The question is "Which is the more commonly accepted result?". The answer to that is the positive number. Perl is right, C is wrong (but quicker, if you're into that sort of thing).

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We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.