The problem isn't math, it's the people that suck at at it who write ambigous terms like this, and all the people in the comments who weren't educated properly on what conventions are.

[–] Swallowtail@beehaw.org 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, you could easily make this more straightforward by putting parentheses around 8÷2. It's like saying literature sucks because Finnegans Wake is incomprehensible.

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 1 points 5 months ago

you could easily make this more straightforward by putting parentheses around 8÷2

But that would be a different expression with a different answer (16 rather than 1). This is the mistake made by the programmer of the e-calc - treats it as though there's extra brackets there when there isn't.

[–] loops@beehaw.org 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Huge shout out to the jaded AF high school math teachers that don't give a fuck any more!

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 1 points 5 months ago

They do care. The issue is everyone argues about it without even asking Maths teachers about it to being with! I guarantee (I've seen it myself) literally every blog you read which says this is "ambiguous", without exception they never mention Maths textbooks or Maths teachers (because then they wouldn't be able to bombastically declare "This is ambiguous!").

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 1 points 5 months ago

write ambigous terms like this

It's not ambiguous

all the people in the comments who weren’t educated properly on what conventions are

Everyone was taught the rules of Maths - it's just a matter of who remembers them or not.