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------- Additional comments from [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Nov 9 03:20:06 -0800 2006 ------- I was told the results for *Mathematica* (v5.(x)): It is as expected: -4^2 = -16 !!! Mathematica is a reference program in mathematics, so this should be viewed as written by the almighty. I do not have access to mathematica myself, but I am confident that the person I asked, actually tested this (and did NOT tell me what he thinks is correct). As noted in a previous post, other mathematical software (like Scilab, maxima, octave, R) interpret it the same way. As I mentioned, you do *NOT* have an "inverse sign" operator in mathematics. "-" is only the substraction. IF you want to specify the number "-4" you have to type "(-4)" !!!! BASTA. Why does gnumeric interpet it differently? Interesting question and I believe the answer is as follows: # -4^2 = -16 AND NOT +16, which is wrong # BUT many spreadsheet users were used to get +16 in Excel, # so gnumeric let those users calculate what they expected, # BUT changed the syntax to be correct, so people NOT accustomed to this BUG would know (and see) that it is NOT what they expect So, I can only recommend that Calc adopts this same strategy. This way, professionals can live with this bug, because Calc would tell them: > when people who use this spreadsheet write =-4^2 > they usually mean =(-4)^2; so does Calc. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Please do not reply to this automatically generated notification from Issue Tracker. Please log onto the website and enter your comments. http://qa.openoffice.org/issue_handling/project_issues.html#notification --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
