On 4/11/07, Michel Van den Bergh <michel.vandenbergh at uhasselt.be> wrote:
>
> I can't believe I am seeing this discussion once again. You would think
> that by now people would understand floating point arithmetic.
Thinking as a technical person, I agree entirely with you entirely.
Thinking as a product manager (which is what I do professionally), this sort
of mail (and discussion) is one useful input among many in determining the
design of the product. If it turns out that many of our actual and
potential users don't understand a feature, or misuse it, then that should
make us think. Is there something we can do that would make Maxima easier
to use without compromising its correctness and consistency and usefulness
for advanced users? This could be as simple as setting the default
fpprintprec to 14.
-s