Unary minus precedence preference

[Wes Loewer]

(07-23-2014 02:05 PM)Claudio L. Wrote:  Yet there doesn't seem to be a big disagreement about this case. I found exponentiation to be right-associative everywhere I looked, so even though there is an ambiguity, the convention is clear and followed by almost everybody nowadays (perhaps a few years back it was different, but today everybody seems to agree).

Well, except for that pesky Excel again. It evaluates 2^3^2 to be 64 instead of 512.

In class I have fun with students entering 2^3^2. Those with older TI-84+ models get 64 while newer TI-84+ models get 512. It always leads to an interesting discussion. That's how I convince the owners of the older ones to upgrade their OS. (The newer OS has a "Classic" Mode which reverts to the old behavior.)