On May 21, 2007, at 8:30 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

>>>>> Also is there a way to switch between 'radian' and 'degree' modes
>>>>> like
>>>>> in some calculators?
>
> I'm not sure whether we should add support for this or not... how
> useful would it be? Do any of the M's do this?
>
> Thanks for the input and feedback,

I would argue against this. Global modes are in general something I  
think should be avoided, and especially for something like this  
(imagine if something used sin in its plot method, would it have to  
be mode aware? Something that uses sin to do fourier transformations  
internally?) Also, would the derivatives, simplifications, etc. have  
to respect radian vs. degree mode?

If we add support for this, I would vote that it be part of a units  
package (like inches, liters, etc.) rather than a mode. I would be  
much more comfortable with having to type

sin(degree_to_radian(45)) # not sure if this is worth the namespace  
pollution

or even

sin(45 degrees)  # would require the preparser

than setting a mode.

- Robert

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