On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 19:54:48 -0600, JE McGimpsey wrote:
In article ,
"Stephen J. Herschkorn" wrote:

Ask any semi-decent high school student to
draw a graph of y = -x^2, and what will you get?

If you asked someone competent, not just semi-decent, from my high
school, or college, or graduate school, you'd get the same curve as

y = x^2

but it's a convention, not a law, so it wouldn't be surprising to see
the negation of

y = x^2

The flaw is in assuming that you have a lock on absolute truth, rather
than recognizing that when there's ambiguity you need context.

There's no ambiguity that negation and subtraction are different. The
fact that the typography is ambiguous means that you need to check your
assumptions.

Absolute nonsense. Are you sufficiently competent to apply the quadratic
formula to find the roots of

-x^2 + 8x - 15 = 0

and then verify your results by substitution?

Those who insist that a computer application must conform to *their*
standard have never programmed in APL.

APL is a language unto itself.


--
Dave Seaman
Judge Yohn's mistakes revealed in Mumia Abu-Jamal ruling.
<http://www.commoncouragepress.com/index.cfm?action=book&bookid=228