I agree. The non intuitive reason stated is that there is a standard that specifies a sign for zero, and numeric IF doesn't distinguish between them, and it de

I agree. The non intuitive reason stated is that there is a standard that specifies a sign for zero, and numeric IF doesn't distinguish between them, and it depends upon labels which are hard to optimize. Another notable capability is that procedures default to recursive and there is a way to state they are non_recursive.