remainder of dividing by zero

[Jean-Michel Pichavant]

Ethan Furman wrote:
> Okay, so I haven't asked a stupid question in a long time and I'm 
> suffering withdrawal symptoms... ;)
>
> 5 % 0 = ?
>
> It seems to me that the answer should be 5: no matter how many times 
> we add 0 to itself, the remainder of the intermediate step will be 5.
>
> Is there a postulate or by definition answer as to why this should not 
> be so?
>
> ~Ethan~
Considering the mathématical definition of integer division, a = bq +r, 
(q, r) is unique.

With your definition, there is an infinite number of solutions fo q.

You could successfully argue that for r, only 1 solution is possible. 
The french wiki page on modulo suggests some language choosed to do so 
without listing those languages.

If you consider bool(5) returning True in Python, it makes no sense, but 
it's really convinient and used by everyone (practicality beats purity ?)

JM