question: public static double safeLog10 ( double x ) { boolean neg = ( x < 0.0 ) ; if ( neg ) { x = - x ; } if ( x < 10.0 ) { x += ( 10.0 - x ) / 10 ; } x = Math . log ( x ) / LOG10 ; return neg ? - x : x ; }
target:  The "safe" base 10 logarithm of the input value, handling negative values by simply making them positive and then negating the return value.