In 1993 I wanted to convert some powers of ten to hex. Because the tables I had did not go big enough I decided to write a program to convert almost any size decimal number to hex. (The only limit was the size of memory.) I called it DH for Decimal to Hex. All that DH did for each digit was to multiply what it had by ten and add on the next digit, until all the digits were done. Initially, I just looked at the result using the DOS DEBUG command.

That was the start but each day it seemed to need "just one more feature." I now have one source but make three versions with different assembly flags: IA which defaults outputs values in the same base as the last input. AN which defaults to Hex if the last input was decimal and visa versa. The name AN came about when I made provisions for alpha characters to be operators in decimal input mode. The third is a debug version of AN which shows the approximations in Square Root calculations
• It should output the hex, copying what is on the screen is a bit much.
• It was soon apparent it should convert both ways.
• It should do more than one number at a time.
• Knowing Forth and liking the early HP calculators the values should obviously be put on a stack.
• Having numbers on a stack cries for arithmetic, and a few Forth stack manipulation operators.
• If you can input in base 16 why not, like Forth, be able to change the input base? After all, it just requires the ability to change a multiplier in the input routine.

Of the four basic arithmetic functions, division is (as we learned in grade school) the most difficult, and in many ways the most interesting. In the world of integers, division gives two values for an answer. In most electronic calculators and even programing languages the Remainder is treated like an unwanted cousin.

Forth is the only language I am aware of that conveniently provides both values for an integer divide. (Except Assembly of course.)

The Remainder is valuable, sometimes more valuable than the Quotient. And sometimes you want both. Here is an example.

For some time I had felt it would be nice to have an integer calculator. One that would give two answers to a divide. So I renamed DH to IA for Integer Arithmetic.

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