Re: [Nmh-workers] mh-format multiply function

[Paul Fox]

address@hidden wrote:
 > David Levine <address@hidden> writes:
 > 
 > >In general, if something goes wrong, the user should be
 > >informed.  Especially here, given that a user has a lot of
 > >flexibility in what they can put into a format.  And it's
 > >for the user to put something in that doesn't do what they
 > >mean.  While it might not (but could) be a huge problem when
 > >showing a message, I'm more concerned about outgoing
 > >messages.  Something might get left out, or put in
 > >inadvertently, due to unexpected format behavior.  While
 > >it's my responsibility to look at every character in every
 > >outgoing message, as messages get bigger and more complex,
 > >that gets harder.  I'd like all the help I can get from the
 > >tools.
 > 
 > Wouldn't the stderr from the procedure tend to mitigate that?
 > 
 > >
 > >> It might make a good M.S. history thesis to find out why it wasn't
 > >> there already.
 > >
 > >I was wondering about it, too.  Here's the commit that added divide,
 > >but not multiply:
 > >
 > >revision 1.2
 > >date: 1990/02/21 15:39:50;  author: sources;  state: Exp;  lines: +71 -61
 > >Fixes from Van Jacobson
 > 
 > I suppose that's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Jacobson. He is apparently
 > still alive so our History graduate student could cheat by asking him

probably it simply never occurred to him that multiply wasn't already
there.  ;-)

paul
=----------------------
 paul fox, address@hidden (arlington, ma, where it's 21.9 degrees)