podar@sbcs.UUCP (Sunil Podar) (12/29/85)
Is it possible to calculate sqrt of a dimension in TeX? E.g. for a dimen=0.5pt, I would like 0.707pt to be the sqrt, and for dimen=9.0pt, would like 3.0pt as the sqrt. (I gave above examples for clarfying what I want. The results would be different if one worked in integers i.e. by converting dimen's to count's) I looked in the TeXbook everywhere, and concluded that it has not been provided. If indeed I am right, then how difficult would it be to make it available in TeX as a primitive command. Is there any other simple way to calculate sqrt (please, no power series, I think it will be too much for TeX and would be too slow). I also wonder if there's a good reason for omitting sqrt and other functions such as trignometric functions from TeX's repertoire. I will appreciate any responses. thanks in advance. -- Sunil Podar SUNY at Stony Brook CSNET: podar@sbcs.csnet ARPA: podar%suny-sb.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa UUCP: {allegra, hocsd, philabs, ogcvax} !sbcs!podar