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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: November 9th, 2023

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  • I think you’re confused about what inclusive and exclusive OR are. They both generally refer to boolean operators (ie, the answer must be yes or no).

    If I interpret the question as inclusive OR, then I should answer yes if and only if I believe that cables should come either with a monitor or gpu or both.

    If I interpret it as an exclusive OR, then I should answer yes if and only if I believe that they should come with a monitor or gpu, but not both.

    Your examples have nothing to do with inclusive vs exclusive OR.



  • “if and only if” is an unusual and sometimes confusing way to say it, but the words do directly imply the technical definition.

    “it’s an apple if and only if it’s a fruit” literally means “it’s an apple if it’s a fruit” and “it’s an apple only if it’s a fruit”. You already seem to understand the 2nd part, so no need to explain that.

    The first part is a bit confusing because the words are in the reverse order compared to how people normally talk. “it’s an apple if it’s a fruit” means the same thing as “if it’s a fruit, then it’s an apple”. Clearly “if it’s a fruit, then it’s an apple” is not a true statement, because there are plenty of other fruits apart from apples.