Re: Math function description issue

=?UTF-8?Q?J=c3=bcrgen_Purtz?= <juergen@purtz.de> writes:
> The standard says:
> "<ceiling function> computes the least integer greater than or equal to
> its argument."

Hmm, you're looking at the SQL standard I guess.  The existing wording
in our docs seems to be taken from the C/POSIX standard, which says
"[ceil(x)] shall compute the smallest integral value not less than x".

> a) In my opinion this wording is easier to understand because it avoids
> the negation via "not less".

That's a fair point.

The other difference is least/greatest versus smallest/largest.  I'm not
sure if using least/greatest would help the people who misunderstand
"smallest" as "closest to zero".  They might; but being less-common words,
they might also confuse people whose native language isn't English.
Anyone have an opinion about which to use?

> b) To dispel the ambiguities concerning what is greater or lesser (with
> negative numbers) we may add a second example with +42.8 and an
> additional comment - something like: "Please consider the situation with
> negative numbers: -42 is greater than -43".

I'm not terribly excited about that, and even if I were, there doesn't
seem to be a good way to shoehorn multiple examples into one entry in
these tables.

            regards, tom lane