These Simple Four Lines of Mathematic Confound Me -- Bug?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg121414] These Simple Four Lines of Mathematic Confound Me -- Bug?
- From: James Stein <mathgroup at stein.org>
- Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 05:15:02 -0400 (EDT)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
I've boiled this puzzlement down to bare bones:
Clear [ g ];
g := { NumberForm [ 13.0, { 5, 3 } ] };
g
% // N
Line 3 gives the output: {13.0} (as expected)
Line 4 gives the output: {13.} but first gives this error message:
NumberForm::iprf : "Formatting specification =91=99{\"5.\", \"3.\"} should be \
a positive integer or a pair of positive integers."
Line 4 seems to cause 'g' to be called. Why?
And how has the formatting spec {5,3} been converted away from integers?
(running Mathematica 8.0.1.0 on a Macintosh)