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From: madler@tybalt.caltech.edu (Mark Adler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: HP 48sx 'Q' weirdness
Message-ID: <1990Mar15.073707.8967@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Date: 15 Mar 90 07:37:07 GMT
References: <1990Mar13.140026.409@hellgate.utah.edu>
Sender: news@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 14


->Q and ->Q(pi) both have their precision controlled by the display format.
It's an inconvenient way to do it, but at least you can.  (They fixed this
with RND from the 28 to the 48, but must have not thought it was a good idea
for ->Q.)  For example, a 10 FIX or a 10 SCI followed by (pi) 3 / ->Q(pi)
gives '1/3*(pi)', like it ought to.  Also a 6 FIX (pi) ->Q gives my favorite
rational approximation to pi: '355/113' (which you can get by writing
113355 and cutting it in the middle).

I still don't understand the behavior of ->Q(pi) though.  It ought to give
you a rational times pi, whether it can find a "good" rational or not.

Mark Adler
madler@hamlet.caltech.edu