newRPL - build 1255 released! [updated to 1299]

[Claudio L.]

I've decided to take on the big task of reviewing *ALL* commands and make sure they work properly with unit objects and do parallel processing with lists. This is so that expressions using those commands don't fail when the variable used contains units or case-lists (whenever I say case-lists, feel free to read it as "multiple results"). Once expressions work well with units, Phase II of this work would be to make sure the solvers work properly with units.

But before I can even begin, I have some questions that I want to open for debate:

LN(X) and EXP(X): What are these functions supposed to return when working with units?

Same for a^X where either X or both 'a' and X have units

Let's start at the beginning:

X^n is fine if n is just a number.
I guess I could extend that case to where 'n' does have units but it's actually a non-dimensional number, like n=1.609_km/mi. Cancelling out all units turns out n=1, so X^(1.609_km/mi) should EVAL to X^1 = X.
What if n has units? Do we issue a "inconsistent units" error?

EXP(X) is I guess similar to e^X so the same as above should apply?

It seems to me in physics the exponential function should only be used with non-dimensional numbers... but I'm not so sure this is 100% valid.

An example with vibration analysis (images borrowed from Wikipedia):





In the example above, the argument to EXP() is non-dimensional.
Any other ideas?