Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

[email protected] (Tim Mooney) · Fri, 4 Nov 94 17:52:32 CST

re...

> I have recently been using CALC records for some moderately complex
> calculations.  I found the use of "NOT" for unary minus a waste of
> character space and non-obvious.  Would anyone support either the
> additional work to detect "-" as unary minus by context, or allowing,
> say, "@" to be a synonym?

I'd like this as well.  "@" would be simple to do, but ugly in practice.

> I notice that "^" and "**" are synonyms for binary exponentiation.  It
> would seem more reasonable to allow "^" as a synomym for bit-wise
> "XOR", since that is the standard for C and "XOR" is another space-waster.
> Besides,  "**" is only two characters in length and is standard in
> FORTRAN.

If we're voting, I for one could live with the effect this would have on
existing databases.

> How about "LN" as a synonym for "LOGE" (natural log)?  It is shorter,
> and is common mathematical practice.

LOGE and SQR are particular nuisances.  I'd like to add the synonyms LN
and SQRT to the expression_element table.  Also, in addition to CEIL
and FLOOR, NINT would be a useful function.  These three changes, at
least, would be quite simple to make, since they don't overload
anything or affect existing records.  I'd be willing to do them, in
fact.

> My motivation here is to reduce character usage, since the field length
> is quite limited, and to increase readability.  (Only the re-assignment
> of "^" would affect existing records.)
> 
> 	--Steve Lewis
> 

I'd also like the parser to allow embedded spaces in expressions.

Tim Mooney

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System