Sadly, ODF allows any of three values to be returned, any user assuming
any specific behavior is foolish. Load the document in any product or
version, and it may change.
If I order my preference, it is error, 1, and then 0.
On 02/10/2013 04:18 PM, Hagar Delest wrote:
The problem is to give the answer that is the most useful for the user.
I agree with this statement. I am unsure what the most useful answer is.
Off hand, I would have to say that it is dependent on what I am doing at
the time. I cannot even tell you what I probably want it to be most of
the time. For the crazy things that I do, I am just as likely to vary
x^0 as 0^x (and one has limit behavior of 1 and the other 0)
I usually want things to just work. If an arbitrary value is used, and
it is not brought to my attention, I may not be producing the answer
that I really want. Not returning an error gives me a false sense of
security.
The problem is summed up very nicely here:
http://community.wolframalpha.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11131
The summary is as follows:
******
0^0 itself is undefined. The lack of a well-defined meaning for this
quantity follows from the mutually contradictory facts that a^0 is
always 1, so 0^0 should equal 1, but 0^a is always 0 (for a>0), so 0^0
should equal 0. It could be argued that 0^0=1 is a natural definition since
lim_(n->0)n^n=lim_(n->0^+)n^n=lim_(n->0^-)n^n=1.
However, the limit does not exist for general complex values of n.
Therefore, the choice of definition for 0^0 is usually defined to be
indeterminate.
******
--
Andrew Pitonyak
My Macro Document: http://www.pitonyak.org/AndrewMacro.odt
Info: http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php
