From:	"A. Sinan Unur" <sinan DOT unur AT cornell DOT edu>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: division by 0
Date:	Thu, 29 Jan 1998 07:36:23 -0500
Organization:	Cornell University (http://www.cornell.edu/)
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DeHackEd wrote:
> 
> Why would you want to divide by zero? It's a mathematical no-no, and 
> most computers are less forgiving than most mathematitions (ignore if 
> spelt wrong).

there are valid situations (such as finding the roots of a function,
some optimization algorithms) when you want the program to just take
into account that the operation produced an infinity, and go on.

> This code ALWAYS divides by zero,

i think that wa meant as an illustration only.

by the way, for nonzero x, x/0 is a well defined operation in the
extended reals.
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A. Sinan Unur
Department of Policy Analysis and Management, College of Human Ecology,
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA

mailto:sinan DOT unur AT cornell DOT edu
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/asu1/

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