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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