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GNU `bc` is a command-line arbitrary-precision calculator language [1]. It seems the parent comment's author implemented an alternative version that is now shipping in macOS, presumably because Apple doesn't like the GNU licenses.

[1] https://www.gnu.org/software/bc/manual/html_mono/bc.html

bc is a standard utility on POSIX systems. It's kind of expected that people know about it, like it's expected they know about awk or grep.

bc is a little less known, though.

bc is a staple in my cli work! Thank you for bc!

You're welcome!

I can't resist, because this is the perfect opportunity... RTFM