Re: behavior from Mathematica 7 to Mathematica 8
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg114076] Re: behavior from Mathematica 7 to Mathematica 8
- From: Vince Virgilio <blueschi at gmail.com>
- Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2010 07:41:32 -0500 (EST)
- References: <ic8ab4$7ve$1@smc.vnet.net> <ic9led$nv7$1@smc.vnet.net>
SNIP > > On 11/19/10 at 5:10 AM, edskul... at gmail.com (David Skulsky) wrote: > > > >While testing Mathematica 8 on some heritage code, I found a problem > > >which a colleague traced to a behavioral change in Times[]. > > >Specifically, the documentation for Times[] states that "0 x > > >evaluates to 0, but 0.0 x is left unchanged." This appears to be > > >true in Mathematica 7 but not in Mathematica 8 (at least not under > > >Mac OS X 10.6.4). > > >I have informed Wolfram about this change (bug?). SNIP > Most importantly, Times[] is a fundamental function in Mathematica and > extraordinary care should be taken before any changes to such > functions are made. If changes are made, they should be properly > documented and shouted from the rooftops because it's likely that they > will affect a large fraction of the Mathematica community. Apparently Mathematica 8 has a better representation of machine zero than Mathematica 7. Pretty deep. Vince