GNU bug report logs - #941
In CVS Emacs, calc-eval gives multiplication higher precidence than division

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Package: emacs;

Reported by: rms <at> gnu.org

Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 08:20:05 UTC

Severity: normal

Merged with 914, 915, 918, 920, 921, 923, 924, 928, 929, 930, 932, 933, 934, 937, 944

Done: Chong Yidong <cyd <at> stupidchicken.com>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Message #5 received at submit <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: "Richard M. Stallman" <rms <at> gnu.org>
To: merlyn <at> stonehenge.com (Randal L. Schwartz)
Cc: lennart.borgman <at> gmail.com, bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org, emacs-devel <at> gnu.org,
        carsten.dominik <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: In CVS Emacs,
	calc-eval gives multiplication higher  precidence  than division
Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:11:44 -0400

    There's no need to change the longstanding defaults, because it would break
    things.  You already have a knob you can tweak if you think that "2 a / 3 b"
    should multiply by b, rather than divide by it.  That's a personal choice.

    Frankly, I'd never touch that knob, because it looks to me like it should
    divide by b.

I agree completely -- in that case, it is natural for b to go in the
denominator.

The same is true for 1 / 2 * 1000: the meaning of 1/2000 is more
natural, mathematically.

What Calc does now is clearly correct.
This bug report was last modified 16 years and 256 days ago.

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