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data structures for dates was ---Re: hold question

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  • Subject: [mg132341] data structures for dates was ---Re: hold question
  • From: Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu>
  • Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2014 05:14:51 -0500 (EST)
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On 2/10/2014 12:00 AM, Francisco Gutierrez wrote:
>
....
> What I am overlooking?

You've gotten a lot of answers which are just fine, but perhaps it
is worth pointing out the obvious.  Which is the use of the "/"
or virgule as a mark to separate alternatives as   "and/or"  or
as a line separating parts of a date, is essentially incompatible
with the notation where it is used to separate parts of a fraction
in Mathematica.

If you allow Mathematica to treat "/" as a division, you are likely
to be disappointed.

I'm sure there are other places that Mathematica's adherence to some
version of notation causes problems when similar or identical notation
is associated with entirely different semantics.  Some other
representations used for dates within computer programs allow for all
kinds of neat tricks, like finding the number of days between two
dates by, um,  subtraction.

Taking a computer science course that treats subjects like data 
structures and their interpretation might be illuminating.








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