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Re: Re: Re: error with Sum and Infinity

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg102474] Re: [mg102399] Re: [mg102387] Re: error with Sum and Infinity
• From: DrMajorBob <btreat1 at austin.rr.com>
• Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:16:57 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <h5bk64$hlm$1@smc.vnet.net> <200908070932.FAA15211@smc.vnet.net>
• Reply-to: drmajorbob at bigfoot.com

> I think you flatter yourself and mathgroup to think that "most
> experienced users" will have read your post from March, 2007.

Self-evident.

> If it is not in the documentation, the rules of the game mean that WRI
> is free to change that magic number, or eliminate it, without notice, so
> any experienced user would be loathe to take advantage of it for fear
> that any program utilizing it would cease to work in a new version.

True again. My wife works in the pharmaceutical industry, where the  
FDA-enforced motto is, "If it isn't documented, it didn't happen."

Bobby

On Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:36:57 -0500, Richard Fateman  
<fateman at cs.berkeley.edu> wrote:

> Andrzej Kozlowski wrote:
>>
>> On 7 Aug 2009, at 18:32, Richard Fateman wrote:
>>
>>> Well, see Elton TeKolste's remarkable post.
>>> I doubt that the "feature" he illustrates would be known even by most
>>> experienced users.
>>
>>
>> Well, you are wrong. For example, check this post (about the fastest
>> way of adding up a billion numbers)
>>
>> http://forums.wolfram.com/mathgroup/archive/2007/Mar/msg00565.html
>>
>> and the rest of the discussion.
>
> I think you flatter yourself and mathgroup to think that "most
> experienced users" will have read your post from March, 2007.
> I just checked the documentation and I see no notice of that magic
> number  (though maybe it is there somewhere and I missed it??).
>
>
> Is there a way of finding that magic number without experimentation or
> "insider" knowledge?  Would "most experienced users" know that?
>
> If it is not in the documentation, the rules of the game mean that WRI
> is free to change that magic number, or eliminate it, without notice, so
> any experienced user would be loathe to take advantage of it for fear
> that any program utilizing it would cease to work in a new version.
>
> RJF
>
>
>



-- 
DrMajorBob at bigfoot.com

• References:
  • Re: error with Sum and Infinity
    • From: Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu>