Unary minus precedence preference

[dm319]

(06-01-2024 02:19 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  Of course it is always possible to invent new notations, but for this specific issue at least, I'd say chances of such an innovation being widely adopted are ε.

Agreed, this is standard mathematical algebraic notation and the closer a calculator tries to represent it, the closer to real maths it should behave.

Throughout the history of calculators we've started with a poor representation of algebraic notation and steadily improved, with early calculators having no concept of the order of operations. The exponentiation or square button on older algebraic calculator simply applied that function to the number in your x register. It was not trying to represent -x².

Much like the other viral 'ambiguity', the trap is looking to calculators, spreadsheets and programming languages to give us the answer when the notation was established hundreds of years prior.

This guy explains it well https://dotnet.social/@SmartmanApps/112353831654372246. He also has something to say on 'unary' too.