Why can't I write inches in decimal form?

[rguillory]

If I use Mathcad 15, I can define a variable such as "a:= .7 in"  if I write this exact same thing in MathCad prime it will result in an error.  I have to write "a:= 7 in" then come back and add the decimal place after it's accepted 7 inches.  What am I doing wrong? This seems absurd and is incredibly frustrating.

[RichardJ · Accepted solution]

Prime is more flexible about variable names. In Mathcad 15 ".7in" is not allowed as a variable name, but it is allowed in Prime. So in Prime you have two choices. One is to adhere to good style guidelines, and type 0.7in. Since the first character is a number Mathcad recognizes 0.7 as a number, and automatically inserts the multiplication operator before "in". The second option is to type .7*in, to force the multiplication operator, in which case Mathcad recognizes .7 as a number. If you just type "a:.7in", in Prime that assigns the value of variable .7in to the variable a, but unless the variable .7in is defined you get an error.