing you to automagically calculate error bounds and uncertainties in all of your calculations.
* Reads HTTP and FTP-based URLs as easily as reading local files, allowing fetching of live web-based data.
* Runs on most major operating systems (anything with Java 1.1 or later,) as an applet, through a web-based interface, on a wireless Palm VII, on an HDML- or WML-based webphone, and on many mobile phones and hand-held devices
* User interface has a Programming Mode which allows you to write, edit, save, and run extremely powerful programs even on a handheld device.
* Frink is a full-fledged programming language with arrays, dictionaries, functions, loops, even object-oriented programming and self-evaluation.
* Frink allows Object-Oriented Programming, which allows you to create complex data structures that are still easy to use.
* Java Introspection layer allows you to call any Java code from within Frink.

Frink itself is a tiny download, but you need to have Sun Java installed on your system to use it -- and that's not a small download. Of course, chances are that you already have a copy to use with FireFox.

Rating: 4 Stars
Operating System: Windows (or any OS that will run Sun Java)
Special Requirement: Sun Java (1.5 or better is best).
License: Freeware
Price: Free
Version Reviewed: 2006-01-31
Web Site: http://futureboy.us/frinkdocs/