At 4:13 PM -0500 2/17/99, Olin Shivers wrote:
>[...]
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>* iota defn
>
>[...]
>
>While the proposed IOTA is simpler than the :IOTA and IOTA: functions I've
>proposed, in many cases, this just puts the burden of calculation back on the
>programmer -- where there is potential for error. Calculating the proper
>number of samples is a simple bit of arithmetic, but it's easy to get wrong.
>Fencepost errors, getting the floor/ceiling distinction wrong -- there are two
>or three little things that can blow you out of the water, and they come up
>each time you use the function. So the nice thing about the :IOTA and IOTA:
>functions is that you simply say what you want, and the functions give you the
>samples.
>
>I don't intend to fight this one to the death, in part because IOTA is largely
>for interactively fooling around. I see three possibilities, and would like to
>know how people think:
>
>- (IOTA count [start step]) only
>- My :IOTA and IOTA: only
>- All three procedures

Fourth option:
- IOTA plus an auxiliary function to calculate the proper number of samples

e