Re: [office-formula] 6.3.4 Infix Operator "/"

["David A. Wheeler" <dwheeler@dwheeler.com>]

> First, we already define implicit conversion so the first sentence is 
> repetition.

Yes, it is.   At the time, I thought it was important to re-emphasize this in
the basic operators, but if people think that's obvious, we can remove it.

> Third, the syntax says: Number Left / Number Right.
> 
> If implicit conversion is in place, then why the Number Left / Number 
> Right? Oh, is that to signal the outcome of conversion?

Again, to emphasize the conversion.

> BTW, I am not sure about "fraction support" = "1/2 must produce 0.5, not 
> 0." I would think fraction support means it supports operations on 
> fractions, not conversion to decimal values.
> 
> Or is that a specialized usage in spreadsheet circles?

It's a clarification issue.  In many languages (e.g. Python 2),
"/" is INTEGER division, so "1/2" produces "0".
That is NOT what is intended, instead, a fractional result should
be returned (e.g., Python 3).  It's not necessarily
conversion to decimal; a fractional representation would be okay.

Any suggestions for clearer wording?

--- David A. Wheeler