I was looking at a worksheet with a rational exponent and it struck me once too often that it looks rather ugly as presented by default, plus the particular instance caused me a moment or two trying to work out what exactly was being divided.
Would it be possible to add an option for a Division Slash ( /) as default and to replace the Division Sign (÷) (as per the ISO 80000-2)?
Stuart
÷
There's yet another option:
And your suggestion opens up the possibility of:
Which becomes worse if it were possible to delete the parentheses. Fortunately(?) I cannot do that in Mcad 11.
BTW I used:
together with the 'infix' constructor. I get the spaces for free.
LucMeekes wrote:
There's yet another option:
Yes, that's a nice option.
And your suggestion opens up the possibility of:
Which becomes worse if it were possible to delete the parentheses. Fortunately(?) I cannot do that in Mcad 11
Unfortunately, there are many potential ambiguities in standard mathematical notation. My proposal is in line with the international standard and the standard states (Section 3) that parentheses should be used to remove ambiguities. Of course, if Prime ever includes operator display options, then a quick glance at an expression in "Division Line" mode will show the true meaning.
BTW I used:
together with the 'infix' constructor. I get the spaces for free.
Yes, I used that initially but I switched to ctl-shft-k mode to get the "no space" option and it was just as easy to add the spaces as use the operator form (I couldn't see much difference between the two forms).
Stuart
StuartBruff wrote:
Would it be possible to add an option for a Division Slash ( /) as default and to replace the Division Sign (÷) (as per the ISO 80000-2)?
What I think you'd want is to just replace the Division Sign (÷) with the Division Slash ( /).
LucMeekes wrote:
StuartBruff wrote:
Would it be possible to add an option for a Division Slash ( /) as default and to replace the Division Sign (÷) (as per the ISO 80000-2)?
What I think you'd want is to just replace the Division Sign (÷) with the Division Slash ( /).
No, honestly, I really do want both. 
But, I'd settle for just the replacement in the next release of Prime. .... curses; I've just given away my negotiating position. 
Stuart
Richard Jackson wrote:
You need to separate this into two questions:
1) Would it be possible to add an option for a Division Slash ( /) as default and to replace the Division Sign (÷) (as per the ISO 80000-2)?
A: Yes.
2) Will this ever actually be implemented?
A: Not in our lifetimes.
Look. I know that, you that, but I thought I'd give the OED definition of "diplomacy" a try. If it doesn't work, I'll revert to my normal "Gun Boat" definition. 
Stuart
