[BRLTTY] Factorial?

[Dave Mielke]

[quoted lines by Lee Maschmeyer on 2009/05/25 at 22:01 -0400]

>Hi folks,
>
>The grade 2 tables have the following line:
>
>endnum ! 12346 (factorial)
>
>This leads to some very strange output when doing just plain
>text. Read this in grade 2:
>
>"Your work day will be 9 hours."
>
>"9! I thought it's be 8!"

:-)

>I've removed the "factorial" line and it looks "right" according to
>text display. I'm no mathematician, but I suspect nobody could stand
>to use en-us-g2.ctb for math anyway. If I want to do math I use
>computer braille. 

When you're doing things like factorial, you're also doing things like 
squared/squareroot. Those can't even be done in computer braille, at least in a 
way that a sighted person can either follow along or do the typing. You're 
entirely correct, therefore, that there's no need for this rule which indeed 
does mess up literary rendering.

>(The fact that I know next to nothing of modern Nemeth code is probably a 
>factor here. :-)

But en-us-g2 isn't a Nemeth code table.

>I'd like to see us get rid of this "factorial" line. As I say, that's
>how I run my version and I can include that change in my next patch,
>but not being a math person I'm in no position to evaluate the math
>impact. 

I just removed it.

>What do you all think?

I think it's an issue which reveals the need for someth9ing like UEB.

-- 
Dave Mielke           | 2213 Fox Crescent | The Bible is the very Word of God.
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