Implementing alternate "compatibility" functions (such as 0^0 = ERROR)

[Norbert Thiebaud]

On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:56 PM, Andrew Douglas Pitonyak
<andrew at pitonyak.org> wrote:
>
> The alternate suggestion was to add a "compatibility mode".

The issue is purely academic, but if it _has_ to be resolved then yes
a compatibility mode has a much better value that creating an
'alternate' function.
1/ a compatibility mode can be use to deal with other discrepancies
between the standards than just that power() corner case.
2/ if an implementation does not know about 'alternate' form they
would not be able to represent the value _at all_ vs a compatibility
mode that still use the underlying standardized function. iow a compat
mode only impact the execution in one's environment and does not
create random problem by polluting the document with 'extensions' that
have no chances what-so-ever to be accepted in the standard.

> This has the
> advantage that it can be turned on and off at will so that Calc will simply
> behave that way. It also allows other functions to be changed to check the
> flag and behave accordingly. This also feels like a larger initial change
> and would require far more buy-in from the community to implement.

Yep that is a problem for purely academic problems that do not have
any actual use-case.
I think there are many more interop problems with much more visible
and real-life effect that would be a better use of one's time.

Norbert