Talk:Display a linear combination: Difference between revisions

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:::I'm not sure what you mean when you say that the syntactic constraints are tailored towards perl6. An expression like <math>a + b - 2c</math> is not language specific. It's how you write a linear combination in standard math. Let me remind you that this task is about ''output'', not ''input''. If I'm not mistaken your predilection language, J, as an elaborate syntax and I'm sure there are plenty of ways to create a linear combination, but a human friendly, and mathematically conventional way of displaying such linear combination is quite universal. In fact in Perl 6 we could use any syntax we want since we could create a slang or something. I've just picked one that corresponds to the way we write algebraic expressions in maths, regardless of the programming language.--[[User:Grondilu|Grondilu]] ([[User talk:Grondilu|talk]]) 23:54, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

:::: Ok, so that's what it is. In that case, the spec should still be documented in the task description - it's just not perl6 like I thought it was. Of course, you are hindered by the fact that "Standard Math" isn't very standard - it was created just a few years ago, and is a rather slippery collection of concepts also. I tried finding a definitive definition, and the best I found was an inexact common core document with a 2015 copyright on it. So most older math texts won't be using it, for example and it's difficult to talk about. (I expect the part of the definition you are using has been around a few years, but not a few decades.)

:::: Ok, so that's what it is. In that case, the spec should still be documented in the task description - it's just not perl6 like I thought it was. Of course, you are hindered by the fact that "Standard Math" isn't very standard - it was created just a few years ago, and is a rather slippery collection of concepts also. I tried finding a definitive definition, and the best I found was an inexact common core document with a 2015 copyright on it. So most older math texts won't be using it, for example and it's difficult to talk about. (I expect the part of the definition you are using has been around a few years, but not a few decades. And I expect there's some corner of standard math which states that a linear combination like you are describing here could be expressed as (-1,-2,0,-3)*e or something not too far from that - with the summation being implicit.)

:::: Still... do the best you can. --[[User:Rdm|Rdm]] ([[User talk:Rdm|talk]]) 00:41, 14 October 2015 (UTC)