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Ask Slashdot: What's the Harm In a Default Setting For Div By Zero?

Posted by timothy on from the as-long-as-it's-a-big-zero dept.

New submitter CodeInspired writes: After 20 years of programming, I've decided I'm tired of checking for div by zero. Would there be any serious harm in allowing a system wide setting that said div by zero simply equals zero? Maybe it exists already, not sure. But I run into it all the time in every language I've worked with. Does anyone want their div by zero errors to result in anything other than zero?

1 of 1,067 comments (clear)

  1. Re:x/0 does not equal 0. by blue+trane · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Math is not expressive enough to handle the real world, since division by zero can occur without causing a problem. Example: you want to divide apples among people. You have one apple and two people, each person gets half an apple. You have one apple and no people, no one gets the apple. In the real world there is no problem with this reasoning, it's only that math fails to handle it so you have to include extra code to make it come out. In a real life situation, you need no extra error-handling because there is no error. In conclusion, math fails to express the natural world.