Re:Ask HN: Why did you quit learning programming?
by 3836293648 on Tuesday July 12, 2022 @08:44PM
(#32077693)
And that's why we need spacing. 0 != 1 is very different from 0! = 1
Re:Ask HN: Why did you quit learning programming?
by dc-programmer on Wednesday July 13, 2022 @12:27AM
(#32079047)
Right I forgot my audience
Re:Ask HN: Why did you quit learning programming?
by JonChesterfield on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @05:30PM
(#32158246)
Ah. ! for factorial was not an obvious parse. I suspect it has alternative meanings in mathematics as well.
That's not what 0!=1 means in math, the ! means factorial, which is to multiply by decreasing positive integers. Here's the definition:
n! = n x (n -1) x (n - 2) x . . . x 2 x 1
So, for people starting to learn calculus/math, being told that 0!=1 makes no sense