On 2009-Jul-8, at 3:41 pm, pugs-comm...@feather.perl6.nl wrote:
=item log
+ our Num multi method log ( Num $x: Num $base = Num::e ) is export
Logarithm of base C<$base>, default Natural. Calling with C<$x ==
0> is an error.
It occurs to me that "log" is a pretty short name for a function I
rarely use. (In fact, I'm not sure I've ever used it in perl.) On
the other hand, I -- and a thousand or so CPAN modules -- are always
logging stuff in that other popular computer sense. (All right, that
number isn't exactly the result of a rigourous study... I did find 57
modules that mentioned logarithms.)
The inertia of tradition weighs heavily here, but perhaps we could
call it ln(). (If anyone asks, I'm prepared to say with a straight
face that it stands for "log (numeric)".) And/or log(), but with
the :base arg mandatory -- then as long as your status logging doesn't
have a :base, you can have both.
-David
