minor rewording in ceil(), ceiling() and floor() function descriptions

Started by PG Bug reporting formalmost 6 years ago2 messagesdocs
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#1PG Bug reporting form
noreply@postgresql.org

The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/12/functions-math.html
Description:

Proposed rewording for ceil() and ceiling(): "smallest integer..."
Proposed rewording for floor(): "greatest integer..."

Rationale: the proposed rewording is more aligned to their respective
mathematical definitions

References:

- https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Definition:Ceiling_Function
- https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Definition:Floor_Function

#2Tom Lane
tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us
In reply to: PG Bug reporting form (#1)
Re: minor rewording in ceil(), ceiling() and floor() function descriptions

PG Doc comments form <noreply@postgresql.org> writes:

Proposed rewording for ceil() and ceiling(): "smallest integer..."
Proposed rewording for floor(): "greatest integer..."
Rationale: the proposed rewording is more aligned to their respective
mathematical definitions

Actually, that's very nearly the wording we used to have, and then
changed because people found it confusing:

/messages/by-id/20160606054056.1385.38085@wrigleys.postgresql.org

https://git.postgresql.org/gitweb/?p=postgresql.git&amp;a=commitdiff&amp;h=7feb60c1bb0b1e9c97561171e9194d56694620ad

As of just a few days ago in HEAD, we have the room for clarifying examples
that we lacked then, so I added some:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/functions-math.html#FUNCTIONS-MATH-FUNC-TABLE

So maybe the confusion argument has less force than it used to. Still,
I'm disinclined to go back. In this particular area, I think Matlab's
precedent is at least as strong as Wikipedia's.

regards, tom lane