Programmig Newbie....where to start?

[David Brown]

[...] The
only limit on the output was due to memory on the computer, and the
patience of the operator - the algorithm was not particularly efficient,
but the program was elegant.

I think I know what you mean -- an algorithm the just puts out decimal
digits one by one (usually getting slower and slower!) for as long as
you care to wait. If so, my last reply missed the point. Sorry.

Yes, such a think is probably possible, (and they are very neat
algorithms) but I went a different way round.

Yes, I think you understand what I meant. And yes, the digits came out
slower and slower - this was a programming exercise for a maths and
computation course, and speed was not particularly important. (I
actually speed it up by using a faster converging sequence than
4*atan(1/4), but the principle was the same.)

So not much good if you really want thousands of digits of your number,
but fun anyway.