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From: ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: more 2.0 probs - number precision, file operations
Message-ID: <2436.275d3514@waikato.ac.nz>
Date: 5 Dec 90 04:57:40 GMT
References: <009406E0.A248D460@OAVAX.CSUCHICO.EDU>,<2786@ux.acs.umn.edu> <009407AF.3239D820@OAVAX.CSUCHICO.EDU>
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Lines: 21

Remember that HyperCard doesn't do any formatting of numbers for display
as such: the values of all variables are strings to begin with. In HC 2.0,
the NumberFormat property is used every time a number is converted to a
string, and at no other time. Some example situations (A and B are
any valid containers):

	Put A into B -- A and B are always strings, NumberFormat has no effect
	Put "0.625" into B -- explicit string literal, again no formatting
	Add A to B -- strings get converted to numbers, arithmetic is done,
		-- and result is converted back to a string according to
		-- current NumberFormat
	Put 0.625 into B -- number gets converted into string according to
		    	-- current NumberFormat

I guess the HyperCard people must have considered the old behaviour
a bug, or at least an inconsistency.

Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: +64-71-562-889
Computer Services Dept                     fax: +64-71-384-066
University of Waikato            electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand    37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+13:00