On Jun 16, 11:24 am, Tom Coates <[email protected]> wrote:

> A)  factorial(x) should raise an error;
>
> B)  factorial(x) should return gamma(x+1).

More generally, the question is what to do with something
which doesn't make sense according to whatever rules have
been established so far. I claim the "mathematical" attitude
is to let it stand; then someone who has greater imagination
can figure out what to do with it. Barfing out an error makes
it pretty much impossible to reinterpret the expression in
an interesting way.

When you try to prevent stupidity, you are also preventing
cleverness, as the Usenix say.

FWIW

Robert Dodier

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