Re: Why do some math functions return -0

[David Kastrup <dak@...>]

bb <bblochl@arcor.de> writes:

> Am 20.09.2010 18:21, schrieb David Kastrup:
>
>> Depends on its respective definition.  Math does not have a convention
>> for "%".
>> 
>
> "DNFTT"
>
> How can troll posts be recognised?
> ...
>     * Pedantic in the Extreme - Many trolls' preparation is so thorough,
> that while they waste time, they appear so ludicrous from the start that
> they elicit sympathetic mail - the danger is that once the group takes
> sides, the damage is done.

Thorough preparation is hardly the mark of a troll.

>     * False Identity - Because they are cowards, trolls virtually never
> write over their own name, and often reveal their trolliness (and lack
> of imagination) in the chosen ID. As so many folk these days use false
> ID, this is not a strong indicator on its own!

Says "bb".  Try googling for my name and Email address.  It is not
really plausible that I am participating in a wagonloads of conferences
and writing papers under a pretend name.

>     * Off-topic posting - Often genuine errors, but, if from an
> 'outsider' they deserve matter-of-fact response; if genuine, a brief
> apposite response is simply netiquette; if it's a troll post, you have
> denied it its reward.

Uh, the rounding conventions of Lua are not really off-topic.  Your
diatribes are.  This reply is also, incidentally, but I consider it
appropriate to counter your slander.

>     * Repetition of a question or statement is either a troll - or a
> pedant; either way, treatment as a troll is effective.

I'd rather call not addressing the question at issue trolling.  In
particular if it is repeated.

>     * Missing The Point - Trolls rarely answer a direct question - they
> cannot, if asked to justify their twaddle - so they develop a fine line
> in missing the point.

How does that match "pedanterie" and thorough preparation?

>     * Thick or Sad - Trolls are usually sad, lonely folk, with few
> social skills; they rarely make what most people would consider
> intelligent conversation. However, they frequently have an obsession
> with their IQ and feel the need to tell everyone. This is so frequent,
> that it is diagnostic! Somewhere on the web there must be an
> Intelligence Test for Trolls - rigged to always say "above 150"

There are enough images of me floating on the web.

> Your Mail adress ...@gnu.com has absolutely nothing t do with the
> GNU-movement.

It is @gnu.org, and I happen to be a contributor to Emacs, the
maintainer of the GNU project AUCTeX, and contributor to various other
GNU software.

> Do you have some problems? Do not await help in the Web.
>
> I argue that you are one of the many frustrated ossis in germany missing
> the nice comunism behind the homely antisfashistic wall?

I have some confidence in the capacity of the people on this list to
judge who of us two would be more deserving of the moniker "troll" if
this were a competition.  Since it isn't, feel free to return to more
civilized forms of communication.

-- 
David Kastrup