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Hi Folks,
Consider this formula:
kilometers = miles * 1.62
A programmer might interpret it like this:
"kilometers is assigned the result of multiplying the
value of miles times 1.62."
That is, the equals symbol is treated as an "assignment operator".
An alternate way of interpreting it is to treat the equals symbol as a
"relational operator". Thus, the above formula would be interpreted as:
"Does the value of kilometers equal the value of miles
times 1.62?"
The particular technology that I am looking at (MathML) interprets the
equal symbol the later way (as a relational operator).
I would like to devise an expression that would be interpreted along the
lines of the first way (that is, I'd like the expression to be a
statement of a
"formula" that I can plug in a value for miles to compute the
kilometer's value).
MathML has the ability to express "functions". From a mathematician's
point-of-view is this interpretation:
"kilometers is assigned the result of multiplying the
value of miles times 1.62."
considered a statement of a function? For example,
kilometers = f(miles)
where the function, f, multiplies miles times 1.62?
If it is true that this interpretation:
"kilometers is assigned the result of multiplying the
value of miles times 1.62."
is a statement of a function then what kind of function is it? Is it a
lamda function? I am not exactly certain what a "lamda function" is,
but from the description in the MathML book it seems that lamda function
is appropriate.
/Roger
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