Avoiding local variable declarations?

[Mark Wooding]

greg <greg at cosc.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:

> I've only ever seen "identity element" in English mathematics.
> "Neutral element" sounds like something my car's gearbox
> might have...

I've encountered both.  I think `neutral element' is more common when
dealing with the possibility that it might not be unique (in the way
that identity elements are in groups, rings and fields), but that might
just be my misconception.

-- [mdw]