Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel
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@steve_the_cynic said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
Sure, but they were still capable of doing floating point arithmetic.
Kind of. The computer's ROM had code in it that let it do floating point with only fixed point instructions. It was slow as molasses.
@steve_the_cynic said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
What format did they use?
I have no clue.
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@anotherusername said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
I mean mathematically.
And that then depends on which axioms you accept.
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Well, since even Oracle is adding JS support to its database now, it was only a matter of time for Excel to follow. First NPM in corporate databases, now NPM in Excel. The logical next step is to make Windows installable via NPM, probably.
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@dfdub said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
make Windows installable via NPM
That could be more reliable than Windows Update
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@timebandit said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
@dfdub said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
make Windows installable via NPM
That could be more reliable than Windows Update
I know you're joking, but I'd rather have to try 20 times to install an update (until Windows Update suddenly magically selects a different update that works) than have arbitrary users push malware to the Windows Update channel, thankyouverymuch.
Now I'm defending Windows Update. Look what you made me do.
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@dfdub said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
Well, since even Oracle is adding JS support to its database now, it was only a matter of time for Excel to follow. First NPM in corporate databases, now NPM in Excel. The logical next step is to make Windows installable via NPM, probably.
We're going to write apps in React Native for Excel
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@boomzilla said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
@onyx said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
The result was "phone numbers" in the form of 9.12E+17, which you could expand, yes, but due to loss of precision the second number was unsalvageable, even manually, because loss of precision ate the last few digits.
Ah, yes, I'm sure many of us have been bitten by Excel's automatic conversion to scientific notation.
New England ZIP codes are also fun.
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@anotherusername said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
@steve_the_cynic said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
for sure, but unless we permit the definition to include "1 is between 0 and 2" (between two arbitrary integers), it's a bit bogus. The statement made would contextually be interpreted as "two arbitrary consecutive integers"... But indeed that isn't necessary - a rational is simply a ratio of integers with a non-zero denominator. That is all the definition you need.
Wat. No seriously, where from "arbitrary fractions between two arbitrary integers" do you get that they must be two consecutive integers? Arbitrary means the opposite of that.
Sure, but I did sort of hint at that. But if it is truly two totally arbitrary integers, then it isn't a useful addition to the definition, because any finite number can be "between two arbitrary integers".
Any value which is mathematically equal to some fraction a/b where a and b are integers is rational. Integers fit this definition, because a=a/1.
You're right that the denominator cannot be 0. But if it is, the fraction cannot be evaluated; it would make no sense to say that the result of the fraction's evaluation is a rational number, because the ratio is infinite. Infinity is not a number.
By the conventions I've seen, N/0 is "undefined" if N is not zero, and "indeterminate" if N is zero.
And infinity most certainly is a number. It (obviously) isn't finite, and it has ... strange ... behaviour with operations(1), and there are in fact many different infinities (the so-called "transfinite" numbers).
(1) If N is finite but not zero, and Inf0 is the "first" infinity, the number of integers:
- Inf0+N = Inf0
- Inf0*N = Inf0
- Inf0*0 = indeterminate, I think.
- pow( Inf0, N ) = Inf0
- pow( N, Info0 ) = Inf0
- pow( Inf0, Inf0 ) = Inf1.
There's some debate about whether Inf1 is the number of real numbers or something else, but it's worth noting that Inf1 != Inf0.
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@steve_the_cynic you misunderstand. "Fraction between two arbitrary integers" was supposed to mean some fraction a/b where a and b are integers.
And no. Notwithstanding that mathematicians can do maths with it, infinity is not a number. It is a concept. "Infinite numbers" are numbers. Infinity is not.
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@anotherusername said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
@steve_the_cynic you misunderstand. "Fraction between two arbitrary integers" was supposed to mean some fraction a/b where a and b are integers.
And no. Notwithstanding that mathematicians can do maths with it, infinity is not a number.
A better way of saying that is that rationals are numbers that can be expressed as the ratio of two arbitrary integers.
And infinity is the name we give to things that are too big to care about. Yes, there are formal definitions. But really...
When I was doing accelerator research, we had two categories of targets--
- thin targets (d <~ 50 um for organic material). These would allow 2 MeV protons to penetrate completely through and reach a counter on the other side--thus we could measure the total charge exposure directly.
- "infinitely thick" targets (d >~ 50 um for organic material). These would stop 2 MeV protons, so we had to measure the charge exposure based on the beam current and time (which was less accurate).
Mathematically, 50 um isn't very big. For our purposes, it was enormous. There are many cases where as long as you're up a couple orders of magnitude, the effects from that piece either dominate or are negligible (depending on the relationships).
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@benjamin-hall said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
"infinitely thick" targets
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@benjamin-hall said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
A better way of saying that is that rationals are numbers that can be expressed as the ratio of two arbitrary integers.
Even better: ratio between one arbitrary integer and another integer that can't be zero.
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@boomzilla said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
@benjamin-hall said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
A better way of saying that is that rationals are numbers that can be expressed as the ratio of two arbitrary integers.
Even better: ratio between one arbitrary integer and another integer that can't be zero.
True, you
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@steve_the_cynic said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
pow( N, Info0 ) =
Inf0Inf1
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@anotherusername said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
@steve_the_cynic you misunderstand. "Fraction between two arbitrary integers" was supposed to mean some fraction a/b where a and b are integers.
"Fraction of two arbitrary integers" would be a better way of expressing it, but OK, I see what you were trying to say.
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@pleegwat said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
@steve_the_cynic said in Microsoft Adds Support for JavaScript Functions in Excel:
pow( N, Info0 ) =
Inf0Inf1Oops. Good catch.