[X4U] Tiger's Calculator.app no longer does percentages?

[Aron Spencer]

Let's say you're going for a job and you're told that your pay will  
be 4. First thing you'd ask, if you had any sense, would be "4 What"?
etc...

There is a distinction here, as mentioned before, between the purely  
mathematical application, where 15% does, in fact, equal .15, and a  
practical usage for the calculator, where expectations and practice  
are all over the place...

On Nov 28, 2005, at 9:13 AM, net kat wrote:

> oh, brother...yes, '4%' does have meaning, but I'm pretty sure you  
> know the sense in which I meant "no meaning."
>
> Let's say you're going for a job and you're told that your pay will  
> be 4%. First thing you'd ask, if you had any sense, would be "4% OF  
> what??" Person hiring you says, "No..just 4%. But rest assured,  
> because 4% is always 4/100, or 0.04. So...when do you start?"
>
> So, there's your meaning. You know you're being hired for 4%. But  
> until you know what it's 4% OF, the meaning isn't specific enough  
> for you to  sign on.
>
> It could be 4% of the company's gross, 4% of the CEO's income, 4%  
> of what your secretary makes, or 4% of the intern's salary.
>
> Yes, it has a definition, but until or unless you know what it's  
> operating on, you don't have specific value, which is the object of  
> our doing a computation.
>
> nk
>
>
>
> On Nov 27, 2005, at 10:27 PM, Steve Self wrote:
>
>> However, 4% does have meaning, it is a small amount of something.  
>> It clearly does not have integer meaning, but meaning nonetheless.
>

Aron S. Spencer
Elizabeth, NJ 07202