From: Daniel Carrera <dcarrera@...>
Date: 2003-08-25T03:05:36+09:00
Subject: Re: POLS and names of mathematical functions

On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 02:42:37AM +0900, Rudolf Polzer wrote:

> > As a mathematecian, I see no problem at all with atanh, asinh, etc.  
> > Anyone who has used a scientific calculator will be familiar with the 
> > shorter forms.
> 
> No, they use sin^-1 etc.

I've seen both in scientific claculators.  I didn't mention sin^-1 because 
that's not in the discussion.

What do Maple and Mathematica use?  I can't remember, I haven't used those 
in years.  Perhaps that's who Ruby should be copying.

> But I think it's enough to have ONE form for them - one can get used to
> it.

I think one is enough.  Just figure out which is least surprising.

> BASIC for example uses ATN for the arcus tangent. One can even get
> used to THAT. And "just put an a in front of the name" is a clear rule.

Well... I find ATN very surprising for arctan.

-- 
Daniel Carrera, Math PhD student at UMD.  PGP KeyID: 9AF77A88
  .-"~~~"-.   
 /  O   O  \  ATTENTION ALL PASCAL USERS:
 :    s    :  
 \  \___/  /  To commemorate the anniversary of Blaise Pascal's
  `-.___.-'   birth (today) all your programs will run at hals speed.