Re: [Gnuplot-bugs] Interpretation of commandline numbers

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

On Thu, 5 Aug 2004, Dave Denholm wrote:

> Reginald Beardsley <rb...@su...> writes:
> 
> >    In my view, this violates the principle of "least surprise". It
> >    took me over an hour to figure out why things didn't plot where
> >    I expected.
> >
> >    plot [x=0:10] x/3+13/3,x/3+13.0/3.0
> >
> >    I'm quite familiar w/ the rules for integer math, I just had no
> >    reason to expect integer math rules in this context.
> >
> 
> This crops up so often... 

It's not all *that* often.  At least as far as people going public with
the question because they didn't find the relevant places in the docs or
the FAQ are concerned, the rate this pops up is worthy of a FAQ entry, 
but not much more than that.

Principle of least surprise is not a very good one in this particular
case, because what surprises one person is the most natural thing to 
expect for the other.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.