Hello Tracy; I'm not sure how the manipulation of formatted numbers is germane. Oh well.
On 12/22/2010 4:48 PM, Tracy Harms wrote: > Hi, Randy. > > Are the innermost pair of digits the same when comparing 3,456.00 and > 26,445,909? Is it simpler to determine this by considering the textual > strings of these representations, or by considering the positional digits of > numerals? Textual (formatting) details are not relevant to the sort of > problem under discussion here. (They are relevant for other practical > purposes.) > > I've used American style, but other styling techniques raise the same sort > of complications. Numerals seem much simpler to me because there is a clear > and limited amount of complexity. > > -- > Tracy > > On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 12:04 PM, Randy MacDonald<ram...@nbnet.nb.ca>wrote: > >> Hello Tracy; >> >> I cannot agree that #. and #: are simpler than ": and ". but I suspect >> that's just me. >> >> ... >> ra >> >> >> On 12/20/2010 6:15 PM, Tracy Harms wrote: >>> Randy wrote: >>> >>> "As far as the 'why convert to and from strings?' question goes, the >>> 'first digit of a number' concept _requires_ seeing numbers as strings." >>> >>> That does not fit my understanding. It requires seeing numbers by way of >>> numerals, and it requires seeing those numerals as comprised of digits, >> but >>> it seems to me that "string" is a different sort of abstraction. >>> >>> A "string" seems to me to suggest concerns that have to do with >> considering >>> the characters without including any numeric qualities. The two concepts >> are >>> similar, but I think I see enough difference to be happier with treating >>> them as digits (naturally manipulated with #. and #:) >>> >>> -- >>> Tracy >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >>> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
