Re: Calc: `*' binds more strongly than `/'

[Daniel Brockman]

Christian Schlauer <address@hidden> writes:

> But then I say that writing A/B*C and interpreting it like (A/B)*C
> saves me the trouble of typing in parentheses

Not really.  You could just type that as A*C/B.

The point is that the reduced precedence of `/' allows you
to always put all numerator factors before the slash and all
denominator factors after it, which is often very convenient.

(You could make the same argument for `+' and `-' --- i.e.,
that `A-B+C' should mean `A-(B+C)'.  However, this is not as
natural because one usually does not think of sums as units.
Writing `A-B-C' is completely natural, but `A/B/C' is not
completely natural --- in fact, it is a little confusing.)

I think this is good notation, but I also think that it
would be a good idea to warn the user and make sure that
they know what they are doing when entering such things.

Just make the warning easy to disable and all is well?

Those are my two cents.

-- 
Daniel Brockman <address@hidden>