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Re: (\ x 0) revisited, revisited
- To: GSB at MIT-ML
- Subject: Re: (\ x 0) revisited, revisited
- From: JONL at PARC-MAXC
- Date: Mon, 20 Dec 82 01:45:00 GMT
- Cc: BUG-lisp at MIT-MC, JONL
- Original-date: 19 DEC 1982 1745-PST
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).