bug#42644: 28.0.50; Please let max and min accept zero arguments

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de> writes:

> I want to suggest to make the functions `max' and `min' accept zero
> arguments, with
>
>   (max) => negative infinity
>   (min) => positive infinity
>
> That would be mathematically consistent, and would offer an easier to
> remember syntax to specify the infinities (at least for mathematicians).
> I hate the read syntax suggested in the manual, I have to look it up
> every single time.  Ironically, most of the time I use it it's the
> initial value for a max or min number sequence folding.

I think the conclusion here was that there was limited enthusiasm for
doing this (since it's more likely that (max) is a programming error
instead of a way to write -1.0e+INF).  And there didn't seem to be much
enthusiasm for defining constants for this, either, since we have the
1.0e+INF syntax, as hard as that is to type.

So I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no