POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.general : abs()? : Re: abs()? Server Time
1 Aug 2024 10:14:52 EDT (-0400)
  Re: abs()?  
From: Warp
Date: 16 Nov 2005 14:17:11
Message: <437b85b7@news.povray.org>
Tim Cook <z99### [at] bellsouthnet> wrote:
> Isn't there a better way of wording the docs there?

  Mathematicians understand it perfectly. Programmers understand it
perfectly.

  How can you explain it to someone who is neither? You would have to
start from number theory principles...

  What is curious is that people get confused but they don't try to think
about it at all. How would you understand "if A is negative, returns -A"?

  If it said "if A is negative, returns A" then that would obviously mean
that it doesn't change it. If it, however, returns "-A" then it has to
change it somehow because "A" is not the same as "-A".

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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