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Re: mistake in manpage for expr
From: |
Paul Eggert |
Subject: |
Re: mistake in manpage for expr |
Date: |
Mon, 18 Dec 2006 10:24:28 -0800 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.1008 (Gnus v5.10.8) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) |
"Vajzovic, Tom" <address@hidden> writes:
> Of course, five minus seven is negative two, but the _difference_
> between five and seven is positive two, since differences are always
> positive.
Your usage disagrees with the traditional terminology. For example,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmetic> says "if the minuend is
smaller than the subtrahend, the difference will be negative".
Also see page 105 of:
H. D. Huskey, Technical Developments: Characteristics of the Institute
for Numerical Analysis Computer, Mathematical Tables and Other Aids to
Computation, Vol. 4, No. 30. (Apr., 1950), pp. 103-108.
<http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0891-6837%28195004%294%3A30%3C103%3ATDCOTI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E>
This shows that the idea that differences can be negative goes quite a
way back in computing.