Re: How to find the greatest of two numbers without using the comparison operators?


Pete Dashwood wrote:
<docdwarf@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:fbae5i$rnu$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <5jrnpsF10st0U1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Pete Dashwood <dashwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snip]

Sadly, as is often the case today, the OP simply picked up a solution from
someone who was happy to provide it, without really bothering to think
about
it.

It seems to me that thinking is no longer "fashionable" and solutions via
the line of least resistance are more the order of the day.

Ahhhhhh, for the Oldene Dayse, when a thinker could think things such as
*ten* thinkers cannot, today!

In my experience, Mr Dashwood - and it has already been acknowledged that
our experiences are, at times, rather different - then, as now, there were
folks who would take the 'easy way' and others who agreed with Socrates
that 'xalapa ta kala' (difficult/harsh/not easy (are) the
good/beautiful/noble (things)'.

[snip]

Around four thousand years ago, before the distractions and pressures of
modern life, TV, movies, travel, entertainment... people used to think.

They also used to die a bit earlier.

(Human brains are quite well adapted for this...) They worked out the
distance from the Earth to the Sun just by sticking sticks in the sand on
a
beach and observing the shadows. This calculation was correct to within
5%.

Eh? I believe you are referring to Eratosthenes calculation of the
earth's circumference... and that was closer to 2,500 years ago, not four
millennia.

Nope. I was not referring to Eratosthenes at all. Had I been, I would have
said so.

Not that it matters, but I was referring to the same people who, 5000 years
ago gave us the current 365 day calendar (based on their astronomical
observations), built instruments to measure time and angles around 4500
years ago, documented over 40 constellations which could be used for
navigation 3300 years ago, had many of their accomplishments claimed by
Greeks, (who they influenced immensely...Aristole acknowledged their
superior Astronomical achievements and Pythagoras was tutored by them), and
passed down across thousands of years, through their closed Priesthood,
knowledge that was lost, destroyed (Clement of Alexandria documented at
least four of their books on Astronomy that were in the famous library), and
then re-discovered centuries later.

No more clues... do your own homework. :-)

Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."

Phoenicians or Mycenaeans?

.

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