Re: [Haskell-cafe] Re: gcd

On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 4:17 PM, Achim Schneider wrote:

Steve wrote:

...

"It is useful to define gcd(0, 0) = 0 and lcm(0, 0) = 0 because then the natural numbers become a complete distributive lattice with gcd as meet and lcm as join operation. This extension of the definition is also compatible with the generalization for commutative rings given below."

Ouch. Speak of mathematicians annoying programmers by claiming that 0 isn't divisible by any of [1..], and further implying that 0 is bigger than all of those, not to mention justifying all that with long words.

Damn them buggers.

0 is divisible by everything. It's "bigger" than all of them with respect to divisibility, not size. Which you may have known. Your irony was too complex for me :-p Lukk