Re: (\ x 0) revisited, revisited

[JONL at PARC-MAXC]

In response to your message sent  19 December 1982 17:48-EST

Uh, "remainder" is just one of the two multiple results from
division, the other being "quotient".  There are several places
in the MacLisp world where the generic arithmetic functions have
some slightly different defaulting than the type-specific ones, and
I agree with you that this one doesn't have any benefit.

I wonder who depends upon the generic remainder  working for a
divisor of 0 -- probably some totally obscure place in MacSYMA?
The lossage of having (- X) default differently from (DIFFERENCE x)
was perprated "during my time", but I certainly disavow it.
(Pratt was one of the contenders for this discrepancy, since it
seemed to make something simpler in CGOL).