Re: [office-formula] Constraints and infix ^

["Andreas J. Guelzow" <aguelzow@math.concordia.ab.ca>]

On Wed, 2009-01-14 at 15:45 -0500, David A. Wheeler wrote:
> Rob Weir, regarding 0^0:
> > 1) If current ODF-supporting applications (OpenOffice, KSpread, Excel, 
> > Symphony, Gnumeric, Google Spreadsheets, etc.) agree on a value, then we 
> > should document it that way.
> 
> I don't think there's agreement. OpenOffice3, and traditional math, say
> that 0^0 is 1.  Excel 2003 says 0^0 is an error.
> 
> > 2) If there is no agreement in current spreadsheet usage, then indicate 
> > that it is "implementation-defined" or "undefined."
> 
> I think we can be narrower than that.  Specifically, I think it can be
> implementation-defined, but only permit a narrow set of options (e.g., 1 or Error).
> 

I am really having a problem with these statements that "traditional
math" says that 0^0 is 1. Could you please cite some references!?

Note that programs such as Mathematica and maxima yields errors when
asked to calculate 0^0. 

Andreas