Poo-poo --- I blame global warming. Or dark matter. Or Copenhagen ... WFL On 6/6/18, Mike Speciner <ms@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
What is apparently not widely known is that proper commenting can serve as a prophylactic. --ms
On 05-Jun-18 20:28, Fred Lunnon wrote:
This is a case of transference across species --- from Comp. Sci. to Maths. --- of algorithmic gangrene, an infection well-known to software engineers.
Any program, unused for a period sufficiently long to ensure that its author has forgotten exactly why it used to work, is certain to fail mysteriously when reactivated.
The causative organism remains to be identified: conspiracy theorists are invited to provide more-or-less plausible suggestions.
WFL
On 6/5/18, David Wilson <davidwwilson@comcast.net> wrote:
Sounds like a career ender.
-----Original Message----- From: math-fun [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Bill Gosper Sent: Monday, June 04, 2018 3:44 PM To: math-fun@mailman.xmission.com Subject: [math-fun] Bug in my published 34 yr old formula !?
https://books.google.com/books?id=oYGz3S_WTHUC&pg=PA261&lpg=PA26 1&dq=NYU+Computers+in+Mathematics+conference+1984&source=bl&ots =3efR2XdELO&sig=aBXmt4W35dl4dqcQg- uxRtMflYs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvmLL31rrbAhUGj1kKHcgsBTEQ6AEIY TAH#v=onepage&q=NYU%20Computers%20in%20Mathematics%20conferen ce%201984&f=false pp 267-268. This is the formula which I've used regularly to convert an arbitrary composition of homographic functions (e.g., a sum) to a (non regular) continued fraction. To my bewilderment and distress, it just stopped working, even after I rederived it. The rarely used terminating case went undetected. Empirically, the final term should be x = c[m+1](y + d[m]/c[m]), not c[m+1](y + d[m]/d[m+1]). --rwg _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun