Subject: Re: In CVS Emacs, calc-eval gives multiplication higher precidence than division

From: Jay Belanger <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:37:01 -0500

Francis Litterio <[email-masked]> writes:
...
> In CVS Emacs, function calc-eval (in lisp/calc/calc.el) gives
> multiplication higher precidence than division.

That's not a bug.  While many systems give division a higher precendence
than multiplication, that isn't a universal rule.  Calc has always given
multiplication a higher precendence, and something like
1 / 2 * 1000
can be viewed as shorthand for
   1
--------
2 * 1000
Some people don't like this, some people do, but this choice is
established Calc behavior and is highlighted in the manual.  To divide
first, it's probably better style regardless to put in the parentheses:
(1 / 2) * 1000

Jay