From: "Peña, Botp" <botp@...>
Date: 2003-01-06T16:11:19+09:00
Subject: Re: 1210 / 100 = 12? what?


Stefan Schmiedl [mailto:s@xss.de] expounded:
> 
> and ideally we'd all use machines smart enough to implement 
> mathematical concepts like sqrt(2) exactly,

that is why there is science (and now computers) -it gives us the illusion
of exactness :-)

> not only approximately.

0 is not a _close_ approximation of  1/2 (read one divided by two). At least
it does not approximate what is on my mind :-) That is why one proposed the
use of "\" for _integer_ division. To a toddler, I would explain that "1
cannot be divided by 2" but not zero [1] ;-)

I was just thinking if we could get loose fr the "1.0/2" (dot-zero-required)
grip w/c has plague langs since fortran to c/c++.

> 
> s.
> 

kind regards
-botp

[1] botp's a toddler :-)