Why does -2^2 compute to -4 on my HP Prime?

[jte]

(02-09-2024 01:30 PM)Albert Chan Wrote:  ⋮
If we add MOD operator to the mix, zero make a difference.
Unary minus has higher precedence than binary minus, with MOD in-between.
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It’s good for me to have read back a bit further in time. The “third item in that list” I was alluding to was MOD — how I personally view MOD depends on whether math mode is on in my brain. If it is, I like to see MOD as a declaration that we are doing modular arithmetic, so it would have much lower precedence — below equality tests, even (“(mod x)” would appear at the end of each line of mathematics). When I’m in programming mode, I can certainly appreciate % having the same precedence as /. Perhaps a hybrid approach would be to treat MOD as a declaration of arithmetic type, similar to how units are handled on the HP Prime. (Once applied, the modulus would carry through to results.)