<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV>your first and second examples are different from each other. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>-2^2 and 0-2^2 are logically the same, whereas the second example,</DIV><DIV>you're stating first -9-16 versus 16-9</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>those two statements should and do produce different results.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>nk</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Nov 27, 2005, at 6:44 AM, Doug McNutt wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Gill Sans" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Gill Sans">Wow. This is getting long. Let's ask what OS neXt calculator gets for:</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Gill Sans; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Gill Sans" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Gill Sans">-2^2</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Gill Sans; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Gill Sans" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Gill Sans">and does it get the same for</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Gill Sans; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Gill Sans" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Gill Sans">0 - 2^2</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Gill Sans; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Gill Sans" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Gill Sans">where ^ is the exponential and not a bitwise exclusive OR?</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Gill Sans; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Gill Sans" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Gill Sans">Is<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>-3^2-4^2<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>the same as -4^2-3^2<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>?</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Gill Sans" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Gill Sans">--<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Gill Sans; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Gill Sans" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Gill Sans">Applescript syntax is like English spelling:</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Gill Sans" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Gill Sans">Roughly, but not thoroughly, thought through.</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>